The Clock King By Anthony Black

Copyright © Anthony Black 2013 All Rights Reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced without written consent from the author.

How did it get so late so soon? It’s night before it’s afternoon. December is here before it’s June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon? ~ Dr. Seuss

Introduction First of all, I would like to thank you for your support. I thank you for purchasing this manuscript and I hope you will get something out of my ideas, even if it’s just a small seed which grows into something much bigger. I have always had something of a fascination with time… As some of my fellow comic book geeks may have already guessed, Doctor Manhattan (amongst another) is the inspiration behind the cover. Let me ask you a question, if you could know…down to the exact minute…the hour of your death. Would you want to know? And if so… How would this affect your frame of mind? Whilst you have this question in mind, read on…

Performance The performer stands next to a table, alongside it awaits two empty chairs. On the table there is a small box, its contents for now shrouded in mystery. The performer is looking down at his wrist watch with perhaps a touch of melancholy. The performer then addresses the audience…the watch held up next to his ear and listened to…then glanced at one last time before he begins to speak…

“Time…tick tock…time is something which has obsessed man from the early ages. I myself find I’m more aware of time as each year passes by. Each year my family and loved ones get a little older; my close friends all appear to be starting new adventures, whether it’s a new addition to the family or a new career, they are all changed by time. When I’m alone I’ll often catch my own reflection in a mirror and for just the briefest of moments…I’ll imagine there is another person staring back at me, almost as if the face I see reflected back at me cannot possibly be my own…I’m sure you all have similar tales to tell. I notice more grey hairs appearing on my head, my joints becoming stiffer when the winter months begin; my knees cracking as I slowly walk up the same stairs I used to run up…all these things I notice and more. I would like to tell you today about a man obsessed with time…and a rather peculiar experiment he would do every day to try and predict it. But before we can begin this tale I would like to request the help of an audience member, as I need an impartial witness to recreate this experiment of his. The performer then selects a young lady from the audience, who we shall call ‘Jo’, and asks her to take a seat before taking one himself.

“Jo, first of all many thanks for joining me. I would like to try something now with you; it’s a little game which a certain gentleman used to play. Let us call this gentleman George for the sake of this story shall we…now then…George was a rather peculiar fellow, as he was obsessed with time. He would collect pocket watches and carry them with him at all times and something else too…a set of dice.” The performer opens up the small box on the table and takes out a pair of dice which he then hands to Jo. “George was a gambler, not a very good one though. By the time he passed on all he had to his name was this set of dice and just one pocket watch from his entire collection; George had lost everything else through his one vice, he died a pauper. Now a lot of gamblers would cheat, but George was an honest man and played the hands that fate dealt him, good or bad. Jo, I want you to play the part of George for us tonight…I want you to cast the dice onto this table and see what fate has in store for you. Jo then rolls the dice onto the table and comes up with two numbers…3 and 2. The performer then takes the two dice back and places them to one side. “Interesting…three and two…two completely random numbers…very interesting Jo. You see, I told you that George was obsessed with time…but I did not tell you in which way this obsession of his consumed him. George was obsessed with the time of his death…he was quite neurotic and appeared to have some form of OCD perhaps. Each morning before he set out, he would ask the question out loud…whether to God or just his imagination, who knows…but that question was always the same: “What time will I die today?”

He would then roll his dice and set his pocket watch to that time, for example if he rolled a six and a seven, he would set his watch to 6:07 freezing it in time. He would then go about his daily business and wait to die…occasionally taking his watch out of his pocket to glance at it…each day he truly believed he had predicted the correct time of his death and each and every day he was proved wrong. He was a very sad man indeed, I know all about him after one of my family members passed away…he is a very distant uncle of mine, which is why I now own his few paltry possessions. I say ‘possessions’ because there is something else of his I have come into ownership of…his last pocket watch. Although I’ll be honest with you, I don’t really like to handle it as I find it quite peculiar…I can’t quite put it into words…but you may feel it too…it’s an odd feeling. Jo, will you be a dear and take it out of that box for me please and tell us all what time it is set to…” Jo opens up the small box and takes out the pocket watch, it looks old and the glass on the face is cracked slightly; she opens it up and lets out a little gasp as she announces the time on the watch is in fact 03:02 matching her dice roll…3 and 2. “And your dice rolled a three and a two…03:02…thank you Jo, but I’ll be honest with you…I myself have been using this watch for the past few months since it became my property. I have found myself each day growing more and more obsessed with time…and Georges story…I find myself constantly checking the time…watching the minutes and the hours go past…seeing if I could predict certain events or situations using the dice and the pocket watch and getting more and more depressed as I did almost as if the watch was draining all my energy out of me. So far, unlike you, I have not been successful in matching any predictions in time…but I do believe if I carry on, I too will become as consumed with the

hour of my death as poor old George was and so I wish to give you a gift and free myself of this curse at the same time, if you will be so kind as to accept it.” The performer then picks up the dice and hands them back to Jo. “Jo, I want you to roll the dice again…but this time…I want you to ask a different kind of question first, I want you to ask the dice: “What time will something good happen to me?” Jo asks the question and rolls the dice once more; the numbers show the time will be 5:06. “Thank you Jo, I feel better already. I want you to take Georges dice away with you, I want you to keep them and use them for something positive instead. Whenever you are feeling down or perhaps just need a little bit of guidance within your life…or perhaps you are waiting for something to pass…some worry perhaps…I want you to ask that same question… “What time will something good happen to me?” Then I want you to see what happens…and who knows, perhaps if there is something in Georges old dice they will show you the way…if you look for it. Maybe not on that exact day you roll those dice…but if you look for it, if you try and find that moment of goodness in each day at that time…I have no doubt in my mind you will find it when the time is right for you…and when that happens…and happen it will...something positive in your life. I want you to remember poor old George and think to yourself; although we cannot master time…we also do not have to let it become our master, make each day count Jo.”

End of Performance

Method I think by now if you have read any of my previous works you will have come to realize something; I don’t care about method. Well…to a point. For me the method is always the last thing I come up with, as long as it does the job simply and cleanly I am a happy performer. I can concentrate on the most important part; the performance, the story and the audience member/s. I’m sure most of you are miles ahead of me for the method behind ‘The Clock King’; you simply have a set of force die. The pocket watch is set to whatever time you wish to force and left inside the box. The second time Jo rolls the dice; I have simply switched them for an unloaded set whilst she is taking out the pocket watch from the box. A basic fake transfer is your friend here, no fancy moves or special boxes. Just hand her the identical ‘normal’ dice and ask her to roll again. You have then already answered the question for your audience before they have a chance to think on it: “Are they loaded, trick dice?” Well, no…how can they be if I just rolled two different numbers…plus she gets to take them home. And it’s as simple as that. You can buy loaded die from all good magic suppliers, but I much prefer to make my own cheaply at home as I can buy them in bulk of eBay etc.

There are plenty of methods for doing this, Google is your friend, but here are a couple to get you started: http://www.wikihow.com/Load-Dice Old pocket watches, or old looking pocket watches can again be picked up cheaply online and I’m guessing if you are reading this you probably already own an old pocket watch. It does not matter if it does not work, as long as you can set the time on it, in fact…if it’s not working it’s even better! As this means you can usually get them a bit cheaper… Mine has a cracked face, which looks very nice and you may wish to think about emulating. It does not even have to be a pocket watch; it could just as easily be any old watch. You have not given dates etc. so this will fit into any particular year/era you wish. It could even be a carriage clock…or an old haunted grandfather clock on stage…which stops as soon as the dice are rolled…peculiar…. Use your imaginations! So that’s the method, any questions just get in touch.

Afterthoughts I really hope you enjoy performing this piece as much as I do, I really do believe in the power of not only just positive thinking…but positive actions created in people lives by positive thinking. Real Magick That’s what you are giving ‘Jo’ with this performance…real magic in her life…if she looks for it and believe me she will. Do not be surprised if you hear from ‘Jo’ in the future…she will perhaps call or email you about something wonderful which has happened in her life which she believes is down to the old pair of dice you gave her. She will also tell all of her friends too… The readers amongst you probably already have a few ideas within this framework…dice…time…actions… Although I have scripted this as a stage piece, it’s just as, if not more powerful performed close up between just the two of you. So get out there and start performing some Real Magick. Please do get in touch if you have any questions or you just fancy a chat about Magick! You can find me here to chat: http://moon.boards.net/

Anthony Black Albion, August 2013.