Make a "Forced" Spectator Selection Seem Random

Much of my inspiration for the insights shared on One Ahead comes from consultancy calls with magicians. Clients book them for various reasons, and each week I speak to four or five different magicians, doing my best to provide value and solve problems.

“How do I make a spectator selection feel random when it is not?”

It’s a question that comes up a lot.

There isn’t a definitive answer, which is why I set aside time to work on the solution for One Ahead’s readers.

Sure, there are existing answers and working methods for doing this, but each has flaws, and I’m surprised there isn’t a simple option everyone agrees works great.

After digging into many solutions, I think I found the real winner. Most magicians will dislike it, though, as the solution is not a method; it’s acting.

We’ve written about pre-show on a number of occasions. We’ve covered how to approach someone before the show and the subtleties to use when, for example, forcing information they’ll later seem to come up with in the moment during the show. We’ve also briefly covered how to make the spectator seem as though they haven't been pre-showed once they get on stage — with the right wording that makes it seem as though they are coming up with answers on the spot.

But what about getting them onto the stage?

Many magicians feel, rightly so, insecure about selecting a specific audience member they have pre-showed to come onto the stage. The hesitation comes from the very real risk that the audience may believe that the spectator is “in on the trick.” So it can be important that the spectator selection feels random to cancel this method entirely.

In audience thinking: “Well, that spectator could be in on the trick, but they can’t be because the magician chose them at random from the entire audience.”

It’s worth noting that forcing a spectator selection is not always reserved for pre-show use cases. You might, for example, want to make a spectator vanish and reappear in the audience using twin stooges — this trick is significantly enhanced if the spectator selection feels random.

The thing about a trick like that is that it’s a method zero effect, which means that there are zero ways the performer could accomplish the trick besides one — twin stooges.

And so, a large, flamboyant selection process not only feels necessary but greatly enhances the illusion. The more random, big, and fair the audience selection process is, the more impressive the teleportation. A random selection process for a stooged teleportation is not an example of cancelling — it’s an enhancer.

In most other instances, like with pre-show, a big, over-the-top selection process will draw attention to a potential method that most would not consider.

In fact, there’s quite a good case to say that this entire problem is an example of “running without being chased.” Setting aside the insights in this edition, you may want to learn the right script for when the spectator arrives on stage to convince the audience you did not meet before the show.

We’re focusing on cancelling, not enhancing, today, so we’ll care much less about showy ways to force spectators. Any reader can come up with those: force bags with seat numbers, spinning wheels with people descriptors, etc. We’re also focusing on larger theatre audiences, where it’s more likely this might be required

There are two categories of existing solutions: direct forces and elimination forces.

A great example is Target Number, published by Ted Karmilovich. The performer writes a number between 1 and 100, then a series of random audience members name numbers aloud. The spectator who correctly names the number is described inside the envelope the number is written down upon.

I’ve seen this presentation many times to force a spectator selection.

While it works brilliantly to force a spectator quickly, you make sure the desired spectator is one of the people you ask to guess the number. I’ve never been so sure about this when combined with a pre-showed audience member.

If you are trying to avoid the audience thinking that the spectator brought to the stage was told what to say before the show, then couldn’t the spectator have also been told what number to say?