The easiest way to remember what linked choices are when it comes to mentalism and magic is to think of the phrase “If this then that.”
This phrase sums up what many linked choices sound like to the spectator or the performer.
Here’s a simple example:
The spectator chooses a playing card from a shuffled deck.
The performer then instructs them: if they chose a black card, they should think of Taylor Swift; if they choose a red card, they should think of Tom Holland.
In doing so, the initial choice of playing card has been linked to the choice of celebrity.
Here is another simple example:
The spectator rolls a die.
The performer then instructs them: if the die lands on an even number, they should imagine a beautiful beach; if it lands on an odd number, they should picture a mountain.
In both examples, the magician knows the initial choice that gets made. This might be through a force or a peek. This means that the magician has complete control over the linked choice.
Rather than the trick ending with the performer telling the spectator that they chose a red card, or that they rolled an even number, they can now pretend to read their mind and announce that they are thinking about Taylor Swift or a beautiful mountain.
We’ll get into the benefits and the reasons to use this technique, but it’s worth understanding what’s possible first.
How Far Can We Take This?
Surprisingly far. One of the key benefits of using linked choices is that you can take a simple initial choice known to the magician and turn it into several reveals.
Here’s an example with the playing card force:
If it’s a red card, think of Taylor Swift; if it’s a black card, think of Tom Holland. Now, whoever you’re picturing — if you chose a card with an even value (like a two or a six), picture them on the beach, and if it’s an odd card (like an ace or a nine), picture them on a plane. Finally — if it’s a low-value card like a 6 or lower, I want you to imagine them eating a baguette; if it’s a high card, imagine them drinking a smoothie.
Now — that’s a terribly hard-to-follow example, but it illustrates how one initial choice (a card selection) can become several reveals.
Suddenly, you’re able to reveal that the spectator is thinking of Taylor Swift on the beach drinking a smoothie.
With many linked choices effects, the method can be enhanced in three key ways:
Add time misdirection between the initial selection and the final reveal. Put away the cards, come back to the reveal later, etc. Anything you can do to stop people from recalling the two actions together will help. Imagine how you want someone might describe the trick to a friend and take steps to achieve that. You would hope they skip straight to describing how you revealed that they were thinking of Taylor Swift drinking a smoothie on the beach — and forget about the card selection completely.
Making the linked choices feel as random as possible. Colin McLeod has done great work on ways to get the audience to come up with the linked choice options (more on this soon). But you can do this yourself with some good acting — making it feel like you come up with the linked choices randomly, off the top of your head, is great, but you also need to make it feel like they are not specifically connected to the initial choices: act as though you are coming up with them randomly in the moment. You can rely on props and other methods for this — for example, you could reach into a force bag to select the linked choices (the spectator rolls a die, then you reach into a bag and pull out six possible options, one for each number, ensuring the right option is pulled out in accordance with the number they chose).
Appearing to lock in the linked choice options before you know the initial decision. The timeline of most linked choice effects is greatly disguised if you apparently lock in the linked options ahead of the performer knowing what the initial choice would be. There are two routes to do this — you can either force or peak the initial choice, so it’s not clear that you knew them before you announced the linked choice options — or you can secretly update the linked choice options after the magician is told the initital decision (updating the writing on a whiteboard that has six numbers with celebrity names after a spectator tells you a number).
Ways Into Linked Choices
With a force, you know the selection ahead of time.
This works well when you want to use multiple linked choices without requiring the spectator to make multiple initial decisions. In these instances, it’s important to force something with multiple elements that are easy to understand.
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