3 "Tell All" Use Cases for Magicians

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A Tell All is something that comes up often when consulting for stage and close-up magicians. It solves a recurring problem: “How do I get this crucial information from a spectator?”

A Tell All works best when the information you need is key for the overall method’s success but not as key for the trick’s presentational payoff.

For example, when performing a book test, the performer might need to know the page number selected by the spectator in order to “read their mind” and tell them the word they remembered on that page.

The page number isn’t part of the reveal, and so if you can gather it seamlessly, the strength of the word reveal is stronger.

Openly asking a spectator to tell you the page number could somewhat undermine the effect. Getting them to write down the page number onto an impression pad, or gather it in a multi-step covert way might draw unnecessary attention — so what are you to do?

Performers I work with might rely on a False Start.

This refers to when you appear to fail (genuinely or jokingly) during the first round of the routine. You might write down the wrong page number or write down the words “your page number” on a pad before asking them to name their page and showing what you wrote down — admitting you, genuinely or jokingly, got it wrong.

The end result: you know the page they chose.

There are instances when a False Start can work well.

For some reason, I continue to enjoy when magicians ask spectators to think of an animal that starts with the same first letter as the one they are thinking of — only to, after the spectator names the animal, turn around the pad and reveal they drew a stick figure animal that really could be anything.

The end result: you know the first letter of the word they chose.

It would be difficult to gather the same information using a Tell All technique. A False Start is likely better than a Tell All for the first letter of a word. However, there are many instances in which you are best served by using a Tell All.

I touched on this idea very briefly in an edition on clarity in magic, and it’s outlined more practically in our tutorial for a book test that works with any book.

1 - The Second Spectator

Tell All refers to a presentational technique in which the spectator is organically motivated to share the something for someone else’s benefit rather than for the magician’s sole benefit.

It also solves what I see as one of the biggest red flag questions in magic: “Am I supposed to tell you?” or “Do you want me to tell you this?”

If your spectator asks you this, your scripting is letting you down. It’s not just you; I’ve see many famous magicians getting asked this question by spectators.

I dedicated a whole edition to this point on clarity, because spectator’s will say this even when the information you’ve asked for is not supposed to be secretive: like when you ask what card they chose before you plan to make it reappear.

I strongly believe the underlining reasoning for the question is that the spectator believes that by telling you this information the trick will be less impressive.

It’s a big red flag.

A Tell All deflects the flow of this information away from the magician and also provides crucial motivation for the sharing of it.

Personally, there are a great many times when a problem I’ve faced on a stage or television project has been solved by adding a second spectator. Illusion designer Paul Kieve often reminds me of a time when my suggestion of adding a second spectator unlocked a problem we had been facing in rehearsals for weeks.

Watch Asi Wind perform his ACCAN and see that it is a second spectator who tells the first spectator how many cards to count down in the deck. Without this distinction, the first spectator could have simply counted down and stopped when they wanted.

A book test in which you must know the page number is a brilliant use-case for adding a second spectator and implementing a tell all.

Instead of the spectator telling you the page number they chose, they can now tell the second spectator so that the second spectator can turn to the page.

Suddenly, so much heat is taken away from that information.

But wait, we can exhaust that remaining flicker of heat entirely by moving the Tell All before the selection process.

This sort of thing that gets me excited.

I wishing more magicians cared about writing as much as they do about methods.

Once the hero selection has been made, like a word on a page of a book — the heat is on. The rules of the game are in place, we all know what is going to happen next and so some audience members may be on guard.

So, move the Tell All forwards before the selection.

Ask spectator one to choose a book and spectator two name a page number for spectator one to turn to and then memorise the word.

Now you are learning the page number before the word is selected, and because the process is motivated and before the heat turns on — audiences will be less suspicious than if you asked them to tell you the page number after the fact.

2 - The Writing Board

A lot of issues with information gathering can be solved with a writing board. By which I mean, some kind of whiteboard, chalk board, or even a handheld poster board.

Say, you are performing a Master Prediction effect and you need the audience members to tell you the things they are thinking of so that an assistant can write them down onto the final prediction scroll — without a drawing board, this can feel a little off.