Fiction by Paul Richards

This is one of best effects that Paul Richards has ever created! The gimmick is based upon Michael Pizzolla’s Synchronicity III c. 1987.  Though the gimmick that Michael uses was originally invented by Richard Himber and released as Thought Control c. 1957.  Luckily, Paul revamps the gimmick and takes the routine into quite a different place and creates a very unique and entertaining routine.

It looks different, has many uses and the cards can be freely examined if you desire at the end. The selection process could not be cleaner and you can make up your own stories to suit your performance.

I found that taking real book covers and altering the titles to match the words worked very well for me and I heard some gasps in the audience on the final reveals – “no way!”

Effect: The performer talks about a system called “Write Now!” that is used to suggest ideas for new patter stories. A small cardboard box is introduced and three sets of cards are removed: Person, Location, and Thing. Also a folded piece of paper is placed in front of the spectator that will be used later. The cards are shown to be different and a spectator is asked to freely chose one of each (there is no force and no duplicates).

Once the three selections are made the describes how these cards can be used in creating a simple story idea by reading from the bottom of the the “Write Now!” box:

The courageous PERSON journeyed to the dangerous PLACE in search of the mythical THING.

Then the three cards are revealed for the first time, e.g.:

• BABY
• MOUNTAIN
• TACO

And then the folded piece of paper is slowly revealed and it says:

The Very Odd Day
The Tale of a Fearless
BABY
That Travels to a Distant
MOUNTAIN
To Discover a Legendary
TACO!

The crowd goes crazy! 

Remember:

• No force whatsoever – the spectator can choose any of the cards.
• At the end the cards can be freely shown and handled by the spectator – they are all different. 
• You can use the example pages that come with the effect or you can create your own to customize the result to your own performance. 
• There are thousands of variations you can create from the supplied cards.

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