An Improved Beginner Forcing Technique

Last week I mentioned the old force where you ask a spectator to name things in some category—for example: vegetables—then you write down the words they suggest on separate pieces of paper. These slips are mixed and the spectator chooses one, and it’s something you’ve predicted. The secret is just that you write the same thing down on each slip of paper. So if the category is vegetables, you might write broccoli down on every slip, and just keep asking for different vegetables, at least until they name broccoli.

I don’t know if this force has a name. It’s in a bunch of kids books that I read growing up, as well as Magic for Dummies.

It works well for any grouping where the options are relatively limited: house pets, football teams, common musical instruments. That sort of thing.

Although this is a beginner level force, it’s still a force I like using when possible for a couple reasons. First, it doesn’t require any sleights—so it’s very hands off. Second, it’s completely impromptu. And third, it feels very spectator-directed. Like you’re just facilitating their wishes. They name the options, and they freely select one of them (blindly). These benefits make it the sort of thing I like to have in my impromptu toolkit.

Here’s one addition to the force procedure that i think significantly adds to the deceptiveness of this technique.

The Outlier Slip

Let’s say the force word is Broccoli.

I ask them to name some vegetables.

They say: Carrots, Cauliflower, Broccoli, Lettuce, Peas, Squash

I write down: Broccoli, Broccoli, Broccoli, Broccoli, Peas, Broccoli

When I fold the slip that has “peas” on it, I do it in such a way where it stands out (to me) from the other slips.

Now the person mixes up the slips on the table.

I note where the Peas slip lands.

“We’re not going to use all of these vegetables. We’re going to eliminate five of them and narrow down your choice to one.”

I ask them to slide out one of the pieces. Most of the time they will take a Broccoli slip. In that case, that’s their “choice” and the other five are eliminated.

On the off chance they slide out the Peas slip, I say, “And start a discard pile with that over here.” And I point to another place on the table.

They now slide out four more slips to be eliminated and added to the discard pile. This all feels free and fair because it’s the same thing happening every time.

Either way, there is now one “chosen” slip separated from the five other slips.

Now I say something like this:

“You chose which vegetables to use. You mixed up the slips. And you chose which one to keep. You could have had any of these.”

I gesture to the discarded slips. I pick up the one I know has Peas on it. I open it.

“You could have had Peas.”

I let the slip drop to the table so it lands writing-side up. I pick up any other slip and open it.

“You could have had Lettuce.”

I let that slip drop to the table so it lands writing-side down [because it doesn’t actually say Lettuce on it].

“Or any of these,” I say, and push around the remaining slips in the discard pile.

“Or if you had said beans or corn or something, you could have had ended up with that. But you ended up with whatever you have there. Now… before you came over here today I accidentally got a vegetable stuck in my rectum…”

Or whatever your climax is.

The miscall, along with the one outlier slip, makes this very difficult to backtrack. The fact that they get to mix up all the slips, then they have a free choice of any of them, and you follow that up by seemingly plucking out a random one and showing something different on it—that goes a long way towards demonstrating all the slips are different.