Influence: Two Tools

Here are two tools I find useful when crafting an influence effect.

Pop-Eyed Popper Deck

If you’re going to be using a physical deck of cards in your influence trick (for example, if you have a bunch of cues in your performing area that point to the 3 of Diamonds) I find this to be the best way to actually get the forced card into their hands/head.

First spread the deck towards them so they can see all the faces. There are only 26 faces, with a Pop-Eyed Popper deck, but this is not something that I’ve found any layperson can distinguish. Don’t leave the deck spread face up, because then it may become obvious that not all the cards are there. Just keep the cards moving when you’re showing them to your friend and you’re fairly safe.

Ask them to just “take in” the deck visually. “You don’t need to try and memorize it or remember any particular cards.”

You can’t just force a card on a person without showing them the order of the deck and then say, “I influenced you to pick that card via these cues.” That doesn’t make any logical sense.

So the idea here is that when you’re showing them the faces of the cards they are “absorbing” the order of the deck subconsciously. When you turn the deck face-down and have them choose a card blindly (so as not to be distracted by the values of the other cards), they actually know the value of that card in their subconscious because they saw and retained the order of the deck when you first spread them.

The Pop-Eyed Popper deck works well with this premise because they can really touch any card and they’re actually given the card they touched without ever even taking their finger off it. You can immediately show the cards directly above and below their selection are different. And then show all the other cards in the deck as being different as well.

When they touch a card you give them the option to change their mind. If they do change their mind, you can immediately turn over the card they were touching to show them the card they would have had if they hadn’t changed their mind. And this card will be different than the force card.

It’s arguably the cleanest way to force a card with a gimmicked deck, and I feel it definitely works the best with the influence premise.

(The Mastermind deck is another good option. With that deck, they do get to see all 52 cards, but they don’t get to see the full face of any. You can decide which trade-off you’d rather live with. For me, the Pop-Eyed Popper deck slightly edges it out.)

Pop-Eyed Popper decks are cheap, but if you want to get one to force a specific card (rather than just whatever one you happen to get when you order) you’ll have to either make one yourself (time-consuming), have one made for you (more expensive), or blow someone in Penguin’s warehouse (soul-destroying).

Infamous

Infamous was a set of Stroop Test cards that looked like this.

It’s sold out in most places but can still be purchased here.

The cards are used to (supposedly) implant and then reveal the thing you forced on someone.

So, let’s say I start the presentation by running you through some quick psychological tests. One of those is the Stroop test (look it up if you don’t know what it is). Then I say that I think I have a good understanding of how your brain works. I have you choose a card (say, the 10 of Hearts) and then I “read your mind.”

I then come clean and say, “I didn’t actually read your mind. You went for the 10 of Hearts because you were compelled to do so. I’ve been implanting that card in your subconscious all night.”

And I would have a bunch different reveals of the 10 of Hearts around my place.

I’d point to the back of the card case on the table and show the 10 of Hearts is printed there.

Maybe there’s some left over valentine’s day candy in a dish on the end table— ten candy hearts.

Maybe at one point in the night I told you about my friend’s dog, Dano, and his intestinal problems and how he stunk up the entire apartment the other night. I go back and play a portion of that anecdote that I secretly recorded on my phone when I was telling it. I highlight every time I talk about when Dano farts. “And when Dano farts…” Dano farts, Dano farts, ten of hearts, ten of hearts.

Then I point out the cards we used for the psychological test that are still spread on the coffee table…

What’s nice about this is that conducting a psychological test does fit in with the general idea of anything “mind” related. So it can be seen as part of laying the groundwork for “learning how they think.”

And, of course, you don’t need to use this with playing cards. Any word/thought/image that you can force can seemingly be “implanted” by these cards.

I mentioned these are hard to find now. They’re sold out in most places. If you can’t track them down, you can always make your own. Get a bunch of colored markers and some blank cards. “Homemade” Stroop test cards are no more or less suspicious than professionally printed ones.