Smartass

Imagine

“The thing is, you know, you can obviously take in information with your five senses. And then, when it comes to magic, we talk about mind reading. Or picking up on information beyond our five senses. But why would it stop at the mind? Maybe other parts of your body can pick up on information too.”

I’m sitting on the couch in my living room with my friend, Alina.

“I’ll show you. Uhm, name any part of your body. Like, not your head or your hands or anything normally used to gather information.”

“My ass.”

“Okay, of course. Fine. Focus on your butt. Inhale. Exhale.”

“Through my butt?”

“Funny. No. Seriously, settle in for a moment and just focus on the pressure of the cushion against you.”

We sit quietly for a few moments.

Softly, I say, “Now I just want you to name a color. Like a common color.”

“Green,” she says.

“Great. Now name a number from 1 to 100. Don’t name a favorite number. Just let a number come to you.”

“66.”

“Okay, good, good. Let’s see…”

I tell her to stand up, and I remove the couch cushion she was sitting on.

Under the cushion, we find a ChapStick, a crumpled receipt, a peanut M&M, and some change.

“Green,” I say, picking up the M&M. “Just like you thought.”

I tell her to pull out the change and total it up.

It’s 66¢.

“Dammmnnn!” she says and looks back at her ass, giving it a little smack.

Method

After I wrote up last month’s post on the Z-Fold Couch, I began thinking of using a couch as the centerpiece of a trick rather than just a methodological tool. And from that, this idea came together relatively quickly.

It uses Greg Wilson’s Exact Change gimmick. This is behind a pillow on your end of the couch. You have all the time you need to get the required total as you talk with your friend: “So… is there a tingling in your butt at the moment?”

You get what you need in your right hand finger palm, get them to stand up off the couch, and, as your right hand pulls up on the back of the couch cushion, you drop the items from your hand down the crack of the couch.

The first few times I did this, I used just the change. I added the M&M because I wanted it to feel like she was picking up on what was under her cushion, rather than simply naming a number that matched an amount of change that happened to be under the cushion. If that distinction is clear.

I did the M&M part with the five M&M colors (in rainbow order) in the crack of the couch behind the pillow on my end.

I just grab the one I need before picking up the Exact Change gimmick.

You don’t have to do the M&M bit, but I think sensing a second thing really adds to the experience. You could use a playing card, a bill, or a watch set to a certain time. I’d just choose one. Two hits make it feel like she’s sensing what’s under the cushion. A whole inventory starts to feel like you’ve stocked the couch for the occasion.

How do you make them choose their butt?

I don’t. But I’ve taken away their head and hands (which also makes them unlikely to say their arms), so they’re geared toward naming something on their lower half. In the times I’ve performed this, I’ve had two butts, one vagina, and one pair of feet named. With the person who named her feet, I told her to sit on them.

If someone were to name something around their torso, I’d have them lie on the couch with their legs over my lap so their torso would be above the section of the couch on their end.

I don’t worry too much about it. The premise—“Other parts of your body can pick up on seemingly unknown information as well”—isn’t something that demands to be taken too seriously.