VANITY

By
Dee Christopher

Some random letters are chosen to make up the initials of a

fictional character out of the performers sight. A name could be
thought of from these letters, this will never be written down; its
in the mind of the spectator.
The spectator is asked to grip the performers wrist and scream
the initials in their mind Slowly and visually the performers
veins shift and morph into the selected initials.

Basic Wo rkings
This is a great effect, I discovered it some time ago, but never
really developed it beyond an idea. I recently found it again, so
here it is.
The key is that you will use your LEFT hand. The veins may be a
little bit visible anyway, depending on your skin tone and
thickness.
Id like you to take your left wrist and squeeze, now hold your left
hand in a fist and begin a kind of Mexican wave motion with your
curled fingers, this will cause your veins to rise slightly, if you
roll your wrist upward, so the veins face your body, this will
cause the veins to pop out a little more.
You may notice straight away that upon inspection, the most
prominent veins have a distinct pattern; they look like a letter V
and a letter H.

This is the basic working; its a biological quirk, which we can use
to our advantage!
So how do we force the correct letters?

The Fo rcin g Stac k

You are going to do a simple card sleight. Im sorry mentalists of
the world, but its ok, we can use index or business cards!
You will need to prepare a packet of 26 cards, a letter of the
alphabet written on each one.
I use the Hindu shuffle force for this, this can be found explained
in many sources, but Ill cover it briefly here.
Your force cards (V and H) are on the bottom of the pack, you
should falsely mix them if you feel comfortable doing so and show
all the cards as different.
You should begin by taking the cards in your left hand at the
fingertips, as below. You then just need to break the top away
with the right fingers and strip off a few cards from the top
several times while inviting the spectator to call stop.

When they do call stop, you just need to tip the bottom of the
right hand packet up toward them to show the card (this was the
bottom card all along!) and them thumb it off for them.
The final force card is now on bottom and we will just repeat the
motions, replace the bottom packet on the bottom and do the force
again to another spectator if possible!
The rest of the cards are NOT looked at and put away. You dont
want people to suspect a peek when there isnt one!

The Reve al
The reveal is really easy to do; you just need to follow the
instructions I outlined in the basic workings section.
The effect came into being when I was just seeing how far I could
make my veins pop out. Thats the kind of thing we do here for fun
in merry old England! The idea of letters made me think of
Jermays Twisted Palm from Skullduggery and Ben Earls date
subtlety from the Skin DVD, which are both worth looking into!
Both of these methods do rely on suggestions, which Ive had
great success with, but I always like to have a physical to base my
suggestion on.
I like to really take my time with the reveal and Ive included a full
script below, which you can use, and change as you wish.

The Script
Do you believe that if you feel very close to someone, they can
almost get into your blood?
Id like to try a little something; can we use you and you? Perfect.
I have a small packet of index cards here, each one has a letter of
the alphabet, you can see that they are all unique. Ill mix them up
a little.
Please sir, call out stop for me! (Hindu Shuffle)
There? Great. Take a look and show the others. Now you miss, the
same again, call stop!
Perfect. So, we have two letters selected. Ill put the rest away.
Dont let me see the letters, but make sure everyone else can see.
These letters are to represent a fictional person I want you all to
make up in your mind. The gentlemans letter will be the first initial
of this person and the young ladys letter will make the surname.
Sir, Id like you to also think of the first name that pops into your
head with your letter, ok?
Miss, Please grab my wrist tightly. Perfect.
Something very strange is about to happen. You are going to watch
this imaginary person enter my blood. My veins will twist and morph
and they will form the letters that you are thinking of, ok?
Watch. (Letters appear)
The letter V. You can see that?
And the letter H?
Are those the initials you are thinking of?
And sir, you just thought of a name Look at me. Its not a female
name?
Right now Im getting Victor? Correct?
Thank you very much.

The N am e Re veal
Youll notice that I added an extra phase to the end of the
routine. This is such a simple piece, but adds another dimension to
the effect!
There are very few common names (in English) that begin with a V.
The main ones are:
Male:
Victor, Vincent
Female:
Victoria, Vanessa, Valerie
All these names can easily fit in your wallet on cards or slips of
paper hidden behind credit cards.
I use the line: Its not a female name? As while it appears as a
question here, it can be just as easily taken as a statement.
Whether they say yes or no, youve hit and narrowed down the
names.
Ill then just guess at the name, use your intuition. But the way to
say it is like this:

Right Now I got the feeling that the name youre thinking of is
Vincent, thats not correct is it?
If they say that it is, great! If not, continue:

I didnt think that was the case, you see, I wrote a prediction
earlier placed it in my wallet, (take out wallet) Sir, what was the
name?
Upon finding the name, you can simply remove the correct card and
slowly turn it over to reveal!

Final Thou ghts

For the strongest psychological impact with this routine, youll
want to use it later on in the set once youve built a foundation.
People need to know and believe that you are able to do the things
you are claiming to before busting out something like this. The same
would go for Banachek and Houchins Stigmata or B. Smiths
Stigmatisms.
If you have difficulty getting the veins to be so visible, I suggest
just practicing on your own, moving your hands in different ways,
while almost everyones veins will be of the same configuration,
some people may find that an alternate approach for pushing out
the veins is more effective.
I look forward to hearing your thoughts via email or one the
forums, Im sure youll get great use out of the routine!

d.