A few theatrical agents were gathered together at a carnival, to see an act that everyone
was raving about. As everybody watched in awed silence, Bosco, the Great,
climbed up a ladder to a tiny pedestal, four hundred feet in the air.
On the pedestal, he took a deep breath, and then started to
pump his arms to and fro. The drums rolled until they reached a noisy
crescendo, and at this precise second Bosco, the Great, actually left the
pedestal and flew!
His arms pumping madly, he flew around the entire arena, up
and down, back and forth.
Just then one of the agents turned to another, and asked,
“is that all he does, bird imitations?”!
I SUPPOSE that some of you are wondering why I am teaching,
or have taught, all the memory feats in this
book. You think that since I am a performer, and my performance does
consist of memory stunts-I am creating competition for myself. Well, perhaps I
am, but it doesn’t bother me too much. I know that if any of you do want to
perform in front of an audience, you will have the ingenuity to put together
your own stunts and plan your own routine. And, most important, you will
realize that you have to sell yourself, not your memory feats.
Most of the people In show business are aware of the fact
that it’s not what you do that makes you a good entertainer, but the way that
you do it. The specialties that performers do, are simply means to an end.
Whether you tell jokes, dance, sing, do
memory feats, acrobatics or bird imitations is unimportant, as long as you
entertain your audience.
Although my main reason for teaching you the memory stunts
is that the ideas used in them can be applied for practical purposes in many
ways-I also feel that the best way to learn the systems is to give you an
incentive by giving you something with which to showoff for your friends. So,
if you want to use the stunts to entertain at your lodge meeting or church
affairs, feel free to do so. However, be sure that you know them well enough so
that you do credit to yourself and
my system.
There are unscrupulous characters in show business as well
as in other fields, who would do anything they feel will further their careers.
There is one “culprit” who steals a new act every year or so. Last yea, he did
me the “honor” of stealing my entire act, leaving out only the difficult
demonstrations.
People who “steal” material are common in show business, but
to take someone’s entire act is almost unheard of. However, this fellow did it,
but what annoys me is not so much that he is doing my act, but that he does not do it well. This is to
be expected because if he was a good entertainer, he would never have to resort
to using an act or idea that someone else has already built up.
No, I don’t mind creating competition for myself by exposing
these memory feats-as long as the competition is go stunts that I have used,
and some that I still use occasionally.
One of the stunts you can use, is remembering objects and
initials. First have friends call any object and any two initials. Do this with
as many as you feel you can handle. Then you have the audience call any object
and you give them the initials, or vice versa.
This stunt is not only
impressive, but easy to do. Just make up a word that starts with the
first initial and ends with the last,
and associate that word to the object called.
For example:- if the initials are R. T., and the object is
“chandelier,” you might associate rat to chandelier. The initials B. D. abd
bottle-associate bed to bottle. The initials P. S. and fan-associate puss to
fan, etc.
Here is another example of how the systems can be twisted
and manipulated-you can do the “missing card” stunt with numbers if you want
to. Have someone number a sheet of paper from 1 to 52, or up to any cross out
the numbers they call them. They can stop calling them any time they like and
you can tell them which numbers are not crossed out!
Do exactly as you do for the “missing cards.” Just mutilate
the peg words which represent the numbers called. Then go over your words
mentally from “tie” to the peg word of the last number listed on the paper.
When you come to one that is not mutilated, that is one of the “missing”
numbers.
One very impressive card demonstration is the “hidden card”
feat. This is most effective when you are working for a group of at least
fifty-two people. (for less people, use less cards.) hand the deck to the audience and let everyone take one card. Now,
have each person call the name of his card and also give you a hiding place for
it.
What you do, is associate the card word for the card called
to the hiding place. If someone called the jack of Spades hidden in a
typewriter, you would per haps, see yourself shoveling typewriter (with a
spade).
After all the cards have been “hidden,” you can hear the
name of a card and immediately give the hiding place. Or you are given the
hiding place, and you name the card hidden there!
Do you want to impress your friends with your ability to
remember numbers? Well, if you’ve learned another peg list up to 16 or 20, as
I’ve taught you, you can do this:-
Have your challenger number a piece of paper from 1 to 16 or
20. Then have him call any of these numbers and write a two digit number
alongside. When all the numbers have been called, you can go from one to the end telling him the two digit
numbers-or, have him call any two digit number and you tell him what number it
is at, or vice versa.
Just use your other list to remember the sequence, and use
your basic pegs for the two digit number , i.e., #3 is called, and the two
digit number to remember is34.well, if you’re using the alphabet list, you
would associate “sea” (3) to “mower” (34). The #14 is called and the number to
remember is89- associate “hen” (14) to “fob” (89).
If you feel
confident, you can have your friends call an object and a two digit number for
each number listed. You can memorize both, by making one ridiculous
picture for all three. The number called
could be #9, the object is a toaster, and the two digit number is 24. Any combination
of associations is possible here; you could see Nero (24) popping out of a
toaster, playing on a eye (9) instead these examples. Of course, you could use
the other idea wherein the pegs look like the numbers they represent. In that
case, 9 would be “tape measure,” 3 would be “clover,” 14 would be “farm,” etc.
Any one of the systems in this book can be used for a stunt of some sort, just as the
ideas for all the stunts can be used for practical purposes in some way. If you
want to apply substitute words to a stunt, you cam memorize names and playing
cards, names and objects, and so on. You can utilize the system for remembering
long digit numbers, by having people call their names and the serial number on
a dollar bill, or their social security
number. Then you should be able to give the number when you hear the
name, and give the name if you hear the number.
To do this you simply make up a substitute word for the name, if
necessary; associate that to the peg word for the first two digits of the
number, and make a link to the end of the number.
Although the following is not actually a stunt, the idea
grew from the initial and object feat that I mentioned earlier. The Morse code
is a very difficult thing to remember because it is almost completely abstract
and intangible. The dots and dashes are meaningless and cannot be pictured.
I don’t suppose that too many of you will ever find if
necessary to have to remember the Morse code. However, I do want you to see
that there is no limit to what you can do with conscious associations, and the
knowledge that anything meaningless is easy to remember if it is made
meaningful. Your only limitation is your own imagination.
Since dots and dashes have no meaning, I decided to give
them meaning by making the letter R stand for dot, and the letter T, or D
represent the dash. With this in mind, you can make up a word or phrase for
each letter, which can be pictured and that will tell you the code signal for
that letter. Look at this list:-
A . - rat
B - … terror
C-.-. torture
D - .. tearer
E . air
F . . - . rear tire
G - - . tighter
H . . . rarer rye
I . . rower
J . - - - ratted
K -. - trout
L . - . . retire her
M - - toad
N - . tier
O - - - touted
P . - - . rotator
Q - - . - tethered
R . - . writer
S . . . roarer
T - toe
U . . - rarity
V . . . - re-arrest
W . - - retied
X - . . – turret
Y - . - - treated
Z - - . . teeterer
All that remains to be done is to associate the word to the letter itself, so that one
will remind you of the other. You could use the peg words that sound like the letters-associate
ape to rat, bean to terror, sea to
torture, dean to tearer, eel to air,
effort to rear tire, and so on the zebra to teeterer.
Or, you could use the adjective idea by associating an
adjective that begins with the proper letter, to the word awful rat, big
terror, crazy torture, dreamy tearer, excellent air, flat rear tire, and so on
to zigzag teeterer. Of you know the position of all the letters, then you could
just use your regular peg words, by associating them to the signal word.
The way you associate them is up to you. The idea is that
now the dots and dashes are not longer unintelligible. It shouldn’t take you
more than half an hour to memorize the Morse code with this system. Of course,
this doesn’t mean that you will be a telegrapher. Speed in sending code comes
only with lots of practice and experience, but the system does make it easier
at the beginning, when you have to memorize the signals.
So, you see how the systems can be twisted and manipulated to
help you with most any memory problems. I’ve tried to teach you many stunts in
this chapter and throughout the book, and I’m sure you’ll be able to think of
many more …. And then there was this theatrical agent who was watching an act
with a friend. The act was on a high wire, hundreds of feet above the ground. There
was no net top catch him if he fell.
He balanced a golf ball on the wire and balanced a chair,
upside down, on the golf ball. He then proceeded to stand on his head on one of
the upturned chair legs. In this precarious position, he began to play a violin
with his feet!
The theatrical agent turned to his associate, and sneered, “Aah,
a Jascha Heifetz he’ll never be!”
No comments:
Post a Comment