Spirt Slates techniques...

[Misjief]

Hi Guys...

I thought I'd share some of my thoughts on some a couple of slates I made for use with my mentalism act. I saw a couple of boards at the magic shop and found them to be kind of cheesy with a very obvious gimmick. On top of those huge glaring downsides they wanted a pretty hefty price for them. So I really wasn't interested in them.

But in numerous books I have been reading there were lots of neat effects with a gimmick free board. Karl Fulves had a whole chapter devoted to them in his book.

Self-working mental magic: 67 ... - Karl Fulves - Google Books

So I decided to make a couple sets...

I went to the dollar store and bought a couple of black boards. I removed the frames and glued them back to back and then cut them in half to give me two complete boards with writable fronts and backs. I went over the edges with a black sharpie and in less then twenty minutes ended up with a very presentable and plain prop even if it is a bit dated.

While I was at the dollar store I picked up a couple of white boards that I hoped to make a more "modern" version of the spirit slates with. Immediately I ran into a couple problems.

1) If you use a pen on the board it tends to smear - BADLY and it gets everywhere and on everything. For that reason I don't advise using the pens. However crayola just came out with some whiteboard crayons that work awesome, as the wax tends to stay on the board and is difficult to smear. The colors stand out from the board and very readable. The only difficulty is that some of the effects with a black board REQUIRE you to mark the writing by smearing it. LOL

I found the best way to clean it is to wipe it off the board with Vaseline* (why? see next problem. LOL).

2) When I cut the white boards - the plastic sheeting that protected the white sheet from liquids (ink!) peeled away from the board leaving a virgin white plastic laminate. I was sort of pissed at first, but I had already decided to abandon the pens in favor of the crayolas so no biggie. The next surprise was when I went to color the edges black with the sharpie. With the black board if you missed and scribbled on the dark surface it didn't show, not so with a white board. So then I went to clean it up with methanol and it soaked into the edges of the board drew the ink into the board creating a off the wall boarder around the edges of the board and dyed the white various shades of blue. I intend to sell it as a chemical coating that enables the spirits to write upon it. The end effect was I ended up with a prop that doesn't look typical run of the mill, (it looks old and rather eerie) yet it doesn't set off the gimmicked magic alarm either as it is far too simple to hide a sham. As much problems as I had creating them, I really like the end result and can't wait to put them to use!

***

Now, a couple of ideas as to their uses ....

There is a ton of forces - and they are rather handy for reveals. If you use them through out a routine people quickly get used to them. One of my sets has an extra slate (I didn't know or think about it earlier. LOL)

The paddle move with a small board is very deceptive... I think you could easily sneak it by most laymen!

You can do a swap pass where you hand out the same slate twice for examination, while holding on to the one which contains the message.

My favorite effect so far is De Kola's Slates which is listed in many old books.
Basically you show the fronts and backs of two slates then place them together and writing magic appears (without the use of a gimmick).

As I mentioned their are a couple of tricks where you smear the writing to mark the individual who wrote upon it. In fact this is where the term "A Mark" came from as Carnies would powder their hands with calk and then touch a particularly good victim to mark him for other carnies.

I am hoping maybe someone else has some ideas or resources for me.

-misj-

[Eoin Lavery]

I like the idea of trying to modernize the spirit slates with the whiteboards. I personally would prefer the old chalk and slate because it has the feel of something being old, haunting which is perfect to along with the whole effect. Great share though

[Misjief]

Eoin-

I made a set of chalk boards BUT I can't stand the feel and especially the SOUND (shudder) of chalk on a board. LOL

The black boards look like, well ah, like blackboards. Duh. They turned out really nice, but rather plain and simple. The white boards look like a old laminate dipped in some blue chemical bath, they have water stains and like, so they are more unusual. Plus they are far more visible especailly from a distance (should it matter).

There was a really neat trick where you wipe down the boards and because your board is wet you can use it as a glimpse to see what written on theirs - in the guise of covering their board so that you can examine it's vibe or what ever.

However I can't get it to work with either the blackboards or the white board. I have more luck with the whiteboard but even then it is doubtful I could read it especially under pressure. I might be able to make out which esp symbol they drew but even that would be a stretch. I wonder if it is because I used cheap boards? Any ideas?

At this point I am looking for simple yet baffling tricks just so I can hone my acting skills. The boards are versatile yet simple enough they serve the purpose well.

Thanks for the comment. I wanted to try to drum up something and the only other thing I have going right now is my vent dummy.... Which is coming along quite well but way off subject. LOL

-misj-