Number Please
By Theo Annemann

THIS is one of the most extraordinary effects that I have ever put together. It is probably the only feat of its kind that doesn't require a code or signal of any nature. Your assistant can be coached in three minutes. And, what is more important to me. the effect -- not the method -- is absolutely new and original.

The performer asks that a committee of two or three take the medium away and guard her carefully until called for. The performer then asks a spectator for his telephone number, which is written on a strip of paper as given. The first spectator selects a second spectator, the second a third, and this is continued until a list of numbers has been written and verified. The performer tears the paper in sections and drops each piece into a cup. A spectator mixes the pieces. The medium is brought back into the room and seated at a distance to the audience with her back to all.

A spectator selects one of the slips and takes it to a far side of the room to read. At that moment the medium calls out the correct number. The owner of the number verifies it. Now the performer states that he will continue with the remaining numbers and that he will do so in silence. Each time a number is correctly stated the owner is asked to stand and acknowledge it. This continues until the medium has called every number. And there is no code or signals. Method extraordinary: The first man or woman asked for a number unknowingly acts as a plant, because it is the host or hostess, whose number the performer knows. This is The Yogi Force, which Charles Jordan put out in 1922. From here on each spectator picks another which will make further working on this principle impossible.

Before starting the performer had two pieces of opaque paper about 2 by 5 inches. On one, spaced evenly, is written the known number eight times. The second piece is then placed on top of the writing and the two pieces are perforated together with an unthreaded sewing machine or a dressmaker's tracing wheel. Thus you have a "single" sheet of paper. which can be shown freely on both sides and is so perforated as to be torn in eight strips. After the first -- the known number is written. seven other numbers are added as they are called out.

Tear the strips apart, holding the paper so that the writing faces you. Fold in half as you would to crease, then open each strip back out and tear off. Actually only one thickness of paper is opened out and torn off. This is placed on the audience side of the paper. Again fold the paper in half and this time open out only two thicknesses, tear off and place in front. Repeat once more and open out four thicknesses, and you apparently have a packet of single strips in your hand. Actually you have eight separate pieces, all alike, in the front and behind them the eight original numbers folded up and still together.

Holding the packet in the left hand, the eight separate pieces are counted into the cup, the folded section is retained and the cup is given to a spectator to hold above his head and mix the papers. At this time the medium is brought in, and the performer takes her by the hand a second to help her to the chair. A good point here is to have the committee blindfold her, then it is perfectly natural to assist her as she goes to the chair. She gets the folded paper from the performer's left hand.

There are now eight papers all alike in the cup. When the spectator takes any one, the medium. with her hands in her lap, opens the folded strip and calls the first name. It has to be correct. It is!

The performer takes any one of the seven strips remaining. The medium merely calls one of the remaining numbers on her list and the owner of the number verifies it. This procedure is continued until all the number are named. The fact that the medium calls the number and the man in the audience verifies it takes all thought from what the performer has in hand. What the audience will try to do will be to catch signals or discover how the magician is tipping off the medium.

Modern audiences are far from dumb, but they're out of luck with this test because instead of the performer telling the medium, she's telling him.