Gift Vision
This month’s free trick is a free presentation . . . you’re welcome . . . trust me. Y’all remember the old Color Vision effect, right? I’m sure the picture to the left jogged a few memories. For those new to this wonderful world of magic, the basic effect is simply this: the audience member puts a cube in the small handheld box with a chosen color face up. Then covers it with the lid. You are able to divine the chosen color.
It’s a beautiful effect, but it often feels/looks like either a children’s toy or something goofy purchased at a magic shop. Well. It’s Christmas time . . . let’s wrap it in a different presentation. Take the box with the lid off and wrap it with wrapping paper, tucking the paper neatly inside the box so that you have a nice looking gift box that you can still put the cube into. Next, wrap the lid in a similar manner so that it will still cover the box. Now put a small bow on top of the lid, and you have what appears to be a small wrapped gift.
Step two is to find six different stickers that are large enough to cover the colors on the cube. The stickers need to be of six different items that might represent a gift you got for Christmas (or your birthday) either recently or as a child (depending on the presentational angle you’re after). Maybe you found a sticker of some cash, a remote control car, a bike, a puppy, a pair of socks (or underwear) and a BB Gun. Place the stickers over the various colors, so that now you have a gift box that’s all wrapped up and a cube that represents 6 different gifts.
Now your presentation centers around a “gift” you discovered that had as a child. The “gift” was the ability to foresee gifts. You could always tell what was inside of a wrapped up present. You then show the props to the audience and explain that they should choose a gift and put it face up in the gift box and cover it. Then divine the gift.
Let’s take it a bit further, however. Create a false or real story associated with each gift. Maybe your uncle Bob always gives you money, or your aunt Sally always gives you underwear, etc. Then during the performance as you’re getting “impressions” of the gift in the box, you can tie into your stories . . .
The moment I touched the box after you handed it to me, I had a sudden flash of my uncle Bob’s face. In fact, you kind of remind me of him a bit. Every year for Christmas he would give me a $20 bill, just like you gave me.
Repeat as needed. You can choose to do the childhood memory angle, or a more current angle based on what gifts you would want as an adult, or maybe what gifts you’ve bought your wife over the years. Using your wife’s gifts as an angle, as you’re getting “impressions” you could mention that you remember the Christmas of 2007 when you screwed up and got her a blender (insert your own domestic-suicide gift here). You could talk about your wife’s ability to always know what you buy her.
As mentioned earlier, you could apply this to a birthday present theme rather than a Christmas theme. It could be used in a show for someone’s birthday. I will say, that I prefer the Christmas themed version because I like to paint the picture and tell the story of how my siblings and I would sneak down stairs on Christmas morning, and I would hold each present up to my head and be able to tell them what their presents were.
I really believe that this modification of the prop opens the door to so many possible variations and plays well into last month’s Roots and Branches article about making the magic your own and personal. Enjoy . . . and . . . you’re welcome!