Review: Standing Between Objects by Jimmy Fingers

He calls himself Jimmy Fingers, and he offers another
method to find out what your spectator has on their mind.
What your audience ought to see follows:

The spectator tears a business card (or any blank card) in
half. Said spectator thinks of any "inanimate object" in
the world and prints this word (it should really be one
word) on the torn-in-half card. While giving
instructions, the mentalist - even before the spectator
writes anything - may very well anticipate the spectator's
thought and say so. Or she may not anticipate the
spectator's thought -- but there's a good chance she'll
fool the audience into thinking she did.

Back to the spectator. Our friendly neighborhood
mentalist turns around, and the spectator places the
folded-up torn-in-half card (the one with the secret word)
in her hand. The mentalist keeps her hand - at least the
one with the note - behind her back for the remainder of
this routine.

The mentalist then asks the volunteer to get the other
half of the torn-in-half card, and to write an antonym to
the original word/thought. (If the volunteer can't think
of an antonym, the volunteer is asked to think of a
synonym. If the volunteer can't think of a synonym, he is
sent to the Arizona State Home for the Illiterate and
imprisoned in a room with a thousand copies of the
Merriam-Webster Thesaurus.) He then holds this behind HIS
back.

The mentalist and the volunteer face each other, not
unlike Marshall Matt Dillon and the weekly gunslinger at
the opening of the TV version of Gunsmoke. Beads of sweat
appear on the mentalist's forehead. She grunts, she
froths at the mouth, and she finally describes what is on
the torn-in-half card which is in the VOLUNTEER's hand(s).

Cheers and huzzahs! The mentalist is raised to the
shoulders of the crowd and carried forth in victory!

Somehow, everyone seems to forget about the card the
mentalist holds, and we won't mention it either.

This requires some boldness. I think David Hoy would have
approved. There is a move-which-is-not-quite-a-move, and
a dependence on audience forgetfulness (a lovely trait
which all audiences have in abundance). Jimmy spends most
of the manuscript with performance suggestions and
blocking -- which makes sense, because this routine is a
good 99% performance. He even includes a couple of
diagrams for positioning yourself towards your volunteer.

These diagrams probably won't be that helpful and at least
one (Diagram A) is potentially confusing. This is
something you'll probably want to work out in 3-D.

This is one of those moves which requires pretty much the
entire routine; it doesn't adapt that well to, say,
Annemann's One-Man Routine. On the other hand, this
routine can be entertaining on its own; you might not want
to mix in other effects.

Still, it's an effective method, and can easily lead you
to thinking of similar methods. That's something of a
contradiction to the previous paragraph, but that's the
sort of method this is - it can very well contradict your
way of thinking about "getting a thought."

This is worth owning if only for the reasoning and subtext
given. That this is about 2/3 of the manuscript is no
accident; Jimmy puts a lot of thought into what he does
and how to make it natural. Walk with him as he reasons
this out, and see if it doesn't give you a half a dozen
ways to be more natural in your performance. This has
been used extensively in the real world, and survives
well.

At $6.50, you can't lose. Go to http://www.jimmyfingers.com and
check the product box. Paypal-friendly.

*jeep!
--Gran'pa Chet

I really enjoyed your review Chet.

Remended me of the writtings in the Phoenix.

Thanks

Jim

Folks

I also had the chance to read Jimmy Fingers e-book.

First of all, Chet posted a very good review of it, and I agree with everything Chet wrote on this thread (This is not always the case ).

I would like to add that although the move is a-la-Hoy boldy and does require almost the whole routine not to become suspect, it also made me think of something that Richard Busch would have done. And with a little change to the routine (i.e. providing your own business cards) you actually could make the move even less suspicious (adding a b****t sw**** a la Cassidy or Richardson).

When I saw the price on Chet's review, I couldn't believe it. It's a real bargain. Maybe the move isn't for you (or for you yet), but it is definitely worth knowing it. And since I learned about it (I haven't practiced it enough yet) my mind is buzzing about how I could integrate it into my act.

So if you want to learn a clever method of getting your information, $6.50 is actually cheap.

Sincerely, Matt

I can't believe it is going so cheaply. This is definitely an item you want in your arsenal. I told Jimmy that soon we will be add the letters SBO to other such routines like MOAB, OO, AN, etc. This is something that is really worth knowing.

Greg

Is this something I can do surrounded?

Tian: "He even includes a couple of
diagrams for positioning yourself towards your volunteer."

*jeep!
--Gran'pa Chet

I have to agree with Greg...this technique is great to know. It has a very "free feel" to it. It kind of reminds me of the type of effect you would see Derren Brown do on TV. In the right situation...this could be VERY powerful.

Cody S. Fisher

Got it and had a real "Why didn't I think of that?" moment. For the price it is an absolute steal. Really got my mind buzzing with possibilities. I will probably use it quite differently to the way Jimmy wrote it up, but its the core of the method that really intrigued me. To me, a whole new way of getting valuable information. Well done Jimmy, and I heartily recommend it to one and all.

I told Mr. 'Fingers' I was probably not the right person to review the material and I still think that as I'm not a student of Cold Reading (yet) and the 'move' (and it is a move) lends itself sweetly to getting a leg up on word divination using a bit of CR.
However, having said that (Good grief I sound like Simon Cowl...) the more I thought of and tried the 'move' I can see it in numerous situations that normally involve a certain kind of wallet. This 'move' is Brilliantly simple, something I've not seen before and it's principle is worth twice the price...plus of course like was said above there are all the other little subtleties included. For those like me that are not full tilt 'mentalists' but love the stuff and include mental manipulations in their routine (like Free Style Book Test etc.)

Get it. You'll come away with a new tool that you will also be able to fit in to other applications.

Higley

Just got this! I am thinking of a word, it comes before brilliant, and starts with an F. I cannot believe that no one has ever done this before. Great price...get it now!

Nathan Pain

Yeah, I agree. I picked this up and a lot of ideas are coming to my mind quickly. Brilliant idea!

It's one of those brilliant ideas that makes your brain sweat with other brilliant ideas!!


Posted: Mar 10, 2006 12:58am
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I don't want to give anything away here, but I just emailed Jimmy my twist on this awesome effect for those of us who don't "accessorize" as well as some of you. I have a very casual persona, so I had to alter the handling a bit. I think I came up with a pretty good idea. As I said before, I don't want to expose any of Jimmy's effect, so if you are interested in my twist and you have purchased the effect from Jimmy, please contact him as he knows who has purchased from him and I don't. It was a very proud moment for me because I don't consider my self much of an innovator. I just liked Jimmy's idea so much I figured out a way that I could use it too.

This is an ingenious idea. I think it's going to take me a while to make this work, though. Well done.

As a personal friend of Jimmys I can say that I have seen a lot of his creations. And this has to be his best I have seen. When he first showed me this at mindvention I was floored at how good and easy it is. He explained it to me over the phone but I didn't get the impact untill I saw him do it live. He has some great ideas and not just this one. Keep in mind that one thing is this a routine and a tool at the same time and at this price who can beet it.

tpdmagic
here is the link to buy it if you haven't already....
http://www.jimmyfingers.com/store.htm

Got it and loved it!
Brainstorm in 6.5$

Bargain of the century, well worth the money and very doable

Yes' this is clever and well worth the $$.



Timothy

New site for Standing Between Objects : http://www.standingbetweenobjects.com

Due to popular demand, I have returned the manuscripts to Password free-status. Too many people were really inconvenienced by the passwords. Many, including myself, have had problems reading on the screen, not being able to port to handhelds, and unable to add their own personal notes to the text, something that I am totally in favor of. As long as the editing parties only do this for themselves, and don't pass along a copy of THEIR version, and the receiver starts wanting me to explain the thing with the Cambodian frog a little more clearly.

I have also attempted to rewrite the text to address the issues of possible omissions, as stated by Jim Callahan.

If you have any specific areas where you would like me to change a line or a word that is unclear, or even a specific thought, please let me know, and I will at least clarify it for you alone. A few of these correction requests, and I will change it on the pdf, and let you guys know. Then you can email me for the updates, and I can supply them.

That is why I love the ebook formats... Everybody makes mistakes, and everybody can have input if they want.

To the single person that requested the password protection; if you would like to have a password protection for your own sake or if you have other reasons, then let me know, and I will send you one. But, I believe that the true password protection is...

$6.50 pricing.... Priceless!

For piracy addicts, these are copies that are rare and hard to find, and held by members who will do their best to say to them "Gee, c'mon, it's only $6.50..." You could steal that amount from the collection plate, and nobody would notice... or care!"

"But, then I'd have to wait until Sunday..."

Are you following me?

If you have ordered a SBO from me that has the copy protection, and request the password, I'm just going to reply with a full SBO file without the copy protection. Also, any file distributed at this time will be unprotected, as well.

And I'm not just relying on everyone's honesty on this project. I'm actually relying more on modern people wanting something NOW (or when it really hits them that they need this), I'm relying on the public's desire to not get virus related issues on their computers when passing unauthorized stuff, and the general feeling that you are not just helping me out, but, rather that you are helping yourself by donating to a cause that may encourage future releases of useful items that are universally in demand and priced low enough to encourage widespread demand.

We are in a cottage industry, and the only way that we can protect ourselves from those who would take advantage of the inventors and creators is by looking for value and then supporting those who offer it. You can't really outsource a pdf file to India, and undercut me. There is just not enough of a profit potential to do it. You can rip it off, and publish it under your own name, but where is that going to get you from an artistic and credibility standpoint? The good thing about easy access to information is that if you do steal something and publish it as your own, usually everyone who knows you will catch wind of it.

Free transfer of information works both ways. I personally think that it's good for the most part, and that will outweigh the bad.

If you get the file without paying for it, just send me a few bucks if you end up using the effect.

Now, I'm just going on...

Thanks
Jimmy

Jimmy, I would like to see some more info on cold reading and maybe some examples of what people came up with as their word, dialouge examples would be great as well.

Once again, thanks for this CHEAP outstanding effect.