Ditching the Hemp card actually helps me when I perform this one. I present it as an intuition test. I always say I'm going to get rid of hemp because people tend to have a preconceived notion of it and for this exercise it's important you not have an preconceived notion of the images. I will tell you that when you are finished the piles should be somewhat even. I don't want you to just grab the stack and say I like them all. I want you to spend a brief moment with each and quickly decide if you feel good or not so good about it.
The words may change slightly depending on the spectator but that's it in general. I have always had a solid reaction to this and my handling is as "ballsy" as possible and done directly in full view. When I make the change I actually am instructing their attention directly at the cards. There was another magician from the Café at my shop one day when I did this effect for a customer. I believe his handle here is Reaper. I remember him saying he wouldn't have believed that would work at all had he not just seen it happen and that the woman clearly really liked it. We all have what works for us in performance. This effect has been solid for me since day one and I recommend it to anyone. ....and believe it or not one spec was a botanist. I'm not kidding. She told me afterwards but really it made no difference as she obviously did not recognize all of them and enjoyed how well she had done. Her boyfriend / husband commented she either really paid attention in school or there is really something to all of this.

I'm not challenging anyone's style on this. Im just saying its a solid effect and I have presented it over and over for a wide variety of people and it always gets a stong reaction.

Edit- I should mention that at the end of this the specs only want to talk about themselves. Nothing about the process itself has ever been discussed really. It's about them which they love and naturally takes all the heat off of me. It was after performing it for a local cop I decided to no longer use the hemp card as he very much remembered where he put it and I wasn't about to try and switch it.

Sounds logical to me I may try that.

I'm sure the cop remembered the hemp was in the truck of his car

How much time are you giving the spec to examine each card? Since it's an exercise in intuition, it shouldn't be more than a fraction of a second. I find it difficult to believe that this would be enough time for anyone (other than an expert) to look at a drawing of a plant and identify the species.

Not sure if you own this MG to even know which plants are included, but if you live in Colorado, Washington, Alaska, Oregon, Portland or Vancouver BC, most everyone is very familiar with what hemp looks like. That picture is classically recognizable to most 13 year olds and up in a fraction of a second, and at a distance. It's on clothing the kids wear.

Opium poppy, flax, possibly Safflower (vegetable oil) are also recognizable/memorable pictures by average people.

The others not likely at all, but that's approximately 5% of the plants, enough to remember seeing one of those for sure.

Some people will take a good look at the pictures, simply because they have never seen them before and are interested. It only takes a second for it to trigger and you really can't draw too much heat by guiding/speeding them through the process. It's meant to be intuitive and some spec will automatically put the consideration into their selection if nothing more to make the performer feel they are interested (and maybe they would like to look at the pictures for a second longer to try to identify them).

Over all I agree with you, you do need to manage the audience on this one. Taking the hemp card out is a very wise choice and ZoOpDoG's solution facilitates the management wonderfully. It's actually a good thing the hemp was included.

Hemp is supposed to end up in the positive pile. If a spec recognizes it and remembers placing it in the positive pile, why should this be a concern?

Yes they see them very quickly. yes they normally recognize pot. no they do not always put it in the good pile. yes they remember where it went because it is the only one of the bunch recognized. when you begin performing for people you will understand why this debate is silly.

I agree with you zoop

Performing for people as opposed to... potted plants? I have performed this for homo sapiens(or reasonable facsimiles thereof) and I've not run into this phenomenon. Maybe the folks I've tried it on were too innocent to know (or too stoned to notice). True, I've only performed it a handful of times, so maybe I've just been lucky. One thing's for sure after reading this thread- I'll think twice before pulling out my green velvet pouch in a head shop.


"I could have sworn I put that hemp card in the negative pile."

"I think you may be suffering from some short-term memory loss, dude."

I've never had a problem with this either.

You may want to consider only doing this with two spectators instead of one (as per White Star). That makes it fool proof (and 100 times easier). I have a number of these OOTH styled effects and I use different ones depending on my audience, but I have routine each one to work with two spectators.

I have never run into this as I do not advertise positive/negative prior to revelation.
so they do not know what pile it is effectively going in. as Al states right above me
the fool proof Safe way is to use 2 sitters ALA white star.

I always ask the spec to simply get a feeling for the card and let their intuition guide them
between the two piles. In my humble opinion I think positive and negative can diminish the
revelation when the piles are turned.
I've never had an issue with hemp...

Except for a few lost weekends in college....