Craig, Happy Holidays! I have purchased and use nearly all of your products and haven't had a failure yet. Knowing the testing that you do, I don't expect any failures. But I have spoken with other mentalists, who give the advice to always have a non electronic backup for every effect. However, I'm not sure that this is possible, since the products you create make possible the otherwise impossible. I don't know how this could be done because if I could do the same effects as cleanly without electronics, I would obviously do so. The question I have for you is whether you have any nonelectronic backup for any of the effects you do, or any suggestions of how to handle any potential failures? Thanks,
John

Hi John,

Happy Holidays. This is a very good question and one that I have spent a lot of time thinking about. My show is just over 50% e. I do not have non-e back-ups for all of my effect because like you said I don't think there are ways to do many of them non-e. I do prepare for a failure, but this is how.

I have about 1 hour 20 minutes prepared for a 45 minute show, this is for a worse case scenario and I have to go all non-e. I have ways built into the show to pre-test prior to each effect. The good thing about e effects is you can pre-test them just prior to performance, unlike other non-e failures I have had that fail during the effect. For example, I have a pen cup handy with several pens in it. My rec****r is always on. I might pull a color pen out when going for black pen to just check it one or two effect before I need it. I show Red Handed objects prior to using them and make sure they are active. I turn my cube over in my bag when getting a deck of cards. I check my wallet right before the show. If I don't get the signal I would eliminate that effect and fill in with one of my other effects. I realize that testing before the show is preferable but things can change during the show. I do use two rec****rs so I would swap that first in the show. I keep an extra in an armband. I have only had one failure to date and it was due to having the Rec****r in my sock and it moved down during the show and it switched off against my shoe as I walked. It was near the end of my show so I switched on the back-up and was OK.

So what do I have extra, an Ideck for one. I also do a hypnosis segment in my show and I will extend it by 10 minutes if necessary. I also have a Q&A ready to go as well.

If I ever have to pull out in the middle of an effect I just do it. I have non E effects fail on me more than E effects for sure and I handle either the same way. I have had quarters stick in slides, lost pinky breaks, had thread break, even popped a balloon sticking a needle through it.

I think it is a good idea to have a prepared patter for what you would say if there is a failure, but I think it is best to avoid it with a pre-test. If you are creative enough to have back-ups for everything please share them

Best,
-Craig

Thank you, Craig. I take the same general approach to non e effects. Your advice regarding making sure your various e effects are working is very helpful to me and I am sure many others.

Looking forward to your next brainchild.

John