iNFLUENCED by Paul Brook

Paul Brook is a creator I always look out for. I enjoy his work and streamlined approach to methods, and when I saw this new release using an iPhone, I was intrigued.

Here’s the description from his site, “You ask the participant if she would like to take part in a memory experiment. She does. You open your phone to a note that contains a list of 1000 different celebrities and some experiment questions.

All the participant must do is scroll as fast as possible through the 1000 celebrities and then write the name of any celebrity and any number.

The participant is asked to go to her number. Indeed, her celebrity is at that number. Has she managed to recall the entire list, or did her brain notice her favorite celebrity and remember just those details?

Maybe it was never about memory recall; perhaps it was about influence!

Directly above the participant’s choice are three celebrities. Each name begins with the letter ‘V’, which looks like three arrows pointing at the participant’s choice. It is the only place on the entire list where this is true, and can be checked.

The participant is then asked to look slightly above their selection and find the name ‘Charlie Sheen’ and take note of the first letters of the names until she gets to the ‘V Arrows’.

Each of the first letters spell the words, ‘CHOOSE THIS ONE’.

The participant is shocked and amazed, and she can share the note to her own phone (by herself) as a memento.”

The incredible thing here is that this uses a shortcut rather than an app. So the trick really does take place inside of your native notes app on your phone. This does mean that it only works on an iPhone, but luckily that’s a large margin of the population.

The shortcut is very easy to download and get working. You quite literally just download it, toggle a few things on in settings, and you’re good to go. The first time you run it, you’ll have to accept a lot of pop-ups, but after that, you’ll never have to do it again (unless you change lists.)

The amount of work building this shortcut is insane. I have never seen a shortcut that operates so much like an app. Paul is constantly updating it to make it better, too. So far we are on version 8.1 and this version allows you to edit quite literally everything about it. The title, the text, the list, the time delays, the cue methods, virtually everything. If you don’t like the celebrity approach, Paul has also now included movies, grocery items, cities, cocktails, and you can create and store three of your own custom lists. You can also include your website and/or logo on the list making this a great virtual business card that the spectator sends to themself. It’s extraordinary and I’ve never seen anything like it in a shortcut.

It comes with a 45-minute video tutorial walking you through how to set up and perform the routine, a PDF with the basic setup, and tons of troubleshooting videos. There’s also a Facebook group where Paul is active in helping clients resolve their issues. That’s one thing you can count on with Paul—you’re always going to have great customer service.

An awesome thing about the way this was created is that the performer never has to touch the phone. The spectator does everything from beginning to end, and there’s no need for swiping or remotes or anything like that. That said, I think Paul is currently playing with some other input methods, but I think the current method fits within the framework and has plenty of psychological throw-offs.

For example, if the spectator misspells the name/word and/or doesn’t capitalize it, it will show up spelled correctly and capitalized correctly in the list. Honestly, I don’t even know how it works. It’s amazing that Paul was able to create this and make it work as flawlessly as it does. I only downloaded it a few hours ago, but I’ve been playing with it nonstop and performing it on myself constantly because it is pretty magical that it can do all of this on its own.

This is something I will be using, and I think it will be very easy to lead right into this out of conversation. The shortcut does all of the work for you so you literally just have to open it up and hand it off at a moment's notice without any need to get anything ready. It’s the perfect EDC to show something memorable and impossible.

This can be purchased at the link below for right around 50 USD

https://www.heknows.co.uk/shop/influenced/