The Blurb
Imagine doing a Magic Squares routine but not having to
remember any numbers or do any math? This is Chris Randall’s
unique and entertaining take on the classic effect but using
celebrities instead.
A spectator is asked to freely choose a celebrity. The
magician then claims he knows the celebrity the spectator
has choose. The magician takes out a pad of paper and begins
to draw a grid of 4 x 4 squares. He then fills in the
squares with some of his guesses of who the selected
celebrity is. After filling out all of the squares he asks
the spectator if their celebrity is on the grid. The
spectator replies with a firm “NO!” The magician still
assures them he knows who it is and will prove it.
We won’t bore you with the details (you have to buy the book
to learn those) but by the end the audience is laughing and
you have indeed determined their selected celebrity. Chris
has done all of the hard work for you and has included his
handling, ideas, and experience with this effect in this
booklet.
With Hollywood Squares you will always be one step ahead of
your audience and 6 degrees away from and a good time.
My Comments
This is a fun bit that probably won't be quite as much
performing outside of Hollywood. This is a Magic Square
effect but with celebrities. To understand how this works,
one has to know the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game, in
which you link up celebrities with film projects the pair
did together and the chain must end with Kevin Bacon. (KB
is not an end result of this effect). After a celebrity is
chosen (either from a stack of cards with the names on them
or from a bag of slips of paper), the performer can show
that every row and every column of four celebrities leads to
that chosen celebrity. Finally, the entire grid is turned
around and the chosen celebrity's name is on it.
The routine is easy to do. There is very little techical
difficulty, though that depends on the method you use to
have the participant choose the celebrity. After that, the
skill required is memorization.
The blurb states that you should "imagine doing a Magic
Squares routine but not having to remember any numbers or do
any math." The implication is that there is no memory
involved. That's not true. You have to remember all the
cinematic links between the celebrities. All the links are
provided in the booklet. For some, especially those who are
film fans too, this will be easy. For others, including
Chris Randall himself, who admits that this is the reason he
doesn't perform this often, the work may be too much to be
practical.
This routine "packs flat, plays big," but its big
consideration is whether this will fit your style. The
price certainly makes it worth checking out if you're not
sure. For me, I like the idea a lot and I'm glad I read it.
Whether or not I'll personally use it I can't say. But I'll
certainly recommend this booklet (5.5" x 8.5", 16 pages) to
anyone who finds this idea intriguing.