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Author Topic: Tying "Stranger than Fiction" with my/our natural abilities?! Jason Setzer Film Handler Posts: 46 From: Tampa, Florida Registered: Aug 2006 posted 09-23-2006 10:23 PM                     Ok this is going to sound very odd but here goes. In the movie "Stranger than fiction" Will Ferrell has a very rare ability that involves manipulating/visualizing numbers. This is typically referred to a "human calculator" trait. Also this similar trait was seen in Rain Main on a different aspect. This trait is extremely rare. The odd thing is that I was blessed with this trait and this is the typically unbelievable part so was my twin brother. My family realized by the time we were 3 years old we had some "unique abilities". It is something that we never bragged about or showed off, but was very widely known and studied by various doctors throughout our adolescents. Any ways my question is that before each showing of "Stranger than fiction" on opening weekend I was going to have the audience ask us math questions (ie 147,191 divided by 7)to see whether me or my twin would answer first. Does anyone think that this could be conceived as bad taste or do you think moviegoers will get the connection between what we are doing and the movie. I have done challenges with my Twin brother literally hundreds of time in school, on TV, at Duke when i was 12 and i was always thought that it was in bad taste ( it was never our idea to do it, we were thankful for the ability but liked using it for practical use not be made some sort of freak show)My twin is a Man of god (please no pun between our intelligence level and his decision to believe in something metaphysical) and won't get involved in something that could be construed as pompous, arrogant, etc. So what you%  |  IP: Logged Will Kutler Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1506 From: Tucson, AZ, USA Registered: Feb 2001 posted 09-23-2006 11:01 PM                     You have a wonderful gift!! You might be able to use your gift to help make the world a better place...not to mention being able to earn a comfortable living! Don't waste anything this precious! Use it to the best of your ability!! Cheers Kutler  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-23-2006 11:27 PM                     If it's tied in to the promotion of a movie it wouldn't be in poor taste, provided the act itself is tasteful. You don't have to promote yourself as having special ability. You can simply say that your act is "for entertainment purposes only". That's the way psychic/mentalist stage performers do it. (e.g.: The Amazing Kreskin.) He plainly states that he has "No supernatural powers." and "The PERFORMANCE you are about to see is for entertainment only." I know it sounds nit-picky but that way you bypass all those questions on how or why you can do such amazing things. Maybe you can find a book to recommend to people. (They'll never read it, anyway.) I suggest you do it the same way mentalist performers do it: 1) Give a calculator to an audience member. (If anybody else in the audience has calculators enlist their help, too... Adds more credibility.) 2) Toss a Nerf ball into the audience. The person who catches it calls out a 3-digit number. (Or as large a number as you want.) 3) That person tosses the ball to another person who calls out another number. 4) Repeat four or five times. (Don't do it so many times the audience gets bored.) 5) Write your total down on a large slip of paper but don't reveal it yet. 6) The helper with the calculator writes his total down on a slip of paper and display it to the audience. 7) You reveal your answer to be correct and bow for applause. 8) Repeat once or twice more but not too many times that people get bored. Can you do "Magic Squares" in your head? That's a real flashy trick that never fails to get applause. Do the "Human Calculator" bit like above then bring out a large chalkboard with a 5-by-5 magic square on it. Write the numbers 1-25 in order, one right after another until you have completed the square. Good performers can do this in under a minute. Have your calculator helper verify your square then take your applause. That should be a long enough show to "warm up" your audience before the movie.  |  IP: Logged Chris Hipp Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1462 From: Mesquite, Tx (east of Dallas) Registered: Jul 2003 posted 09-24-2006 01:54 AM                     Everyone in the audience will have a calculator.....it is called a cell phone.  |  IP: Logged Jason Setzer Film Handler Posts: 46 From: Tampa, Florida Registered: Aug 2006 posted 09-24-2006 06:03 AM                     Randy, Is the magic square adding all the numbers up? ie 1st square 1,3,6,10,15,21 etc? Remember it is going to be me and my bro doing the act, would this magic squares work with 2 people on 2 chalkboards? Thanks for the ideas, they would definitely make the show seem more entertaining and less arrogant.  |  IP: Logged Mark Lensenmayer Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1605 From: Upper Arlington, OH Registered: Sep 1999 posted 09-24-2006 07:44 AM                     Your management might want to contact the local newspaper about this. You might get some nice publicity and even get a few extra patrons. I would think an audience would enjoy something like that.  |  IP: Logged Jason Setzer Film Handler Posts: 46 From: Tampa, Florida Registered: Aug 2006 posted 09-24-2006 12:35 PM                     I guess I should have mentioned before I am the managing partner for this theatre ( it falls under the same unbrella as our restaurants I manage here in the bay area). I do have alot of contacts with the clearchannel radio stations and a couple of the news stations ( they all love IMAX!) that are local and could use that to drive sales/patrons for this.  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-24-2006 11:10 PM                     A magic square is a grid of numbers where all the rows and collumns add up to the same number. 17 24 01 08 15 23 05 07 14 16 04 06 13 20 22 10 12 19 21 03 11 18 25 02 09 Every row and collumn in the square of numers above totals 65. The effect goes thus: 1) The performer displays a chalk board with a 5-by-5 grid on it. 2) He explains the concept of the "Magic Square" for the benefit of those who don't know. 3) He throws out the Nerf ball and asks the person who caught it to call out a number between 60 and 500. 4) The performer fills in the squares. 5) The calculator helper verifies. 6) Applause. 7) The demonstration may be done as a duel between an audience member and the performer. If you don't know, there is a pattern to this trick. Once you know the secret, an average person with average calculating abilities can do this trick in a minute or less. You, having super math ability, should be able to do it as fast as you can write the numbers down. You ought to be able to blow the audience away with this effect. Give me a day or two and I'll photocopy/scan the instructions out of one of my magic books and send them to you. If you have a decent magic store in your town you OUGHT to be able to get a copy of: "The Handbook of Mental Magic" by Marvin Kaye. (Stein & Day Publishing, New York) Copyright 1975 by Marvin Kaye - Reissue 1985 See page 238. There are a lot of other math & mentalist effects in this book. If your ability is HALF as good as you say it is, with a little bit of study from this book you can perform some SERIOUSLY powerful magic! I'm envious! P.S. Yes, most peoples' cellular phones have calculators on them but not everybody can use them quickly. For these effects to be really effective they must be performed at a fairly brisk pace. The performer should provide a calculator. It should be one of those oversized, "Big Number" calculators so that everybody can see it. If there are people in the audience who can use their cellular phones well, the should be invited to play along. This way the performer can prove that he's not using a confederate or a rigged calculator. Further, the performer to "test" the calculator he provides just so that everything is above suspicion. (And, YES! There IS such a thing as a rigged calculator! They are available at most good magic stores.)  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 09-24-2006 11:21 PM                        Randy - What's with the Nerf ball fetish?  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-24-2006 11:52 PM                     Throw a brick if you want to but don't come crying to me when some sue-happy idiot hauls your ass to court and takes you for everything you've got because you fractured his skull. People are such cry babies these days!  |  IP: Logged Jason Setzer Film Handler Posts: 46 From: Tampa, Florida Registered: Aug 2006 posted 09-25-2006 05:27 PM                     Well the magic square is simple in the effect you can basically using numbers just one or 2 away from the last row to complete the effect. IE 83 7 13 19 24 6 14 then the next row you can simple subtract 1 from the first 5 numbers then add that 5 to the end number ie 19 6 18 12 23 5 Just switch the number up ( easisest is just going backwards) For anyone with average math skills the easiest thing to do is to square numbers in your head using a base number of 100 (For some reason anyone with strong math abilities does this, and the "original human calculator" whose name i dont know lives by it. Anyways say 87 Squared What you do is take 100-87= 13 Then you subtract the 13 from the 87 which gives you 74 then you square the 13 which gives you 169 ( this may seem complex but after the 3rd of 4th time its very fast.Then you take the 169 and add it to the 7400( add the 2 zeros because you are using a base number 100 times bigger than 1. So anyways 7400+169= 7569. Average person can do this typically in under 5 seconds. There are many books that can make people stronger in math. .My friends use to read them so that they could challenge me ( just like anything else without a challenge you lose the talent), but typically it was me and my brother just dueling it out.  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-26-2006 08:23 PM                     You're freakin' amazing, Man! Yes. Square large numbers. That's a good effect. It's in the book too. And, seeing your ability with math, doing Magic Squares ougut to be simple for you. Like I said, you should be able to do them as fast as you can write the numbers. I think that will blow the audience away! Remember! What YOU think is dead simple to do, many people can't do with a pencil and paper! You've got them right there! If an audience member calls out a number between 60 and 500 then you IMMEDIATELY start writing numbers out on a chalk board and, in just a few seconds, they form a magic square, the audience SHOULD burst into applause right then and there. I seriously think you've got something, there! I won't suggest you "take your act on the road" but I think that, properly rehearsed and practiced, you can do a lot with your ability. If you don't want to be a performer you should become a math teacher or something like that! I scanned in the chapter from that book I mentioned: >> CLICK HERE to read it. << Judging from the way you seem to understand Magic Squares already, this article should be simple for you to understand. If you can already produce a Magic Square that totals any given number, you should just read through the article and get the idea of how to perform it for an audience. ========== P.S.: I used an O.C.R. program to scan in the material from the book and make it into a .PDF file. Even though I proofread it and used spell check, there are probably a few errors in it, still. Sorry...  |  IP: Logged Jason Setzer Film Handler Posts: 46 From: Tampa, Florida Registered: Aug 2006 posted 09-26-2006 09:31 PM                     Randy, Thanks for the info. As for taking the show on the road I don't think it would pan out well. I use my ability to think outside the box in everyday life. I am currently the Operations Director for a local pizza chain that has just under 50 restaurants and plus we have 4 theatres that I assist in Operations as well. Although my math ability stands out more than anything else I do I like to use my way of thinking to figure out every day challenges. I have one simple thing I always like to do, make things easier for everyone else and keep my employees happy ( If you work for your employees they will work for you). I fucken hate managers that sit in the office and play with themselves all day. Everyone has an ability that is unique , mine is just weird enough to stick out.  |  IP: Logged

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