(Hank) Moorehouse 1934 – 2011 - The Society of American Magicians

into a single pile.
“What is the probability that all your selections have been
correct? Well, this is how it works. The first choice – the white
coin – was one chance in three, right?” Holding the stack in his
hand, the performer removes the two bottom coins and sets them
on the table, with their colored sides still down.
“For the second guess, you only had two choices, remember?”
The next pair of coins is removed from the stack and similarly
tabled.
“Now here is the point most people miss.” He sets down the
remaining two coins. “The probability of getting all three right is
what – one out of twenty? One out of fifteen? No, it is one out of
six. Let’s see how you did on your first try.”
The first two coins are turned over. Their colors match. “Good
guess! Look, the second pair also matches. That means the last
two have to – match!”
When this has sunk in, and the situation has been appreciated,
the performer continues. “Let’s try to raise the bar. We’ll use all
five pairs of coins.” He picks up one set of five and places them
colored-side down in his hand. He then lays the remaining set
colored-side up in a row in front of his intuitive helper.
After some hesitation, the performer places one of his quarters,
colored-side down, on the table. The woman pushes a colored
coin of her choice forward as her guess. As in the first test, the
performer turns this coin colored-side down and stacks it with its
target coin. This is repeated twice.
The performer sets a fourth coin colored-side down on the
table. “Please place your guess colored-side down on this one.”
As she is making her decision, the performer neatly and fairly
assembles the previous three pairs of coins into a stack.
By this point, the woman has elected her fourth choice. “You
did that one with more certainty. Now put your coin on top of mine
– and place those two onto these.” In concert with his instructions,
he points to indicate she should place the fourth pair onto
the stack of six previous coins.
“And now put your last coin on mine.” The performer places
his final coin colored-side down on top of the pile, and the woman
does the same.
“How well did you do? Two out of five is average.”
The performer picks off the top two coins and sets them to his
right. He places the next pair beside these, then the next and the
next, forming a row of five pairs. These, and all actions, are scrupulously
fair and open.
“Now help me. I don’t want to disturb any of these pairs.
Please turn over the top coin of each.”
She does so, showing her five colors. These are in the order she
dispersed them, as they should be, though this isn’t mentioned.
“Turn this one over,” the performer says, indicating the first of
his coins. It matches.
“And this one.” Another match.
“And this one.” Again, a match.
This is repeated, and all five pairs are seen to match. The result
is astonishing, and there can be no trickery. All the coins are left
on the table, as all are innocent.
Method: Hen Fetsch’s wonderful trick, Symbologic, was
released in 1954. It is still an amazing trick. But there are some
things that, in my opinion, make the treatment of Symbologic
I’ve just described even more amazing. First, using coins seems
somehow inherently less tricky than using playing or ESP cards.
The coins also make a tall stack, which appears to prevent sleightof-hand.
And there is the sound made as the quarters are slid and
turned over, which somehow adds an extra dimension of honesty
and conviction.
Initially, I marked the faces of the coins, so that all of them
could be placed colored-sides down during the pairing phases.
This, though, often created difficulties caused by my poor vision
and circumstances of lighting. I’ve found that leaving the helper’s
coins colored-sides up does not weaken the effect. In fact, it has
the advantage of stimulating the onlookers’ interest. In addition,
the correct sequence of the selected colors is noted by close
observers. And as the coins are unmarked, there is nothing suspicious
to find.
The basis of the method is an expanded quarter shell, head side
intact, and the ancient one-behind strategy.
Phase i – three matches
The first phase doesn’t use the shell, so you keep it safely
hidden for the time being. An easy and practical way of concealing
it is simply to nest it over one of the quarters that is not used in
this phase. Alternatively, you can keep it on your lap.
The particulars of the handling are based on those taught in
Douglas Dyment’s Bob’s Your Uncle (see his Mindsights, p. 28),
which in turn is a variation of a Charles Pecor idea (Bob’s ESP
Demonstration in Pecor’s Sinister Variations, p. 5).
In your hand, you hold three coins with colors matching those
given your assistant. To start things off, you place one of your
coins down with the color hidden on the underside. Assume it is
the white coin, although it could be any one you like. Take care
that no one sees the color as you remove the coin from your closed
hand. If your helper pushes her white coin forward to join yours,
think to yourself, “Match.” If not, think, “No match.”
For now, I will proceed on the assumption that the colors of
this first pair of coins do match. We’ll discuss later what happens
when they do not.
Cleanly turn your helper’s coin colored-side down and set it
onto your coin. Next put down a second coin; let’s assume it is the
blue one. If you are very lucky, and the participant pushes forward
her matching blue one, the effect is an automatic success, since
the third pair of coins must match.
Suppose that either the first pair of coins or the second do not
match. Think, “No match” to yourself. As soon as you get a “No
match,” follow the one-behind rule, choosing for your next coin
that which matches the previous color your helper has pushed
forward.
When your helper pushes out her next coin, it cannot match
yours, so you continue the one-behind strategy to the end.
While your helper makes each new decision, you turn the coin
she previously picked colored-side down onto its target coin, the
one your helper hopes to match. This eventually creates three
piles of two quarters, all colored-sides down.
Gather them into a single stack, placing the center pair onto
the first, then the coins last paired onto the four just stacked.
As mentioned earlier, sometimes the matching happens
honestly. The rest of the time you will have to resort to a little
simple sleight of hand. The key move is a version of the glide,
adapted to coins.
Grip the stack at the fingertips of your palm-down left hand.
Suppose you know that the bottom two coins match. In that case,
you simply slide them one-by-one off the bottom of the stack and
place them on the table. If, however, they do not match, your right
fingers secretly push back the bottom one about a quarter of an
inch. Pull out the two coins above it, one at a time, and place
them together, colored-sides still downward, on the table. You
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