Der Shattenjaeger  The Shadow Hunter
Copyright 2003 by Robert E Cassidy
All rights reserved
They might be giants.
- Cervantes, Don Quixote
Absolute authenticity of detail is essential to our work.
Anything less is mere quackery.
-The Magic Christian
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Schattenjaeger s Workshop 2
Dr. Crow s Book of Numbers 2
Bandaged 7
The Paradigm Deck 8
Vision Quest (The Schattenjaeger s Cards) 10
The Jam Readings -  Ragtime Mentalism 14
The Schattenjaeger s Workshop
One of his secrets is the knowledge that everyday objects are really effects whose instructions
have been lost. A glass object on a supermarket shelf might look like a jelly jar, for example, but is that
what it really is? He looks at the fluted glass sides that distort the appearance of the contents and
realizes that it is a cleverly disguised secret device. He asks himself,  How does it work?
At the checkout counter, while he is waiting to purchase his new discovery, he carefully peruses
the mini-magazines that purport to reveal the secrets of numerology and how to harness your psychic
powers. Are they simply pieces of bait to hook the gullible, or do they have another purpose? He looks
behind their tacky facade and sees what they are really for.
His own appearance is equally deceptive. Most people assume he s dangerously psychotic.
They are wrong.
He is the Schattenjaeger. His workshop is everywhere.
Dr. Crow s Book of Numbers
Every two weeks or so, a company called American Media Mini Mags, of Boca Raton, Florida,
delivers yet another publication to supermarket checkout counters throughout the country. Featuring
such titles as  Is Your Pet Psychic?  Are You Psychic?  How to Talk to Your Cat and  Everyone is
Psychic Except You , these and similar  mini-mags have become commonplace..
 Dr. Crow s Book of Numbers is a mentalist s utility device that appears to be just another of
these ubiquitous releases. It is a sixty-six-page booklet, which you can easily print out on your
computer. (Separate .pdf and .doc files, ready for printing, are included in the file that contains this
eBook, as are full size versions of the front and back covers.)
Here are the covers and the first few pages from the booklet:
The booklet is 4 inches by 6
inches in size. The pages are printed
on blank index card stock. (You can
do them on newsprint if you want to
make the book look exactly like the
supermarket versions. I prefer the
cardstock as I use the booklet in a
platform routine in which it is only
handled by one person. The card
stock makes the book somewhat
more durable.
The covers are printed in color
on glossy photo paper. (You may
prefer to have these done at your
local print shop.)
The next several pages continue in this manner,
giving the meanings for each of the  name numbers .
(The actual pages, contained in the files accompanying
this eBook, are formatted with headers, footers,
appropriate margins, and gutters)
The remainder of the book consists of entries for
every day in the year. These correspond with your
volunteer s birthday and contain his lucky number
combination and lucky color.
Following are some of the entries from the
 January section of the book -
E
very day of the year has a different six-digit lucky
number combination and is assigned one of nine
different colors  the seven colors of the spectrum
plus  black and  white.
Again, look at the attached files to see how
these pages are laid out.
The secret to the booklet is very simple 
without referring to its pages you are able to
determine the number and the color assigned to
every day of the year!
Unassembled book printed on 4 x 6 blank index cards
The most effective way of using the booklet is to first secretly obtain the participant s birth date -
unless you use the pocket writing option mentioned below. A center tear, billet switch, or impression
device can also be used for this purpose. (If you perform an effect with a borrowed bill earlier in your
routine, you can often get a glimpse at the driver s license when the spectator removes the bill from his
or her wallet.)
I ask the participant if she believes in lucky numbers. I show the Dr. Crow book and state that it
is a numerology book I picked up in the supermarket. Handing the booklet to her, I ask her to look
through it.
 Look up your birthday and it will tell you your lucky number combination and your special
color.
You already know what her number and color will be, and may reveal that information as you
wish. (Those who are skilled in pocket writing will have no problem presenting this as a prediction
effect  just ask for the birth date and while the spectator looks it up you pocket-write the lucky
number and later pretend to remove the slip with your  prediction from an envelope that has been in
plain view from the start.
The color is the easiest to determine quickly. Simply by body indexing nine envelopes, you can
hand one containing the proper color as soon as you know the date.
Use the mnemonic you probably learned in school to help you remember the seven colors of
the visible spectrum  ROY G. BIV. The letters of this guy Roy s name stand for the colors Red, Orange,
Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet. Since the name is a three-letter word, a single initial, and then
another three letter word. It is easy to determine the numerical value, from one to seven, of any of the
colors and vice versa. There are, however, nine different colors used in the book, so we use  Black
and  White to represent numbers eight and nine.
To determine the color for any given day of the year, add the values of the month and day
together and then add the digits in the result. If the result is a two-digit number, add those two digits
together until you arrive at a single digit. That digit corresponds to the color for the date in question.
(Mathematically speaking, you are simply  casting out nines. )
For example, if the birthday were June 23rd, you would add 6 (for June  it is the sixth month)
and 23, arriving at a total of 29. 2 + 9 = 11 1 + 1 = 2 Color #2 is Orange. ( O is the second letter
in  ROY )
January 8th is White. Why? Because 1 + 8 = 9 and 9 is White.
Determining the number for any given date is almost as easy. A very simple calculation, based
on Burling Hull s  Master Memory Feats , gives you the number for any day of the year. While you
should have no problem doing it all in your head, you may, if you wish, calculate the number with
pencil and paper while ostensibly working out the participant s  Name Number as per the first section
of the booklet.
Put the value of the month FIRST and the date SECOND. (This is the normal way of writing a
date in the US, but the rest of the world puts the date first. So if my overseas friends will just remember
that we are a little backwards over here, you will know to put the month first when doing the
calculations for this effect.)
Ex. - January 1 = 11
January 2 = 12
January 13 = 113
October 31 = 1031
Etc.
Thus, the month and date will yield a two, three or four digit number. (Think of January 1st, for
example, as eleven, January 13th as one hundred and thirteen, and October 31st as one thousand thirty-
one.)
Add five to this number. Using January 13th as an example, our number would now be 118.
(113 + 5)
Reverse this number: 118 becomes 811.
Now, as per Hull s system, add the last two digits together to obtain the next digit: 8112
Again add the last two digits together to obtain the fifth digit: 81123.
Once more add the last two together to get the sixth, and final digit: 811235
If you arrive at a two-digit number when adding the last two digits together, disregard the
number in the  tens place. Only use numbers in the  ones place. Example:
August 7
Written as a two-digit number: 87
Add five and your total is 92
Reverse these digits to get 29
Add these two together to get the next digit and your total is 11. DISREGARD the 1 in the  tens
place.
The number is now 291
Add nine and one together for the next digit. The total is 10, but disregard the 1.
The number is now 2910
One and zero give us the fifth number:
29101
Zero plus one gives us the sixth, and last, digit of the lucky number:
291011
The  lucky numbers in the book are listed sequentially by date, thus it is possible to see that
they have a discernable relationship to one another  especially in the two-digit months of October,
November, and December. This would be a problem if the effect were based on the premise that a
random number was assigned to each day of the year. These numbers, however, are NOT
represented as being random at all  they are ostensibly the result of careful numerological
computations and OF COURSE there are relationships between the numbers in given months. (That s if
anyone should ask about it in the first place, which is unlikely if the presentation is fairly brisk and the
spectator is not given the opportunity to leisurely look through the book.)
If, however, you have secretly obtained the birth information as suggested earlier, the spectator
should believe that you didn t know her birth date to begin with, let alone the six-digit number and
color it is associated with.
As you become familiar with the booklet, many other applications will suggest themselves to
you.
As the Shattenjaeger says,  Look beneath the surface.
Bandaged
There are those who will say that this portrait of me is among the
finest of my many likenesses . It is a perfect example, however, of things
that are not quite what they seem to be. While it appears that my head is
wrapped in an Ace bandage, it is in fact wrapped in a disposable paper-like
athletic wrap manufactured by a company named Nexcare. It has two
qualities that set it apart from the cloth Ace bandages that it so closely
resembles.
The first is that it sticks to itself, so there is no
need to pin or knot it after putting it on. While this
makes it very convenient to use as a blindfold or as a
base for an even more elaborate eye covering, its other
quality is what makes it particularly valuable to the
mentalist.
It is a very stretchable material, but unlike the
Ace bandage, which contains elastic, the Nexcare is best
described as a sort of heavy-duty crepe paper.
Something very interesting happens when you stretch it
out  it becomes almost transparent.
I took the photograph of myself wearing the bandage with the webcam mounted on the top of
my computer. I am actually looking at the monitor and setting up the shot with four feet of this
material wrapped around my head.
The visibility is so good that I have taken to wearing the bandage underneath my regular cloth
blindfold (The Master Mentalist s Blindfold  which is also based on a hidden transparency principle) I
still have adequate straight ahead vision.
I recently tested the bandage with Osterlind s Stainless Steel Blindfold and found that I still had
perfect vision to the left and right. In practice, the bandage should be removed from the inner plastic
cylinder (around which it is wrapped when you take it from the box.) and rolled up like a regular Ace
Bandage. You should also refer to it as an Ace bandage during your performance. (Throw away the
box that it comes in  you don t want anyone to realize that it is anything other than an Ace.)
The bandage comes in two varieties  one is designed for use on the elbows and wrists, and is
an inch narrower that the leg bandage shown in the photo on the right. To my knowledge, the unique
properties of this relatively new first-aid item have not, until now, been discovered by mentalists or
magicians. For that reason, this is an extremely valuable secret and I ask that you keep it closely to
yourself.
The Paradigm Deck
Can you guess which card the
Schattenjaeger is peeking at?
But there is a bit more to the
Paradigm Deck than what lies before
your eyes or the Schattenjaeger s. The
marks are worth noting, however. I think
you will agree that they are pretty hard to
miss. As in the original  Peek Deck
Pappy described in J.G. Thompson s My
Best, each card, with the exception of the
top card, which is not marked, bears the
identity of the card directly above it.
Since the marks are on the upper halves
of the cards, the pack can be casually
spread from the other end without the
markings being seen.
The Paradigm Deck, though, is
also a  Psychomatic Deck  in other
words, the cards are glued together in
pairs and the uppermost card of each pair
is one of twenty-six identical force cards.
The lowermost cards of each pair are all
different and are cut short. (It is exactly the opposite of a Svengali pack, in which the force cards are
short) The pairs of cards are glued together at the ends. The cards, therefore, can be freely spread in
a face up condition and shown to be  well mixed ,  all different or whatever else you claim them to
show.
In the photograph, the pairs are glued together at the upper end of the pack. No matter where
the spectator stops me as I riffle the cards toward him at eye level, he will see an indifferent card. Of
course, I will know what it is as soon as he does - thanks to the blatant mark that is facing me.
In combination, these two principles create a very powerful and fast platform demonstration. As
the routine begins, the pack is secured with a rubber band and resides in the performer s jacket pocket.
The cards are not kept in their case  if they were, what would you need the rubber band for?
The performer approaches a spectator, removes the pack from his pocket, and takes off the
rubber band, which he snaps around his wrist. He spreads the cards face up, asking her to verify  for
the benefit of the people in the cheap seats that all of the cards are different.
 As I flip through them like this, just stop me somewhere. The cards are held at the spectator s
eye level, as in the photograph, and riffled with the right fingers, which pull back toward the performer
 ie. the cards spring towards the spectator. When you perform this routine yourself, keep your head
turned to the side during the riffle, thus making it obvious that you are not looking at the cards.
Caution the spectator not to think of the bottom card  because everyone can see what it is.
Hold the cards high enough so that the spectator cannot see the faces as they riffle. When she
tells you to stop, show her the card in the exact manner shown in the photo. At the same time, turn
your head back toward the spectator and tell her to remember the card she is looking at. Since the
mark is staring you in the face, you remember the card as well. Close up the pack and rapidly go to
another spectator who is asked to think of a card in the same manner. Repeat this procedure as rapidly
as you can with as many spectators as you can handle. This, of course, will be dictated by how many
cards you feel comfortable memorizing. If you have mastered a card memory system, you should have
no problem remembering seven or eight cards, which is about right.
After the eighth spectator has remembered a card, say,  You know, maybe it s not so good that I
am touching the cards. Here, let s try it this way. As you speak, give the cards several overhand
shuffles  faces of the cards toward the audience so as not to flash the markings. Retain the top
(unmarked) card in position at all times.
Approach a final spectator and, as you reach her, snap the rubber band around the pack.
 Here, I want you to hold the cards like this on your outstretched left hand. Demonstrate by
holding the cards on your own palm-up hand. The deck should be face down and the glued ends of
the cards should be closest to you.
 I am not going to watch when you peek at a card. In fact, I am not even going to touch the
cards. I am going to hand you the deck and I want you to lift up a bunch of them from the end, like
this, and peek at just one card. Don t let a lot of them flip by like this, because then you will be
thinking of too many different images.
The performer turns so that the spectator can see over his right shoulder as he gives this little
demonstration. Since the performer riffles from the glued end while he is explaining why the spectator
should not flip through the pack, the participant will see several indifferent cards, thus  proving once
again that all of the cards are different.
When the mentalist hands the deck to the spectator, however, he places it face down on her
hand so that the unglued  force end of the pack is facing her. This is the standard handling for the
Psychomatic deck.
Turn away from the spectator and ask her to peek at a card and fix it into her mind. When she
indicates that she has done so, ask her to drop the cards into your jacket pocket, as you  don t want to
touch them again.
That last bit is important, for it is what the audience will remember after the show  many will
even forget that you were holding the cards while the other spectators made their selections.
Conclude by asking everyone to concentrate intently on the card images they have fixed in their
minds. In a brisk and forthright manner call out all of the selections, finally turning to the volunteer
who got the force card. Reveal the card she is thinking of, once again mentioning that you never
handled the cards after giving them to her.
While the handling in this routine is almost obscenely blatant, the effect is nonetheless very
powerful. The main thing to remember  other than the cards, which you d better remember - is to work
this one as fast as you can without confusing anyone.
Vision Quest (The Schattenjaeger s Cards)
I was playing around with one of Doctor Crow s  Allegedly Authentic Mojo Dolls a while back
and I realized that the little pocket on the front of his outfit was a perfect holder for a billet switch.
Those of you who have read Theories and Methods for the Practical Psychic, Part 3, will remember the
 Crossover Billet Switch, performed as the right hand removes a folded billet from a candlestick-like
holder. The same maneuver can be performed while removing a billet from the doll s pocket. (Or in
PRETENDING to remove it  it s just as simple to push the billet all the way down into his pocket while
apparently removing the one you had palmed in your right hand. It s a nice approach that leaves you
completely clean.)
I went to my cabinet for some 2 by 2 billets to practice with, and there I found two packs of
miniature playing cards that I had purchased many years ago. They were (and still are) made by Piatnik
of Austria. I liked them because of the lifelike images on the court cards. Here s a picture of a few of
them. See what I mean?
The cards are about an inch high, and,
as I quickly noticed, just about the same size as
a folded billet. Why not put one in the doll s
pocket and use it for a prediction?
I mulled over several possible
approaches, all of which involved switching
the card in the doll s pocket for one that
matched a full-sized card freely selected, or
thought of, by a spectator.
I realized, of course, that I could just as easily force a duplicate of the card in the doll s pocket. I
could even use the  Psychomatic force pack to make it extremely clean and fair in appearance. But
the  Psychomatic is part of my set program and I really didn t want to have it serve double duty as a
close-up item. And besides, for all of my preaching about the best method being the most direct one, I
still like to have fun once in a while by playing with novel approaches.
I remembered an effect that Don Tanner put out years ago involving ESP cards. Each card had a
little pocket on the back  sort of like the ones that have been used for years in the mechanical version
of the classic  Six Card Repeat . Each pocket held a folded billet made of very thin paper, which
contained a prediction of the ESP card in whose pocket, it resided. The deck, then, was essentially a
billet index. The basic idea goes back to the 1930 s when magicians experimented with the idea of
sticking cigarette paper billets to the back of every card in a deck. The cigarette papers had to be used
because anything else would add altogether too much bulk to the pack. Fifty-two billets cut from the
index stock I usually use, could never be hidden on the backs of a deck.
But the Piatnik cards made me realize that there was no need to use a full deck. The twelve
picture cards each seemed to have a personality of its own, and I decided that if I simply spread a pack
of Bee playing cards face up on the table, and asked a spectator to simply touch any one of the picture
cards, I would only need to index eleven of the miniature cards in order
to switch the doll s card for one that matched the selection. (I only needed
eleven because the Queen of Hearts  a popular choice  would be in the
doll s pocket to begin with, setting up a minor miracle if she was the card
touched by the spectator.)
I also knew that if I positioned pockets on the backs of the twelve
court cards from a Bee deck so that they were off center and at an angle,
that it would be possible to spread the cards facedown without exposing
them.
Here s how I attached the pockets, which I made from pieces cut
from a duplicate deck. Note how neatly the Piatnik card fits. (This will
also give you a better idea of the actual size of these mini cards)
 Why the Bee cards? I hear you ask. (Or maybe that s just the Voices again  they are always
asking me things like that just to annoy me.)
It s because I cut some cards from the duplicate deck to make new backs for the Piatniks  Bee
backs that matched the pattern of the deck I would be using.
(That is also why the Piatnik card in the photo is face-up. If she were face- down she would be
almost invisible amid the crosshatching.)
It all seemed pretty simple and effective from there. The cards are handled freely  the entire
deck is spread face-up  and the spectator is asked to touch a court card. I would just pick up the card
she touched, and while showing it around to everyone the mini card would slip neatly into a finger
palm, ready to be switched for the card protruding from the doll s pocket.
In case you haven t seen the doll I m talking about, here is a photo of one with a standard billet
 the same size as the mini card - protruding from his pocket.
Overall, I thought it was a pretty cute idea. But that was about it  pretty cute.
I imagined what the Shattenjaeger might have said about the idea.
 Why are you limiting yourself to cards or billets? How else can you use the idea of the little
pockets?
The answer was found in another effect I had been playing around with. In Bruce Elliot s classic
Magic as a Hobby, he described an off-the-wall bar stunt in which the performer secretly wrote the
name of a spectator s card (or the number or word you forced on him) on the foam that rises to the
top of a beer glass when the beer is properly poured. (A rapidly fading art, I am sad to report  even
many bartenders nowadays don t know that you have to hold the glass at a forty-five degree angle and
let the beer pour down the side in order to raise about an inch of foam. And if you can t get good
head from a & but I m digressing, back to the effect& )
You can really write on beer foam, it turns out, if you use a fountain pen. The foam seems to
draw out the ink. And it s pretty strange to see writing on your beer foam! Almost as strange as people
who claim to see visions while looking into a glass or bowl of liquid  a feat that is sometimes
accomplished in the séance room, where the combination of atmosphere and the glimmering reflection
of candle flames on the liquid s surface can play very convincing games with the imagination. (In fact,
my good friend Carl Herron, a/k/a Brother Shadow, described a very effective use of this technique in
his now hard-to-obtain  Have Séance, Will Travel It s well worth reading if you can find a copy.)
I wasn t particularly interested, though, in writing on my beer foam  the ink interferes with my
digestion. What I was looking for was a practical way to make words or pictures appear to be floating
on or just below the surface of liquid in a goblet or glass. My idea was to have one spectator think of a
famous person who had passed away and then to have another participant gaze into the goblet and
describe anything she might see. Of course, this would best be performed in a slightly darkened room
with a candle on each side of the goblet. (See  The Luck of Edenhall in Annemann s Jinx for his
approach to the problem. You won t find it in the truncated version of the original piece that was
published in Practical Mental Effects, but now that the complete Jinx is available on cd-rom for about
twenty dollars, you should have no trouble finding the effect.)
The solution to floating an image in the glass is quite simple. All you need is some celluloid
(clear plastic report covers from the office supply store will work perfectly), a scissor and/or a razor
knife, super glue, a few empty plastic cd-rom cases and some clear plastic laminating material  also
available from the office supply store. You will also need a silver dollar (old style large ones) size coin.
You are going to make a little  table that sits inside of the goblet. Cut a disk from the celluloid
whose diameter is about the same as the diameter of the inside bottom of the goblet. If you are going
to glue the  table into the goblet, the diameter isn t critical. Otherwise, cut is just a little
too big so that it will wedge into the bottom of the goblet  you don t want it floating up
to the surface at an inopportune moment!
Cut another disk that is equal to the diameter of the goblet at a point approximately
one inch below the level that the liquid will reach. Make a tube out of another piece of
celluloid (or you can use a clear plastic vial cut to the appropriate height). The uppermost
disk is your  table top and the other is the base. They are glued to both ends of the plastic tube. (It
ends up looking like a tiny magician s table!)
The cd-rom cases are your source of rigid plastic for the pictures that will appear in the liquid.
With the exacto knife cut out silver dollar size disks from the plastic. (That s what the silver dollar size
coin is for. It is your template.) You will need one disc for each image you wish to produce.
Now you need some images. If you wish to perform the  famous dead person routine, take a
trip to a movie memorabilia store or go shopping on the internet for postcard sized photos of famous,
easily recognizable stars and celebrities who are no longer among the living. In my presentation, I use
ten post cards. They include pictures of Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable, Judy Garland, Rod Serling, John
Wayne, Jimmy Stewart and four other equally recognizable figures.
If you have a scanner and printer, the rest is easy. If not, I am sure you know someone who
does who can help you out.
Scan each of the postcards. On your computer, crop them down to headshots and reduce them
to about one inch by one inch. Create a new, blank, 8 ½ by 11 bitmap image, and cut and paste all of
the little celebrity images onto the new bitmap. You will now print this new image onto an Avery decal
sheet or onto a plastic transparency. These materials are readily available for both laser and inkjet
printers.
Cut out the individual images and laminate them to the plastic disks.
If you fill the goblet and drop one of the disks into it  at an angle so that it doesn t float  it
will settle onto the  table top about an inch below the surface. Put a candle on each side of the goblet
and dim the lights. Look into the glass and you will see an eerie image of a famous dead person
floating beneath the surface.
You will use the postcards to allow the first spectator to select a dead celebrity. If you want to
force one of the postcards  go ahead. If you choose this route, you can have the corresponding image
disk in the glass before your performance. No doubt, this is the easiest, and some would reasonably
argue, the best way to go in most circumstances.
But the force is not necessary if you don t mind just a little extra work. Using pieces of playing
cards or extra postcards, make pockets on the back of each postcard similar to the ones I described for
the Piatnik cards. Since the spectator never handles the cards and there is no reason whatsoever to
show their backs, this does not require precision work. Do not put the pockets in the same position on
each card. They will be used to hold the image disks that match them. If you put them all in the same
place, the cards will not stack properly. This is also why I don t use more than ten cards  the stack
becomes much too bulky. (If you want to take the extra trouble, you can mount the postcards on extra
heavy cardboard  book cover stock is perfect. You can then cut  U shaped notches into the
cardboard so that the discs are actually recessed into the cards. This allows for easier stacking but you
still don t want to use too many as the stack will look abnormally thick.)
Never mention the exact number of pictures in the stack. Most people will assume that
there are at least twenty or twenty-five based on the thickness of the pile. Let them think so.
Prior to performing, place a pitcher of liquid and two candles on your table. The goblet is
in a large cloth pouch, which is also on the table. The rest should be fairly obvious. Ask the first
spectator to indicate one of the pictures as you pass the cards face up in front of her. Remove her
selection from the stack and fingerpalm the disk from the pocket on its back. Tell the participant to
concentrate on her selected celebrity.
Put the cards away and go to the table. Open up the pouch and reach in to remove the
goblet. This is how you get the disk onto the plastic stand inside the goblet. Fill the goblet from the
pitcher, dim the lights and ignite the candles. Finally, select an imaginative looking spectator to gaze
into the liquid and to describe any visions she may see.
The Jam Readings -  Ragtime Mentalism
 It must be jelly cause jam don t shake like that
In The Principia Mentalia, I coined the term  Jazz Mentalism as a way of defining my approach
to the classic Question Answering act. Over the years, I have released several different methods for
accomplishing the classic feat, which I consider the Major Effect in mentalism. ( Major because it
involves, or potentially involves, everyone in the audience, as opposed to most effects which
incorporate the assistance of only one or a few audience members.)
While my current approach is the one I described in Scorpio s Message, I still like to incorporate
aspects of the jazz approach.
[For those not familiar with the term,  Jazz Mentalism describes an improvisational
approach to the art. While still adhering to a basic structure and premise, alternate endings,
variations in technique, and extra pieces of equipment are all available so that the performer
can take advantage of any unforeseen developments and opportunities that arise during the
course of the performance.
Jazz Mentalism is not, as some have suggested, improvisational in the sense that the
performer just  makes up the act as he goes along. It is more like  If the audience does this,
then I ll do that,  or,  If I hit on something here I will then go in this direction, if I miss I ll go
in that direction. ]
One of those aspects is utilizing props that are uniquely appropriate to a given performance
venue. The  Jam Readings gimmick is just such a prop. It is a completely impromptu- looking billet-
switching device and is best used in informal settings. It wouldn t look right at a corporate banquet, for
example, but it is perfect for restaurant work or at the annual corporate picnic.
It s the jelly jar that the Schattenjaeger was looking at in the grocery store. It s low tech but
extremely efficient. It s based on a principle that is as old as the hills, yet it s always dependable and
effective.
By itself, it isn t really jazz. But its excellent ragtime.
Here is the jelly jar.
The jar is about four inches high and my hand wraps half way around it as I walk amongst the
audience, allowing them to insert billets through the slot cut into the lid. Note that the slot is slightly
off-center and the sides of the jar are fluted.
It s the most deceptive mirror glass I have ever seen.
Unlike its progenitors, still available, I m sure; from EZ Magic the jelly jar has the advantage of a
lid, which largely eliminates angle problems. It also utilizes a curved mirror  easily made from chrome
tape available at automobile shop. The curve eliminates unwanted
reflections and adds to the transparent appearance of the device.
As I already noted, when you are holding the jar, the hidden
compartment is completely hidden by your hand.
Here is a view into the jar with the lid removed:
Dummy billets are stored in the rear portion of the jar. (The uppermost  compartment in the
photo to the left) This is because the principle is most effective when the audience views the concave
side of the mirror. (If you look again at the previous picture, you will see just how deceptive it is.)
But the audience shouldn t
have any reason to pay any
particular attention to the
appearance of the jar anyway. And
after a bunch of billets are dropped
in, your handling of the jar can
become very casual, as there will be
nothing to see from either side
except a jar full of billets.
(Note that the slot should be
over the front section of the jar, not
the rear as shown in the first photo.)
The mirror is easily fashioned
from chrome tape stuck to each side
of a playing card.
The billets are easily switched simply by passing the jar to your other hand, bringing the
dummies into view and concealing the collected billets. Remove the lid and dump the dummies into a
bowl on your table, where you can burn them or do whatever you d like with them. It is easy to use
the tips of your fingers to prevent the stolen billets from falling out of the jar with the dummies.
This is something you can make up in five minutes and when you do, I think you will be as
enthusiastic about its uses and potentials as I am.
You might note that by casually turning the lid you can control which side of the jar receives the
spectator s billets. This offers some interesting possibilities for psychometry and living and dead type
tests. Also, if the jar is empty to begin with, there is no reason why you cannot use the chrome mirrors
to make THREE compartments in the jar.
As the Schattenjaeger would ask,  What are the three compartments used for?
Think about it.