Main app instructions
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Full Range Mode is the ultimate performance setting, allowing you to alternate between Peeking and Forcing within a single routine without ever opening a menu.

Emoji Shortcut: While using the Emojis theme, draw a capital M on the grid to switch directly into Mnemojic mode (if available on your account).

WAVELENGTH Shortcut: Draw a capital Z on the grid to toggle between Full Range and WAVELENGTH mode.

TILT Shortcut: If you own the TILT add-on, draw a capital T on the grid to toggle between Full Range and TILT mode (not while force is armed or primed).

Navigating the Workflow

The app defaults to Peek Mode (indicated by no duplicates in the top two rows). You can perform multiple "free" selections using the Radial corner-roundness tell or the Lockscreen Pinterest Peek.

Arming the Force

There are two ways to transition into Force Mode on the fly:

• The Shuffle Trigger: Press the Shuffle button four times at a regular pace. The app will "arm," and a duplicate will appear in the top two rows (the Force Zone).
• Targeted Force: If you see an item on the screen you want to force immediately, quad-tap that specific item. The app will instantly shuffle that item into the Force Zone.

Resetting and Checking Status

Bail Out: If you arm the force by mistake, tap the Shuffle button four times very quickly. This "fast-click" reset drops the app back into Peek Mode.

The Lockscreen Check: At any point, draw a circle to access the Lockscreen. This allows you to check the Pinterest Peek (to see the last item touched) or check the Quinta start point indicator at the bottom of the screen to prepare for your reveal. Dismiss the Lockscreen with an upward swipe (simple taps do not dismiss it). Once a force is executed and the screen is shuffled, the app automatically reverts to its default Peek state.

Main app instructions
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In Peek Only Mode, the app is locked into its information-gathering state. It will never force an item, making it the perfect tool for "pure" mind-reading routines where the spectator has a truly free choice.

Activating Peek Only

Navigate to Settings > Select Mode and choose Peek Only. Once saved, the app will stay in this mode regardless of how many times the screen is shuffled.

Peek Systems

You can choose how the peeked information is revealed to you by going to Settings > Functions > Peek System. The options include:

• RADIAL (New): A subtle, organic tell where the roundness of the tile corners changes for the selected item. This is virtually impossible for a spectator to spot but obvious to the performer.
• One-Shot (Default): The selected item appears twice within the bottom two rows.
• Flip-Flop: The selected item alternates between the bottom-left and bottom-right corners with every shuffle.
• Foolproof: The selected item is always moved to the bottom-left corner and stays there through every shuffle.
• Peek History Only: No on-grid peek cue is shown; selections are visible only in Peek History.
• Peek Duration (Settings → Functions): limits how many shuffles the peek stays in the on-grid peek zone; Unlimited is the default.

The Lockscreen Peek

For an even more hands-off reveal, you can draw a circle on the screen to pull up the Lockscreen. On this screen, the first word of the Pinterest notification identifies the item the spectator touched. You can peek this info while seemingly checking the time or moving your phone, then dismiss with a swipe up.

Main app instructions
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In Force Only Mode, the app is dedicated to forcing a specific item. Every tile touched by a spectator will "switch" to the predetermined force item.

Identifying and Setting the Force

Visual Tell: Check the top two rows. The duplicated item in this zone is your active force.

Customization: In Advanced Logic, you can set the Initial Force Item. You can enter a single emoji/word or a "Cyclic Stack" (items separated by commas) to cycle through multiple forces in a specific order.

Execution & Performance

Because the tile changes to the force item upon being touched, the spectator must not be staring directly at the phone during the selection.

Peripheral Selection: Have the spectator look you in the eyes and touch a tile "subconsciously" while the phone is held slightly below their line of sight.

Stealth Force: Enable this in Advanced Logic to make the duplicate "tells" at the top of the screen vanish the moment the force is triggered, leaving a clean grid for the reveal.

Quinta instructions
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Quinta mode uses a clever mathematical process to allow you to force any item in the real world - all you need is a line of five objects. They could be anything - playing cards, drinks, people, books, business cards, lemons, toys… or a combination! The most important thing is that the item you want to force must be second from one end - I like to keep it to the left for convenience sake, and the Quinta process throughout Switchblade will make that assumption.

A B C D E

Once you are in this position, you can have your punter handle the phone and touch any number on the Quinta mode window. They touch one to select it, commit it to memory, then shuffle, all without you seeing.

You are going to have the punter pick a number this way, and you are going to count backwards and forwards along this line of objects, from one end to the other, and back again, counting out loud, and they say STOP when you reach their number… and lo and behold you will stop on your force item!

How?

The secret lies in the fact that there are four different ways to count. You can begin at the force end, and count like this:

1 (A), 2 (B), 3 (C), 4 (D), 5 (E), 6 (D), 7 (C), 8 (B), 9 (A), 10 (B) etc…

This is starting at the force end, OFF the set.

Or you can put your finger on A, at the force end and count the moves you make instead of counting the objects themselves:

1 (B), 2 (C), 3 (D), 4 (E), 5 (D), 6 (C), 7 (B), 8 (A), 9 (B) etc…

This is starting at the force end ON the set.

OR: you can start at the non-force end, with your finger on E and count moves:

1 (D), 2 (C), 3 (B), 4 (A), 5 (B), 6 (C), 7 (D), 8 (E), 9 (D), 10 (C) etc…

This is starting at the non-force end ON the set.

Or you can start at the non-force end and count the items like this:

1 (E), 2 (D), 3 (C), 4 (B), 5 (A), 6 (B), 7 (C), 8 (D), 9 (E), 10 (D) etc…

This is starting at the non-force end OFF the set.

Quinta is a mathematical way of knowing where to start, that took me FOREVER to refine and learn, and now with Switchblade you don’t have to know ANYTHING to know where to start.

The app has a secret way to signal you which of these four start positions you use. When the punter has picked a number and clicked shuffle, and every time shuffle is pressed thereafter, the number 11 will appear only ONCE in the grid, and the column that it is in will signal to you which position you need to start in.

If 11 is in the far left column, you start the count at the force end, off the set. So your first count ONE is on the far left object.

A, B, C, D, E, D, C etc.

If 11 is in the second from left column, you start the count at the force end ON the set. So you put your finger on the far left item (A) and your first count is the move from A to B.

B, C, D, E, D, C, B, A, B etc

If 11 is in the second from right column, you start the count at the non-force end ON the set. You begin with your finger on the far right item E, and your first count is the move from E to D.

D, C, B, A, B, C, D, E, D, C etc.

If 11 is in the far right column, you start the count at the non-force end OFF the set, so your first count is E.

E, D, C, B, A, B, C, D, E, D etc.

That’s it! The way the system works is that if you follow this simple rule when they say STOP! You will be pointing at the force item, second from left, whatever it may be.

PEEK HISTORY:

If you use the peek history you will notice that across the app there is a little row of four dots that represents the Q state for the peeked item. If the far left circle is filled, the Q start point is force-end OFF, if the second, start force-end ON, if the third start non-force-end ON, if the fourth, start non-force-end OFF.

This works for the numbers in Quinta mode, but also for any word - what I have programed Switchblade to do is for any word to calculate the length of the word and use that to generate the Q starting position. It never includes spaces by the way! For playing cards it has been set to calculate these using the spelling of the name of the cards so JS is J A C K O F S P A D E S.

BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE:

Quinta is, as the name suggests, a way to force an item from a range of 5 items, but if you have 4 items for example, or 3, or even 2… I got you boo. Go to the FUNCTIONS window in the settings and you can control the size of the set you are using - this way if you have a routine that uses just four items, you can still Quinta it! The rules work exactly the same way, and the four indication positions still indicate the same start and counting strategies, AND it applies to the indication marks in the peek history and everywhere else.

Multishuffle instructions
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Multi shuffle is a funny little force mechanic that Scott Paton suggested to me that I thought was worth including - essentially you have the punter pick a number, then press shuffle that many times, and remember the item in the top left corner after that many shuffles… and you know what it is. In fact you can predict it, because it’s actually a force.

How?

Well, first you need to cue the app to force a particular item, you can do this the usual way by setting the default force item, or you can quad click any item to set it as the force item.

Then you press shuffle to tell the app that you are going to tell it the number - you need to know the punter’s number for this, I have them roll a dice and I just look at it! The method doesn’t hinge on this number being secret so don’t worry about it, they can just tell you. Let’s say their number is 4: you touch the fourth tile from the top on the far right column. It won’t select, nothing should visually happen. You shuffle the screen again, and the app is now primed to execute the force - you hand it to the punter, they press SHUFFLE that number of times and the force item will be the top left corner item after that many shuffles.

Simples!

Pateo manual instructions
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PATEO is a very old force in mentalism, invented by Roy Baker. PATEO stands for Pick Any Two Eliminate One, and it is a way of forcing an item from a set of items by alternating a particular choice mechanic with the punter. They pick any two items from the set, and then you remove one of that pair. Then you pick two, and they remove one. And so on, until you have eliminated them all.

PATEO Manual is simply a visual framework to allow you to do this force - the first move MUST be made by the punter - When the punter touches two, if one of them is the force item, just eliminate the other one… and when you pick two, you simply don’t give them the option of removing the force item, just pick any two that aren’t the force item. That’s it!

Just in case you fancy ever doing PATEO out in the real world without Switchblade, the simple rule is, if it’s an odd number of items, YOU have to start. I always remember that because 1 is like I, and 1 is odd, so when it’s odd I have to start?

BTW: your chosen force item (which you can pick in the THEME SELECT window in the settings) will ALWAYS be on screen no matter how many times you shuffle before the process starts.

Pateo auto instructions
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This is a replica of the Manual system, but where the app itself handles the PATEO process. The punter picks 2 items, and the app decides which one to flip face down, then the app picks two items and the punter has to decide which to flip face down, etc etc.

As with the Manual system, your chosen force item (which you can pick in the THEME SELECT window in the settings) will ALWAYS be on screen no matter how many times you shuffle before the process starts.

WAVELENGTH Video instructions
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WAVELENGTH is a two-touch cross-screen replacement mode designed for live two-person handling.

Core Flow: The first touch only selects a tile. The second touch must be on the opposite half of the screen; that second tile's value replaces the first selected tile while the first tile remains selected.

Center Band: The central horizontal row/band is inactive. Touches there do nothing.

Live-Hold Handling: This works even if users keep fingers on tiles. If you hold the first tile, the moment the opposite-side tile is touched, your held tile updates to match it and stays selected.

Mode Toggle: Draw a capital Z to switch between Full Range and WAVELENGTH.

Ultramem instructions
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Ultramem is a very specific mode that allows you to create a very specific effect that dovetails nicely with any memory routine:

Effect:

“I’ve been practicing flash memorisation as a technique, let me show you what I mean: I’ve got this app and all it does is generate random numbers / emojis / whatever, and when you press shuffle it just randomises the whole screen. Here, don’t let me see but press shuffle a few times, then you are going to show me the screen for 1 second precisely.”

They do this, mixing the grid then they flip the phone round for a very brief moment.

“Got it!!! OK, now try this, I want you to touch one icon, and remember what it is, then touch another, and they will swap places. Done? You remember which two right? OK let me see…”

They show you the phone and you are able to immediately tell them which two items have been transposed.

Method:

So, ultramem uses an interesting alternative peek method for showing which items have been selected - the radius of the corners of the tiles on the selected tiles increases so there will be two tiles that have more rounded corners than the others… that’s it! You may need to increase the brightness of your screen to see this as clearly as possible, but once you have your eye in it is VERY easy to spot. I developed this method for this trick and then built it as its own peek system, Radial.

Psychic enables the legacy “psychic” performance surface (where present in this build).

• Peeks may use alternate cues-confirm which edge gestures reveal info on your device.
• Some themes hide or remap cells; test with your actual performance theme.
• If options look missing, your build may have trimmed psychic-use Full Range instead.

Switchblade Booktest Mode instructions
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Effect:

You hand a book to a spectator and show them an app on your phone “For this experiment you are going to make two choices - one a conscious choice, and one a subconscious choice. First the conscious choice - here is a grid of random words, in fact if you don’t like them you can press shuffle and it will generate another screen with different words. I want you to do that a few times and then just pick a word, and touch it, and commit it to memory. OK, done? Can you remember that word? Excellent.”

“Now, the subconscious choice. Swipe to the side and you can see now we have a grid of random numbers. Feel free to hit shuffle a few times. This time, I want you to hold the phone close so you can’t see the screen and just touch any number.. Wait, not yet - touch any number and leave your finger there so you are happy nothing has changed - OK, now look at the number. Hand the book to Mark, and now tell us what the number you randomly chose was? 74? Mark, turn to page 74, but don’t read anything out yet. Now that’s a random number, but even if it wasn’t even if you were always going to pick 74 or I somehow psychologically directed you to pick it, even before you did, you intentionally consciously chose a word, knowing nothing about what was going to happen. You chose one word, now, for the first time, what was the word you chose?”

“Legacy.”

“OK Mark, I want you to open the book at page 74 and read out the very first word on that page.”

“It’s… Legacy.”

And the crowd goes wild.

Method:

Almost insanely this is a self working trick… that hinges on doing quite a bit of preparation.

The structure of this trick you may recognise as being the same as the memdeck piece, with numbers being page numbers and instead of cards being in a stack, you have the words from a book. And in the back end, the numbers and the words are connected in the exact same way as the stack number and playing cards in the memdeck mode.

So in the routine above, when they pick a word, then swipe to the numbers and press shuffle, it primes the app to force the page number that has that word on it. And vice versa, if you would rather start with the number and then have them pick the word.

But how? For ANY book? Well, that’s the bit that needs setup - you have to manually put in the book. On the MODE SELECT screen on the icon for the booktest there is an EDIT button, click that and you will see the interface that allows you to enter a bunch of different books, up to 6 in fact, and input page numbers and the first word on that page. What is fun here is that you actually don’t need to put every page in, in fact you probably shouldn’t. The app only uses the numbers and words you put in, so if you only put in twenty pages from a 10000 page book, it will just show those page numbers. This means you can enter a book quite quickly, and it also means you can avoid any page with the or and or of as the first word, or chapter headings or illustrations. I like to sit and put in maybe fifty or sixty pages spread through the book, and that is enough to perform with, but if you want you can of course put the entire book in (minus the boring words).

There is another more direct way to perform a more classic booktest, using the app as a crib - have the punters just consciously pick a page number, you can even have a few people do this, using the Switchblade grid in Booktest mode. Now, when you swipe down into the peek history, for each page number that has been touched, you can see the corresponding word. I like to then have them handle the book, turn to the page number they picked, look at the first word, remember it, and get the book entirely out of the way so I can do a very direct mind-reading piece.

You can also FORCE a page or series of pages this way which is a very effective way to force a word.

IMPORTANT:

Inputting books can be very time consuming so once you have put one into the system PLEASE use the backup function to avoid having to do it again.

Alternatively, if you want to, you can load in a .txt document with a book in it, the format you want to use is

14 banana
17 allegory
18 hazing

So each line has a number and a word, and it will work out the book from that.

This is a complicated mode and it can do a lot, I hope you have fun with it.

OH, one more thing: the Quinta start point in the peek history shows the beginning point not for the number but for the spelling of the word. It can be nice to have five books, have them pick the number and word as above, you use the peek history to know the quinta start point, force the book that is in the app, then do the reveal with this extra layer of weirdness.

JNGL instructions
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Effect:

“I play these word games when I’ve got some downtime, you guys play these? Look, this one is really simple, you just press shuffle a few times, then when you can see a word, you just press the first letter, then the next, then the next, and the letters have to be either next to each other or diagonal right? Try it, if one doesn’t jump out, press shuffle. But don’t let me see.” They do this, until they have a word. “OK, press the tick to score it, or the X will delete it, up to you. Then press shuffle so actually the only place that the word exists is in your mind. Done?” You hold out your hand for the phone. “So it’s not selected or on screen or anything now? Look.” You shuffle the grid again, at no point is the screen out of sight of the punter. You lock the screen and put the phone face down on the table.

“OK I’m going to read your mind, concentrate on your word…”

And as if by magic, you are able to tell them piece by piece what word they were simply thinking of.

Method:

JNGL is designed to look like a cheesy mobile word game, but when they build a string of letters, whatever the word is (and the app doesn’t check if it’s a real word so it works in any language) and whether they press tick or cross at the end, it secretly saves their word (it will appear in the peek history too).

Now, I tell them to shuffle the screen before handing the phone back to me, and to check that the word isn’t still on there.

And then when I take the phone back I shuffle it again. This second shuffle puts the word into a special ‘invisible’ peek space where it is hidden amongst the other letters in a very specific way:

OHOO
OOEO
OROO
OOEO
OOOO
OOOO

The word zigzags down from the second tile on the top row, and you will find it is impossible to casually spot but immediately visible to the cognoscenti (ie us!).

It can be fun to have a few people pick words, and then do this very fair mind read for the last, and then use the peek history to read the minds of the others.

NOTE:

JNGL is useable as a theme in Full Range, Force Only, Peek Only and other modes, but in any mode other than JNGL mode, it will not do multiple letters, you can only use it like any other theme. You CAN however, in Full Range and Force Only force a *sequence* of letters, which means you can use it with a group of people to force a word. One fun way to do this is to force a word in a different way in your routine, and over the course of the performance have people pick a letter each, and have them in a mixed up order so you can have them written on a board, and then reveal that it was the forced word the whole time.

This is a user editable photo gallery that allows you to construct your own bespoke piece. It is designed to look like a standard phone photos app, with of course the addition of the shuffle button.

Click the EDIT button on the icon for the User Photos theme and you can access the interface to allow you to upload your images. It is recommended that you tag each with a description so that the zoom function shows the word in the grid and also so that you can access the peek history to the images more easily - the peek history will also use these titles to create the quinta start point dots.

Example Effect:

You shuffle a deck of cards (a real deck of cards) and have the spectators select one and remember it, then lose it in the deck. You then show them a cool feature on your phone - the collage maker on the camera. You take a photo of the room and by pressing the shuffle button make the grid rearrange at random. You have the spectator touch a tile at random, without looking - they touch the tile with the microwave on it. (let’s imagine you are in the kitchen). “OK, the microwave. Now, let’s do something weird.” You click your fingers and fan through the deck. “Tell me when you see your card.” The card is clearly gone as you go through the entire deck. You hand it to them to check. “So it’s gone… but where?” You direct them to the location they chose only moments ago, pointing out that you haven’t been anywhere NEAR the microwave the whole time. Inside the microwave is their chosen card.

Method:

This is just one fun little piece I’ve been working on using the camera theme. It allows you to very simply integrate the environment and objects you find around you into your routines.

In the piece above, you just force the card you put in the microwave before you started the whole thing. (Or wherever, environmentally) Then, you take the photo in the camera theme such that the force location is very clearly on a particular tile (you want it to be centred and clear).

Now you can quad click the tile with the force location on it and you can force it the exact same way as any other.

Peek and force work the exact same with the camera theme as with any other. When you want to make a new image just click NEW PHOTO and it will go back into the live camera display.

Other ideas involved putting a bunch of items on a table and taking a photo, photographing people to force a person, photographing a person to force an item of clothing or a pocket, drawing a grid on a piece of paper and photographing that to create a nice impromptu feeling grid. I have played with having a grid of the correct proportions drawn and handing it around for people to draw images in the boxes, or writing little messages etc. It can be a real fun little party piece to play with and involves a lot of people.

Honestly Camera theme could be it’s own app it has so much potential for customising and building your own fun performances, I can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Switchblade Memdeck Mode Instructions
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The Switchblade Memdeck Mode is an incredibly powerful, hands-off utility designed for magicians working with a memdeck. There are numerous memdecks available. With this mode, you can execute a devastating "Any Card at Any Number" (ACAAN) style effect where the participant makes seemingly free choices on the app, and you don't need to know any of the information until the ultimate reveal.

The Effect Overview

You display a physical deck of cards, giving it a series of false shuffles and cuts to prove the order is completely randomized. You then bring out your phone running Switchblade and hand it to the spectator. The spectator is asked to look at a grid of random numbers and make a completely free, conscious choice of any number they see. You then swipe to a screen filled with playing cards. To ensure absolute randomness, you ask the spectator to hold the phone above their eyeline and blindly tap anywhere on the phone to select a card.

They do this, and when they bring the phone down to eye level they have picked the 7H. You tell them to take the deck and count down to their chosen number - as if by magic, at that number is the 7H.

Method

1. The Preliminary Display: Execute false shuffles/cuts.

2. The Number Selection: Hand phone to participant on Numbers module. They tap a number.

3. Activating the Card Force: Take phone, swipe to Cards, press shuffle.

4. The Blind Card Selection: Participant taps blindly above eyeline.

5. The Reveal: Count down in the physical deck to their number.

It’s important to note that the force phase will only work when you have shuffled on the grid that you are going to shuffle on.

This ^^^ sequence works equally well whether you start with the card or with the number, simply choose one intentionally then swipe to the other grid it will then force the corresponding tile.

Advanced mode:

If you want to absolutely boss this piece then you can have the spectator CUT the deck before you start. All you need to do is sight either the top card (using a marked deck) or the face card. You can now tell Switchblade this card.

If you have seen the bottom card draw a V on the grid (it is invisible). This will switch the app into cue mode.

Now tap any card that has the VALUE of the face card 1x.

Then tap any card that has the SUIT of the face card 1x.

The app now has that card cued as the top card and will make all calculations based on that.

If you instead draw a ^ (it’s called a carat apparently) then you can code the top card, which I prefer because I’ve got a million marked decks.

Once you have cued this, then you can proceed the exact same way as before.

USER MEMDECK

If you have the User Memdeck mode available you can edit your own stack by clicking the EDIT button on the tile. You don’t have to type in the suits with the actual icons, I’m not even sure how you would do that, you can just type 7H, 4D, 6C etc.

BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE…

Draw a capital M on the grid while in Memdeck mode to toggle FULL STACK mode on/off. In this view the layout isn’t random: it shows the stack in order, starting at a random point.

Each press of Shuffle while Full Stack mode is active starts the stack at a different point.

If you quad tap the Shuffle button (four taps quick) it now resets Memdeck state completely (including force/cue state) and exits Full Stack mode.

This is great for a kind of ‘rapid memory’ piece where the spectator flashes the screen at you and you ‘rapidly memorise’ the cards (actually just spot the first card) and are then able to reel off the entire sequence.

Obviously this looks terrible in certain stacks, 8Kings and Stebbins being the worst culprits, so don’t use them for this mode.

Noctarium instructions
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This mode was developed following a conversation with the legendary Jamie Daws, king of spooky magic. I wanted to develop a mode that would visually make some kind of sense in his hands, hence the visual style of the Daws mode.

Noctarium mode actually does a really interesting trick - the theme works with the usual force and peek but if you put the app into Noctarium mode here is the piece:

Effect:

You have the spectator take the phone and press the brass button to mix the grid a few times as you explain that this app is a replica of drawings made on the death of a notable occultist, each drawing is an item found sprawled across his cluttered desk on his death. You ask them to imagine touching one of these items, and, in fact, to touch it on the screen. When they have done this they can press the brass button to shuffle the images. You ask if their chosen object is still visible on the screen. You invite them to pick four items from the screen that are *not* their chosen item, and amongst those four to mix their chosen item. They are to list the items out loud, and one of the items must be their chosen item, at any position, and they must give nothing away.

They do this, and you are immediately able to tell them which it was.

“Perhaps,” you say “Touching the screen told me something somehow, so this time I want you to simply remember a new item from the screen - a new item that is different from the one you chose first, something completely different. But you must now remember it in detail.”

You tell them to shuffle the images again, and to again pick four items from the screen, and amongst them to hide their newly chosen item. Then, again, to list them out loud.

Once again you are able to, impossibly, identify their chosen item.

Method:

This is a very nice method that has been used a lot recently that Jamie suggested when we spoke. The method is an invention of Stephen E Young, from his beautifully clever Visionary effect and is used here with his very kind permission. Visionary has a far more evolved implementation of this and is in its third version - the trick is available from MindFX here:

https://www.mindfx.co.uk/products/visionary-3-0-by-stephen-e-young

Here's how it works:

The items are separated conceptually into two different groups - things that are or were alive, and things that never were. So the skull, the butterfly, the snake, the eyeball, these things were all once alive. The haunted doll, the crystal ball, the tarot cards and the candle… these never were. This is why the theme is called Dead or Alive.

The first screen the punter sees on accessing the app is a mixture of these two groups, and it stays that way with each shuffle until they touch one.

As soon as they touch an item the system changes - the next shuffle fills the screen with this one item and all the other tiles are filled with items from the opposite group. So if the item they touched in the first group was the crystal ball then the next shuffle will produce a screen with the crystal ball on it, and every other item will be from the once-living group.

So when they list their items, you need only to listen out for the item that is not in the same group as all the rest!

And now, once you have revealed this, you know that everything on this screen is from that group. The next shuffle will fill the grid with items from the opposite group, and every shuffle from that point on will alternate between the two groups, so if they remember an item from one grid, then shuffle, the items on screen now will all be from the opposite group to their chosen item!

This is what I think is so clever about this method: it is invisible to punters even as they communicate it to you - and yet to your ear it couldn't be more obvious.

Phonocypher instructions
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Phonocypher Mode is a build out of an idea developed by Demian Max - originally in Portuguese the current version is designed to function in English.

Effect

You explain you are going to conduct an experiment in subliminal persuasion, to show how hidden connections can influence a person without them realising. And you can prove it.

You have them pick a card from a shuffled deck and commit it to memory. Let's say it is the six of hearts.

They then randomly pick a shape from the grid of shapes on the screen, the star. Then a word from the next screen - “viscous”. Then the final phase of the experiment: the last screen allows them to record their voice. You tell them to record their choices, star, viscous, star, viscous… You play it back and they clearly hear their voice. Then you press the reverse button and it plays the recording back in reverse… and now they hear, hidden in the reversed audio, the name of their card… the six of hearts.

Method

Hey before we hit the method - that's clever right? Demian’s idea of reversing the audio of the name of a playing card and then working out what you can force to make them say that is just wizard smart. I had to include it.

The method is that you force the six of hearts, with like a cross cut force or whatever, then the app forces the star and the word VISCOUS.

Please note, this word is not vicious, like Sid Vicious, it's viscous like honey. Vis cuss. Punters may get this wrong so you will have to gently correct them. It doesn't work with any other word!

Metromancy instructions
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Metromancy mode and the Urban Shaman theme it uses are developed with John Watson (not that John Watson ya goober), Team Too Far alumni, Lead Balloon singer, aka Stigmartyr etc. JW is a very good friend and a very smart thinker in magic.

John is the urban shaman in question and the photos in the theme are intended to be something like a tarot deck made of contemporary urban iconography - there is a chaos magick concept that anything can be used as an oracle and this is an interpretation of that concept.

The theme is designed to look like a photo app and allows users to click and see the images larger and read the image name and a brief poetic summary. In my mind the one word title is like the name of a tarot card, it kind of encapsulates the essence of the image and gives them something to focus on.

I like to do a two part mind read by having one person focus on just the image and then the next person pick a different image and concentrate on the word. There is a different kind of texture to the performance that you can create divining a word from someone kind Vs an image.

Urban shaman is the theme that has the most information in the peek history as you can see, mainly because I wanted it to be the most “framework”ish - I wanted something where you had stacks of information that you can use for a trick, mind read, prediction, reading etc, and be able to keep it feeling mystical.

Sentinel mode is something I developed with my friend Mike Areola, a great magician who also used to be a military man and performs with a kind of ‘military intelligence’ kind of framework for some of his stage performances.

When you are in ‘Sentinel mode’ there are two grids available, one is a series of ‘targets’ that an agent might want to know about, and the other is a range of different terrains. I like the idea of using this either as a demonstration of remote viewing (google PROJECT STARGATE) for more information, or as a demo of interrogation or investigative skills.

Mnemojic instructions
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Mnemonic is inspired by a great concept from Ross Bartels - he used a screenshot of the emoji grid and memorised the sequence and in performance he secretly switched apps to the screenshot. I asked Ross for permission to build this into a guest mode which integrates it directly into Switchblade and allows a more direct and convincing performance - I think it’s a great piece, one of my favourites.

Effect:

You explain that a bit part of your performance relies on a concept called mnemonics - the ability to memorise information extremely quickly by building stories and attaching other ideas to the information so your brain can more easily catch it. You show them the emoji screen and shuffle it a few times to explain how it is being randomised, then you hand them the phone, ask them to press shuffle a few times and then show you the screen for exactly 5 seconds. They do this.

You then explain that in that time you very quickly looked at the emojis and then memorised them by building a story.

You tell them the story, a surreal sequence of weird concepts that hits every emoji in perfect sequence.

Method:

There are two parts to this piece: firstly you actually do memorise a specific sequence of emojis - this is easier than it sounds because mnemonics are very real and very powerful and the story is funny and easy to mentally capture.

The other part is that in Mnemojic mode it only shows the emoji grid in this specific sequence and it never actually randomises them. Pressing shuffle literally just changes the start point of the sequence.

So when the punter shows you the phone, all you need to do is sight the first emoji in the grid, and then you simply tell the cyclic story from that point forward. Here is the story: please just read through it step by step and each step you must VISUALISE the connection between the elements - this is VITAL to mentally locking it into place.

⏰ Alarm: It rings with a violent shake, but instead of a bell, a giant Tongue flops out.

👅 Tongue: The tongue reaches out to lick a Cactus (ouch!).

🌵 Cactus: You pluck a single needle off the cactus to use as a spit-valve cleaner for a Trumpet.

🎺 Trumpet: A loud honk from the trumpet shoots a Banana out like a projectile.

🍌 Banana: You peel the banana, but there’s no fruit-just a tiny, shivering Penguin inside.

🐧 Penguin: The penguin is fancy, so it immediately zips itself into a Tuxedo.

🤵 Tuxedo: A powerful Magnet is sewn into the tuxedo's bowtie.

🧲 Magnet: The magnet’s pull is so strong it yanks a passing Bicycle right off the road.

🚲 Bicycle: The bike is weird; its rubber tires melt into sugary Donuts.

🍩 Donut: You bite into the donut and break a tooth on a massive Diamond hidden in the dough.

💎 Diamond: You use the sharp diamond to cut a circle in the glass of a hovering UFO.

🛸 UFO: The aliens inside are confused and try to beam up a loaf of bread.

🍞 Bread: The alien beam burns the bread so badly that a Ghost rises from the charred crust.

👻 Ghost: The ghost is a bandit and is seen wearing a stolen Cowboy Hat.

🤠 Cowboy Hat: You take off the hat, and a hot, crispy Fried Shrimp falls out from under it.

🍤 Fried Shrimp: You use the tail of the shrimp as a makeshift Key.

🔑 Key: The key unlocks a tiny door at the base of a Volcano.

🌋 Volcano: The volcano erupts, but instead of lava, it showers the land in Popcorn.

🍿 Popcorn: A single piece of popcorn grows and wrinkles until it becomes a giant Brain.

🧠 Brain: The brain wants to get "smart-strong," so it starts lifting a Dumbbell.

🏋️ Dumbbell: The weights on the ends of the bar are actually two prickly Pineapples.

🍍 Pineapple: You slice the pineapple open, and a miniature Rocket launches from the core.

🚀 Rocket: The rocket blasts into the sky and shatters a giant orbital Disco Ball.

🪩 Disco Ball: The shimmering light from the disco ball reflects down and hits the solar-powered Alarm (⏰) to start the day all over again!

Obviously you can connect each of these elements your own way, but these have worked for me. One detail that’s worth remembering is that wherever you finish, wrap up with a line like:

“And that’s all 24 emojis in the weirdest story you’ll hear today.”

This subtly reinforces the idea that you have ALSO been keeping mental count of where in the story you are, which itself is (IMO) an interesting little detail.

One extra thing I just added: if you are in normal Full Range mode in the emoji theme you can switch directly to Mnemojic by drawing an M on the screen - this lets you do a very fair and real shuffle. And if you want to switch from Mnemojic to Full Range, the M works to switch back.