Effects involving diaries and playing cards have been around at least since 1935, when Tom Sellars saw his “A Memory Feat” published in The Magic Wand, but it wasn’t until Alex Elmsley performed and taught it in his 1975 lecture tour that what is generally thought of as The Diary Effect came to be. More than just a method, it is a plot, and there are numerous ways of presenting it, from the supremely fair open-index work of Simon Aronson through to effects such as Bob Cassidy’s ever popular Chronologue or the extremely cheeky Worker’s Diary from Mark Elsdon.
In its original form, this is how the effect would appear: the performer presents a diary or birthday book - against each day is written a playing card. A participant selects a card but it is not seen. The participant then states their birthday. They are invited to look it up in the diary and they find, written next to it, a playing card. They turn their selected playing card over, and it matches the one listed in the book.
In practice, the birthday is known either before the very start of the effect, or is otherwise learnt as the effect goes along. This is a sticking point for many, but Simon Aronson has a disarmingly no-nonsense method for getting the birthday, detailed in Simply Simon and in Volume 2 of his Sessions with Simon DVD series.
The niggle that I have always had though was in the object of the diary or birthday book itself. Diaries and birthday books alike have a reason for being, but I had never found a satisfying reason for a playing card to be written in next to each date. This isn’t a great crime of course - the effect can sometimes be reason enough for such an object to exist, after all, but it always seemed a shame that the filled-in diary had no feasible purpose outside of the effect.
Now it so happens that one can purchase books that tie in a playing card to every day of the year. These come from the world of cartomancy, and are used for the purposes of giving readings. However, because no conjury is built on these books, they don’t really suit our purpose. Also the layout of cards in such a book is very systematic (1-Jan AH, 2-Jan 2H, etc.). Were we to use such a book to present the diary effect, it wouldn’t take much consideration for the participant to think that there was a system at work, turning any effect we did into, at best, one of rapid calculation. We have an object that makes sense as an object, but if it’s going to be useful to us, we’re going to have to change it.
With all of this in mind, then, Phill Smith and I have created a birthday divination book. We’re not the first to do this. Paul Green put out The Fortune Teller’s Book Of Days with L&L. Now out of print, it gave, for each day, a brief personality description along with a playing card. This went some way to iron out the niggle of the Object Without Purpose problem, but even then it seemed almost too slight a solution. Also it was based around Elmsley’s original methodology, so there were some limits to the level of scrutiny the book could be put to.
Our book is a 366-day index, with each day featuring an array of things useful to someone giving readings. This includes a playing card. The cards assigned to each day are in a seemingly random order, but uses a procedural arrangement that allows the performer to easily move from the date to the playing card. But for the book to be an effective prop, its believability was paramount. To put this at the very core of the philosophy of its development, we had a particular goal - to be able to sell the book to laity without fear of its secrets being discovered. That’s why we’re taking great pains to avoid mentioning the title of the prop book on any marketing associated with Pythia. We appreciate you doing the same! We don’t want audience members or participant going away, having a Google, and establishing that the book is anything other than what it appears to be.
The ideal goal, though it would be a rare occurrence, I’m sure, would be for a magician to happen upon a participant’s copy of the book and go straight into using it - a kind of magic Trojan horse.
To go to this much effort to provide a convincing frame for a playing card would be a waste were the book not to include other things. To that end, any performer versed in the secrets of the book will, from the date alone, be able to determine an element, a number, a colour, a totem animal, and a tarot card from the major arcana (and even whether or not that card is inverted).
It would also be a waste to the lay reader if they were to pay for a book to only use a handful of its pages. Therefore, we include a piece of oracular advice against each day, along with a “yes”, “no” and “unclear” answer. This allows the book to be used as an oracle proper, using whatever selection process the user wishes. And, again, it would be a waste to the performer if this information wasn’t also rigged. Each piece of oracular advice uses one of nineteen force words, one of seven themes, and one of five styles, all calculable from the date, and each one in a unique combination. Even the yes, no and maybe can be calculable from the date. Three page selections could easily become a three-card reading with either tarot or playing cards. Each day features a character description, based chiefly on the zodiac. Each date also features three celebrities born on that particular day that, as long as the reader is familiar with them, can be used to inform readings.
The totem animals are openly borrowed from the Chinese Zodiac, so again there is yet another way in for a deeper reading.
Phill and I are now happy to make this available for purchase and are really excited to see what you will make of and with it. You can buy the prop book, and its manual in one handy bundle here:
http://www.phillsmiff.com/
or direct from Lulu at the following links:
http://tiny.cc/PythiaManual
http://tiny.cc/PythiaProp