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 Canastos
Written by Ulrich von Etzenbach and Pablo Amirá

Revised by Mike Vance

Thanks for respecting this art and keeping this document to yourself.

Copyright: © 2014 Pablo Amirá

All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.

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 Interested in more ideas?

Interesting themes and ideas for performers.

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Introduction

Oh, Canasta. How bright and wonderful he was! I

remember I bought David Britland’s Chan Canasta – A
Remarkable Man without huge expectations. How
stupid I was! The book is now in one of my top places in
my bookshelf and is treasured as gold. One thing that I
loved so much was his Book Test. It was ingenious,
prolific and just wonderful. The thing I did not like
about the Book Test was how difficult the method was.
Why so difficult? Make it simple! It seems that we
performers are more worried about subtleties than
spectators sometimes. The effect is what is important,
not the method of how you astonished your spectators.
Spectators should only see the effect and your persona,
and that is what they care about. They don’t see the
method with which you did the effect.
I hope you will enjoy it!
Ulrich von Etzenbach

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Effect

The performer invites a spectator to take a part in his

experiment. First of all, the performer gives a spectator
an envelope and asks a spectator to make sure, that he
will never touch it again. Once the spectator sits down,
he is given the book, and then invited to check the book
in his hands properly, to make sure that every page is
different and that there is nothing written down except
the text itself. The spectator agrees that everything is
fair. The performer now grabs the book and says to
spectator, that he will riffle through the pages and stop
whenever the spectator wants to stop. He says to the
spectator to make sure, that he will stop exactly where
spectator wants to. The performer riffles through the
pages and the spectator says stop anytime. There is a
lot of text on a page a spectator has stopped on, so the
performer estimates the number of lines on the page
and then asks the spectator to say a number, for
example, between 1-45. The spectator chooses any
number he wants, and then the performer counts down
exactly the number of lines spectator chose. On the line
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he has stopped on, the spectator has free choice of any
word (let’s pretend it is „carrot“). The spectator chooses
any word on a line he chose and then is asked to finally
open the envelope. There is only one piece of paper. The
spectator opens the paper and there is only one word
printed boldly on a paper – it is „carrot“!

The Method

The method itself is simple, but subtleties of making the

gimmick right, of making the spectator behave correctly
and making the effect go right are slightly difficult. So
let’s start with:

How to choose a book

This one is important. The right book should be chosen.
We will use a paperback book for this effect, as it makes
things much easier and they are cheaper as well. First
of all, you need to choose a right sized book: the book
should not be a big novel such as The Da Vinci Code,
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etc., but should be slightly smaller and not as thick as a
novel. An important aspect is, you have to be OK with
cutting one of the top edges on the book (now we are
getting somewhere!). The book should be an interesting
and „normal“ book as well, not How to keep your body
fit or Reusing Old Graves (yes, that book really does
exist).

How to gimmick a book

So, you have your book in your hands, and now you
have to find the best force page. I prefer the force page
to be placed in a position similar to where you would
place your force card doing the classic force, thus in the
last half or slightly before (or after; everyone should
find the page they feel comfortable forcing). Now, we
are focusing on the pages on the RIGHT side of the
book, so when you open the book, you can immediately
direct the spectator’s focus on the right side of the book.
If you have found a good page, there is a critical point
now of how to force it. I was thinking very hard on how
to force a page properly, without the little finger stuck
in the force page (this is DEFINITELY a possible force

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as well; do what you are comfortable with!). So I have
done something like a „Svengali“ force book. I cut the
top edge of the book, BUT I did it on the left page, not
on the force page. You need to train hard before
performing, to get a feeling with the finger with which
you are riffling the pages; after that, you will realize
that you will stick or pause or even stop on the force
page whenever you want. Also you want to cut the top
edge rounded, not straight, so it will feel more
comfortable and precise when you riffle through the
pages and find the force page.

How to force a page

(Svengali Force)
This will be short since
almost the full process was
written at the top on
„How to gimmick the
book.“ Thanks to your practice, you are used to stopping
on the right page, you know where the right page is,
and you would know it in the night if I would wake you
up. Thanks to this, you are able to do the force of a page

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similar to a classic card force. So what is important?
Timing, confidence and the right estimation. If are used
to doing a classic force with a force card below the
center of the packet, you know that you need to start
spreading the cards even if you are still talking, etc.
Experience makes perfection, so practice, practice and
practice!
When I’m choosing the
page, I always choose the
right-hand page, but on the
left-hand page, there should
be a start of a new chapter
with a title, so I can immediately say: „OK, there is the
start of the chapter, so we will use the right-hand page,“
and distract them from the left page. You can do that or
just be confident and direct the attention to the proper
one.

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How to force a page (2nd method)
This is my impromptu method of forcing the page. It is
something like a riffle force with cards. I believe that a
gimmickless approach to Canastos makes it much better
for close-up sets. This video may be one of the weirdest
you have ever seen, enjoy!
http://youtu.be/9YC-ptJAZQU

How to choose the right line (False counting

principle)
This is as important as the 2 steps before this one! First
of all, you have to really count the number of lines in
the book, and most of the time, there will be around 40
lines. Now there is a wonderful part of the effect! First
of all, choose a line somewhere near the top,
approximately in the top ¼ of the page. Now take note
of the sentence that is there on the paper. There is a
reason: You will tell the spectator to choose a number of
a line, so let’s say, name a number between 1-40. It is
natural that people will choose a higher number, such
as 31, etc. If they do, start from the END of the page,
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and count to 31. Now, there is Canasta’s move: don’t
count them for real; pretend that you are counting them
exactly one by one, but take a look at where your force
line is and adapt the counting to it! That’s why we all
love Canasta: such a simple, one would say even stupid,
idea can create such a wonderful effect on a spectator.
So from the spectator’s point of view, you will count to
31, but in fact, you will count as many lines as you need
to count to end on the force line. If they say a lower
number, such as 14, count from the top! But make it
seem fair again. It is all about practicing, about how
good you are in deception, and you know…in lying.
There is a problem if they choose a „hard to skip“
number, such as 20. You will never seem fair. Yes, you
can choose a force line in a center of the page, but it
decreases credibility, and most people will choose the
higher number anyway. In a rare cases, they will say
20. It may be caused by the disinterest of spectator in
an experiment, because an interested spectator would
say something different than „Man, I don’t know. I
guess 20.“ People with disinterest tend to choose the
easiest way, such as 1, 20 or 40. People with interest
choose the „good“ numbers. This effect relies on your
presentation, persona and likeability, and that’s why I
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love it so much. If they choose 20—it happend to me
once I must admit—I was quick and said to them,
„From what line we will start please?“ I was so lucky
that he chose the line near the end of the page and I
counted down „20.“

How to force a word on a line (Embedded

word force)
This one has something to do with the correct line
choosing as well. Basically you have to choose a line
where some of the more complex words reside. Don’t use
he, she, doing, working, etc. Then you will thank the
linguistic force for easily forcing this word, since you
narrowed down the choosing area on only one line.
(more in the script)

How to be bold
„Hi, I’m one of the world’s most talented mind readers,
and I want to give you an unforgottable experience of
wonder and excitement. Would you be OK to try
something you will never forget in your life with me?“
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This may sound arrogant to someone, but I can assure
EVERYONE, that this introduction line brings and
instant interest in anyone for whom I was performing,
and I got the best reactions in the end (Pygmalion effect
– the bigger the expectations are, the bigger the result
is). You should also feel confident, comfortable and be
nice to the spectator. Remember to stay confident when
performing, but let your ego sleep at home. When I’m
doing a close-up performace, I would always be witty
and nice to spectators. Take care of your spectators,
love them for what they are doing, and you will be
loved as well (If you haven’t done so, please invest your
money and time in something that really matters in
performance and buy Maximum Entertainment by Ken
Weber). Letting them check the book is just my bold
take; I’m really not afraid that the spectator will find
out that one page is cut, but that is my risk; you don’t
have to take it as well, but I like to do it to bring more
credibility and believeability to the whole process. I’m
also saying lines such as „Are you sure THIS is the page
you want?“ and „You can even change your mind if you
want to!“ Just make sure that the presentation is your
own and be OK with taking risks. You will create

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wonderful moments for the spectator, if you are brave
enough.

Summary
Make sure you are using the right book.
Make sure you practiced hard and you are confident
when forcing a page and a line.
Make sure you have choosen the RIGHT (and right)
page.
Make sure that your force line is approximately in the
top ¼ of a page.
Make sure you understand when to count from the top
and when to count from the bottom.
Make sure to create a rapport with a spectator and
make sure you are making the spectator excited, happy
and, most importantly, NOT stupid.

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Way-out
I want to send love and thanks to Marc Paul for
allowing me to describe his ingenious, wonderful,
exciting, incredible, superb, great and fabulous AAA
Book Test. Using this BT as a way-out is great when
you are trying my effect for the first time, or even if
your hand slipped or you were just too nervous to force
the page properly. If you find yourself in a situation,
when the spectator called out stop and you are not on a
force page, there are 2 possibilites:

I. When this effect was in the experimental

phase, I often messed up the forcing of the
page. They called stop too early and I was
about 7 pages from the force page. What I have
done many times is use a clever misdirection,
and when they said stop, I told them with a
different, mysterious, pitch in my voice: „Are
you REALLY sure, that this is the page you
wanted me to stop on?“ and I looked straight
into their eyes. When we were holding a deep
and long eye contact, I secretly pushed a few
pages so I ended up on a force page at the end.
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 This is, again, very bold, but they never see
that you are flipping pages, if you are holding
the book in the right angle of the spectator’s
eyesight. Of course you cannot hold the book
between eyes of spectator and yours if you
want to make eye contact, but if you tilt the top
of the book little bit to yourself and hold the
book right under the eyes of spectator (on the
line of nose), you can switch to the force page
unseen.

II. Marc Paul’s AAA Book Test: the way-out if you

messed it up really badly. For those of you who
are not familiar with this Book Test, it is a peek
of a word in a book, which, in the spectator’s
eyes, cannot ever be seen. But it is so simple
and so ingenious! When you are riffling
through the pages, they can say stop anytime,
and you stop and ask them, „This is the page
you wanted me to stop on, right?“ And you
peek the first few words on a page that is
facing you (you have to hold the book in your
right hand and riffle through the pages with
your left index finger)! Now, when you have
peeked the words (it should take you at most
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 one and a half seconds), you open the book,
while you face away, and point with your
right index finger at the start of the right page
of the book (you peeked the words there). Then
ask the spectator to read the first few words in
their mind, and then close the book. It seems
SO FAIR! Of course, the bad thing is that you
already gave the spectator the prediction. If I
would be in this situation, if I would have
messed it up so badly that I would need to use
Marc’s peek, I would say after the revelation:
„Now, this was a nice warm-up. Let’s get to the
real business. Remember the envelope I gave
you?“ and I would give myself a second chance
to do a book test right.

Full Script
„Hi, I’m one of the world’s most talented mind readers
and I want to give you an unforgottable experience of
wonder and excitement. Would you be OK to try
something you will never forget in your life with me?“ –
Sure! „What’s your name mate?“ – Paul. „Wonderful!
I’m Ulrich. Thank you for allowing me to meet you

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Paul.“ – No problem at all! „Great. You know the
moments in your life, when you decided on something
randomly and it proves to be the best decision you could
have made?“ – Yeah, sometimes. „Sometimes? Well, let’s
hope it will be one of your better days today! You seem
like an intelligent man. Do you enjoy reading?“ – I love
reading! „Then you are the perfect man for this
experiment, Paul! You know what? I’m glad you said
that. I have my favorite book here. Do you want to
check it out? It’s a really great book. I have read it
almost 10 times and still love it!“ – Yeah, if I can. „You
can do everything Paul. Here you are!“ – Looks like a
nice book. „It is. Now, I have this black envelope here.
Inside the envelope, there is a paper with something
written on it. We will get to it later, so for now, just
make sure that I will not touch it again.“ – OK. „I will
now riffle through the pages like that and you will say
STOP anytime you want, but first of all, I would like
you to be really certain about your choice. So say stop
anytime please…“ – STOP! „Fair enough. So now, we
have about 40 lines on this page, right?“ – Yeah about
40. „OK, there is an important part. You seem like an
intelligent man, a thinker, rational and introspective.
You think logically, but you are able to visualize things
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on a good level as well.“ – That’s true. Did you know
that only by looking at me? „Great minds think alike,
Paul. Now, the important phase: I want you to imagine
a big ruler between us. The ruler measures only 40
centimetres. Pick up a pencil and draw a line over the
paper. How many centimetres does that line have?“ –
Emm…32 centimetres. „OK, so you freely chose a
number between 1-40, right?“ – Yes. „So now, let’s count
together 32 lines… So this is the 32nd line. Are you happy
with it?“ – Sure. „OK, please read the sentence in your
mind. Now if you would choose a word on that line—
except he, she, the, etc.—but if you would choose a
more COMPLEX word, what word would you choose?“
– I see a „character“. „A character? That’s an interesting
word. So Paul, do you believe in the future, telepathy or
psychics?“ – No, not really. „Then open the envelope,
please, and read what is written on the paper inside.“ –
Holy Moly, that’s insane! „Then how do you explain
that? J“

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Extra Ideas by Pablo Amirá

What a lovely conjuction of method “Canastos” is. I

just want to add 2 little ideas that I came up with
when Ulrich approached me with his creation.

Impromptu Ungimmicked approach: If you want

to take any book from any shelf and perform this
great book test prediction, as you can understand
you just need to use another strategy to force the
page, due to the fact that the “False counting”
principle and the embedded word force are both
ungimmicked methods.
A lot of impromptu-ungimmicked page forces are
available already; I will give you my way to do it.
It’s a timing-style force.
You need to know the force page number from the
book and the forced word using the “false counting”
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principle criteria. This can be done simply by
taking the book and boldly looking while you
perform. If you are right handed, take the book
with your left hand and, when you find a word,
just place your pinky as in a deck of cards. This will
create a step on the book that will let you force the
proper page everytime.
Just pass your right-hand index finger through the
pages and ask your participant to say, “STOP.”
After he says STOP, just go to your break.
This video will show you this book force:
http://youtu.be/tVL_RS3wdPI

Hoy-Canastos Routine: You can use the classic Bold

Book Test by David Hoy in conjuction with this
ungimmicked approach to “Canastos” to create a
disarming 2-phase routine, in which you not only
read another´s mind, but also predict his decision
days in advance.

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Take 2 books (Book A and Book B). Do it now while
you read this.
Really, do it.
Book A will be the “Hoy book” in which you will
know in advance a word which you will use to do
the first mindreading phase. Book B will be the
“Canastos book” in which you will know the word
to predict.
Introduce your 2 books and give one to your
participant. Here you can use Equivoque or just
hand them Book A without any attention. Just do it.
Now you will use the normal Bold Book Test
method to force the proper page with Book B.
Normally you will ask the participant to just look
at the first word and to remember it, but I
normally use the strategy of an “embedded word
force” plus “Instructions and Mindreading”
principles to create the idea that any word could be
chosen.

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For example:
“Ok Marc, just look at the first line on page 103
and…that’s right…you are looking at the line, right?
You can see a lot of words but you are focusing
now…. There is a word that you are seeing with an
‘L,’ right? YES!”

And you continue with your revelation! You get the

idea…
After that mindreading moment, you will swap
books with your participant and go with the
impromptu-ungimmicked approach of “Canastos”
using Book A as the book to force the page number
using the “Timing Force.” If you think about this
routine, you can understand that this also serves as
a methodological canceler for the bold “Hoy” force
that you use in the first mindreading moment. Now
you can proceed and create a precognition moment.

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Triple Prediction: What if you can predict not only
the word, but also the page number AND the
number line?
How? As you know, the page number and the word
are forced, so the prediction on them is easy, but
how you can predict the number line?
You DON’T!
Use your acting skills to write your prediction in
such a way that you can miscall the line number in
your prediction.
If you want to know more info about “miscalling”
information, check Larry Becker´s Casino Royale
and Docc Hilford´s A Letter from the Future.
Art Vanderlay´s addition:
An idea I had using a prepared book is to force a
word like "rose" or "beer," and then you could
remove a rose from an envelope and hand it to a
female spectator, or pull a can of beer out of a
larger envelope or your jacket for the males.

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Another way to gimmick the book without
trimming pages is to break the spine of the book at
the page you want to force. The spectator can then
flip through the book and it will naturally open on
that page. I use the spine method quite often, I
usually ask them to drop the book onto the floor
and whatever page it opens at we will use.

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Conclusion

In the end, I want to send a big thank you to Marc

Paul, who is always nice to me and his friendship
means so much for me!
I also want to thank you, Pablo Amirá, one of the
greatest minds in the mentalism community today.
Without you, this would have never happened (I’m
afraid that his approach to Canastos will
overshadow mine).
Thank you, Mr. David Britland. What a wonderful
book you wrote about a wonderful performer and
person.
Mr. Canasta, without a doubt, you are my favorite
performer of all time. Your elegance and charm will
never be beaten. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Knepper, for the best and the most
inspirational conversation I have ever had.
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Thank you all, who ever had a discussion with me
and were happy to share wisdom with me. Thank
you Art Vanderlay, thank you Peter Turner, and
many many others.
I hope you will enjoy performing the effect. There
are so many possibilities on how to make it yours,
to make it fit your persona, to make it fit your style.
In the end, we are all different. Keep it that way
and don’t be a copy of someone else.

Ulrich von Etzenbach

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