Ten Green Bottles
by Oliver Meech

Oliver Meech is a 27-year old Oxford University Psychology graduate who creates TV commercials when he's not creating illusions. His first magic book, The Plot Thickens, is available from www.olivermeech.co.uk

This is a failure-turns-to-triumph routine where a visual prediction becomes an audio one. It'll all make sense if you read on.

Effect
A prediction that seems to be incorrect turns out to be correct after all.

Required
A stack of index cards.
A permanent marker.
11 identical, green, empty beer bottles.
A large family-sized bottle of mineral water or access to a tap.
A metal beer bottle opener.
A large cloth.
A funnel (optional).
A strip of card (optional).

Preparation
There's a fair bit of preparation the first time you perform this but subsequent times will be much quicker.

Arrange the beer bottles in a row. By working your way along the row from left to right, ‘clinking' each bottle once with the opener, you will play the beginning of the tune jingle bells. Think Stomp! To do this you need to put different amounts of liquid into each bottle to vary the pitch of the clinks.

If you're not particularly musical by nature then it's worth having a piano or keyboard on hand to work out the tune.

Pour some water into the first bottle until it's about half full. Give it a clink and find the nearest note on the piano. Now either add more water to the beer bottle (using the funnel if necessary) or pour some away until clinking it produces an E note. Line up a second bottle beside this and fill it to the exact same level as the first. Repeat with all the remaining bottles. Set eight of the bottles to one side.

Take the remaining bottles and pour out liquid from one until it produces a D note. Pour liquid out of another until it produces a D note. Finally, add liquid to a third until it produces a G note.

Arrange them in a row on the table in the following order from stage left to right, leaving slight gaps between all the bottles, with bigger gaps where I've put spaces:

EEE EEE EGCDE

Now if you clink the bottles from stage left to stage right you should produce the opening line of Jingle Bells. If for any reason some notes are a little out, adjust the pitch by adding/removing liquid. When you're satisfied with the tune, use the permanent marker to mark the water line on the back of each bottle. Now when you next perform the trick you can just fill the bottles to the lines and you'll know that they are in tune.

Cover the row of bottles with the cloth.

Take 30 index cards and write “Ten green bottles” on 29 of them. On the 30th one write “Jingle Bells”. Put this card on top of the stack. Place the stack in your pocket along with the bottle opener.

Phew! You're done.

Method
“Before you start”, ask a spectator to cut a portion of the index cards to the table. Immediately mark the cut by placing the remaining cards on top at an angle (the Cross Cut force).

Explain to the audience that on each card is a song. Gesture toward the shape beneath the sheet and say that you have made a prediction of which song the spectator will select.

Reach over and cleanly remove the angled cards and ask the spectator to remove the top card and look at its face without showing anyone else.

Whilst he's looking, state that he could have chosen any card and show the faces of the stack to the audience, who can see that they all say “Ten Green Bottles”. Have him return his card to the stack then pocket it. Say that you feel quietly confident about your prediction. Whip off the cloth to reveal the bottles and declare with confidence Ten Green Bottles! Ask if that was the song he chose, as if this part is merely a formality. Act surprised when he says no. Ask what song he saw. Respond with confusion when he says Jingle Bells.

Pause, then look like you've had an idea and say “Unless…”. Bring out the bottle opener and to the rhythm of Jingle Bells, clink the bottles from left to right to play their chosen tune.

Notes
For a different way to handle the force, make up a Svengali deck from index cards.

If you don't fancy carrying around the 11 bottles everywhere you go, you can make a ‘master measurer' (for want of a better term). First, make sure you're happy with the liquid levels in all the beer bottles. Now stand the strip of card next to one of the ‘E' bottles, mark the liquid level on the card and label it ‘E'. Repeat this level marking with the ‘C', ‘D' and ‘G' bottles. Now you can just carry this card with you and buy 11 bottles from any nearby shop.

You can also perform this Jingle Bells starting from ‘B', should it prove easier to make up bottles from a different starting note.

Credits
The structure of this routine is very much based on the McCombical Prediction by Billy McComb.

Oliver Meech