I Am Here

Effect:
In a seance-type situation, the magus brings out a business card with a small Ouija board printed on the back, in an attempt to contact one who has passed over to the other side.

The magus goes into a trance and asks if the spirit is with the assembled group.
He then sprinkles some ashes over the card, brushes them across the Ouija board, and the words "I Am Here" are seen to appear on the back of the card.

Method:
This is simplicity in itself.

The business card back, above the small Ouija board, is apparently blank. In fact, you have written beforehand, the words "I Am Here", using a white crayon from a standard box of Crayola crayons.

The words, written in white on white, cannot be seen in normal light but, when the ash is rubbed across them, the ash adheres to the wax, making the words visible.

Presentation:
"Almost everyone has someone who has passed over to the next level of existence that they would like to contact one last time.

"The Ouija board is a common way of doing that, as is the seance. But what if we combine them both?"

Bring out your business card and show the back with the Ouija board on it; bring out a vial of ashes or ask someone to write the name of a deceased relative on a piece of paper and burn it. Spread the ashes over the back of the card.

"If we concentrate on the spirit of the departed, perhaps - and only perhaps - we might be able to make some form of contact."

You feign a trance, in which you rub the ashes over the back of the card and the words appear.

"We appear to have made contact. Now let us listen to what the dearly departed has to say."

Second thoughts:
This is the ideal time to polish your cold-reading abilities and give a reading of the querent.

Or you might try a reading with Tarot cards, or palmistry, or rune stones.

In any case, this makes a logical lead-in to a psychic type of reading.

The bottle of ashes are used in case you are at a venue where an open flame is not possible, for whatever reason.

If using the ashes, claim that they are the pulverized and mummified remains of an ancient seer, who had the ability to contact the dead.

Or you may want to use some other explanation; do whatever fits you and the circumstances.

This piece could possibly stand alone as part of a bizarre routine but works much better as the opener for a seance-type routine. Of course, once you are into the routine, you can go as "bizarre" as you wish!

But this must be played absolutely seriously and as if you really were channelling the spirits.

As the late, great close-up artist Tony Slydini used to say: "You must gotta believe!"