Timon Krause is a magician I will always be a BIG fan of.
Why?
I’ll tell you in a moment, but first…
…who is he?
Timon is a mentalist, magician, and philosophy student from Germany. He’s rose to international renown among magicians since his appearance on Penn and Teller: Fool Us, and the subsequent release of his book ‘Which Hand: Method and Philosophy.’
In 2020, he’s also started adding more content to his YouTube channel, including a range of ‘virtual mentalism’ videos.
That’s useful to know, but why am I such a big fan?
Let me tell you a story that might help explain things:
Way back when in 2018, a mentalist named Timon Krause appeared on the hit show ‘Penn and Teller: Fool Us’ with a simple but stunning routine that went something like this:
Alyson (the show host) was handed a coin.
Timon asked her to place the coin in either hand, without letting him influence her.
He then proceeded to guess exactly which hand she’d placed it in.
But so what? That’s just a 50/50 chance, right?
Right.
Which was why everyone in the audience ‘leaned in’ as he repeated the same effect—Alyson hiding the coin, Timon guessing it correctly.
2 out of 2 isn’t bad, but it’s still not a knockout effect—which is why Timon proceeded to repeat the effect AGAIN.
3 out of 3 is pretty respectable. Surely he’s not going to push 4?
He did.
Timon managed to guess the correct hand 4 times in a row. Each time he did, he deconstructed exactly how he ‘influenced’ her to make the choice he wanted.
And to top it all off, he opened a prediction he’d had handy before the effect began—on which he’d predicted Alyson’s EXACT choices.
People LOVED this performance.
They loved it even more when it completely stumped Penn and Teller, earning Timon a ‘Fooler’ trophy.
That might have been the end of the story, until THIS happened…
In the summer of 2019, Timon decided to do magicians around the world a huge favour by releasing a book on this effect (titled ‘Which Hand: Method and Philosophy’).
This was to be a ‘limited run’ of 500 signed copies, going live in July.
The book was a smash hit, selling out within a couple of days.
Immediately people started clamoring for an extra reprint or practically throwing money at the lucky few that got in on time—to no avail.
I myself was a little slow on the uptake for this book too, and was pretty annoyed I’d missed out.
Fast forward to Fall 2019.
MindFX, the producers of this book, announced they had a few spare copies lying around that they held back on the first round. These books would be made available and it would be a ‘first come first served’ type of thing.
Boy, you can bet I was glued to that cart page all day, waiting for it to go live.
When it did, I flew through the order form like lighting and grabbed a copy.
The remaining copies were sold out in mere MINUTES.
Fortunately, I’d got in just in time.
The result?
I’m now the proud owner of Book #483/500.
So, what’s inside the book?
In short, Timon’s method for performing his famous Which Hand routine, as seen on Penn and Teller.
The method for this effect is great – you can correctly determine the hand that holds the coin with nearly 100% accuracy and ZERO gimmicks.
Since I got this book, I’ve had the chance to perform Timon’s routine for a good number of people, and it’s done very well each time.
Personally, I love the routine.
It’s the perfect blend of magic and psychology to me, and the script is a whole lot of fun.
Timon also uses the book to impart some of his advice on performing magic – insights gained from his time on stage over his career so far.
If you can get a hold of this book, I highly encourage you to do so.
The initial ‘limited run’ has long since sold out, but if you get in touch with Timon personally, he might be able to point you in the right direction to finding a copy.
I would try contacting him via Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/timonkrause/?hl=en), or his official site – https://www.timonkrause.com/en/contact.
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We also released a project based on Which Hand routines – it’s nothing like the book, but if you want to scratch that itch, full details below:
https://thedailymagician.com/witch-hand-project
Here’s what one of the effects looks like…
You show your spectator three objects—coins, dice, and playing cards.
This routine consists of three phases.
Phase 1:
The spectator uses the result of a random coin toss, performed while you look away, to place that very same coin in one of their hands behind their back. You also place a coin in one of your hands.
When both of you open up your hands, the coin is in the same hand!
Phase 2:
The spectator rolls a die while your back is turned and, based on the random result, places a die in one of their hands behind their back. You also place a die in one of your hands.
When you both open up your hands, not only are the dice in the same hand—both die are showing the same number!
Phase 3:
The spectator deals down cards and stops when they like. They take their card, fold it up and place it in one of their hands behind their back.
The spectator then freely picks a card from a different deck and gives it to you, and you do the same.
When you both open your hands, not only is the folded card in the same hand—the cards, impossibly, are the same!
‘The Witch Hand’ is, as far as we know, a completely original and revolutionary reworking of the Which Hand idea.
Here’s the best part:
* Zero gimmicks (uses normal dice)
* Everything is examinable (no need for any hasty ‘clean up’
* 100% hit rate (each outcome is completely guaranteed)
* No questions asked or logic puzzles employed (everything feels as fair as we could make it)
* Contains original sleights we have never seen before (that we’ll be using in many more routines)
* Surprisingly easy to master! (when Benji taught this to Jacob, he picked it up in one short session)
Love Mentalism, you’ll like this:
Hello! I just watched this trick on YouTube and loved it. I enjoy watching tricks, and while sometimes it’s fun to find out how they’re done, I’m content to just be in awe of this one. However, what really baffled me, and what I’ve been scouring the internet for, is how P&T thought he did it; the whole father’s ring thing when they were guessing. Do have any ideas or any insight into what they were talking about with that? Dad would not approve, etc. etc. Would love another magician’s this on this. 😊 Thanks!
They were implying his ring was perhaps a magnet of some sort. You’ll notice he (I think on 3 of the 4 guesses) moves his hand close to each of Allison’s each time. This could have potentially helped him “feel” which hand it was in.
Don’t know if you’ll ever see this, but Penn assumed the COIN was magnetic.
He wil have believed the ring was one of two options:
1) An electronic magnet detector that vibrates when it senses a magnet nearby. This technology can get very small now. So when Timon touches the hand of Alyson, it would vibrate if the coin was there, and not vibrate if it wasn’t (indicating it’s in the other hand).
or
2) A magnetic ring as well as magnetic coin. Penn will assume the ring and coin were attracted to one another and Timon could feel the force when he put his hand near Alysons. Ifhe felt a force, the coin is in that hand, if he didnt feel a force, its in the other. IRL i dont think this method would work, and neither would Penn. The force would be too subtle, but Penn was grasping for ideas, and at a complete loss.
As the ring had nothing to do with the method, Timon declined.
Over a year later, I hope this helped 🙂