David Berglas - Berglas Chair Routine.pdf - Ultimate Magic PDF Collection - calgary.boy

THE DAVID BERGLAS CHAIR ROUTINE

AKA

THE CALLENDAR CHAIRS

AN ANALYSIS FOR THE PROFESSIONAL PERFORMER

To get “The Creative Juices Flowing”

The Chair Routine has long been one of my favourite

routines and was popularised by David Berglas in recent

years. Many notables have had a version of it including

Gary Kurtz, Max Maven, and Michael Weber. It has gained

some popularity of late with routines by James Bliss,

Paolo Cavoli, Marc Spelman, and Luke Jermay to name a

few.

I am fortunate in that I have a lot of David Berglas work

on video which means I can re-play it and analyse it in

detail to peel away the layers and share the methodology

and thinking behind it as an aid for the professional

performer to understanding the thinking and stagecraft

behind it, and develop his own ideas . I am not attempting

to expose another’s work here but to show how a gifted,

confident performer can develop his own routine with a

little thought and creativity.

It is on the shoulders of Giants that I stand.

I will now give a review of the performance AS THE

AUDIENCE SEES IT followed by an explanation of the

presentation as it is.

EFFECT:

The stage is full lit with seven chairs numbered 1-7

running left to right as you face the stage. The chairs

are various colours and of the simple moulded plastic

stacking variety.

David Berglas is centre stage as he invites members of

the audience to participate in an experiment. As this is

being said a number of people are being shown to stage

right by an assistant.

David asks for the first gentleman to step forward and

comments that he has a number of chairs numbered 1-7 and

asks the gentleman to select a number. But then he says;

“I am going to confuse you a little bit” and rattles off

the numbers in a seemingly haphazard fashion

“23576113246” “give me a number” . He chooses 3 .

David says “Why do they always say 3 to start with” , he

then gets chair 3 and places it to the left of the stage

(as you are facing it) and says “Now would you like to

come and sit here”.

David then says “May I have the next gentleman please” ,

to which he comes forward. “We have some numbers on the

chairs over there as you saw; now I am going to confuse

you a little bit” . To which he again rattles off numbers

in a seemingly haphazard fashion; “124-567-675-212 & 5.”

The guest chooses 6 to which Berglas remarks “You sure?”

guest replies; “positive, Yes”, “Do you want to change

your mind?”, “No”.

He then gets chair six and places it to the right and

next to chair three and asks the guest “Come & sit down” .

David then says; “Can I have the lady up please” , she

comes up and he says; “Hello, I have got some numbers

there, 1-2-4-5 and 7. I am going to make it very easy 1-

2-4-5 & 7 give me a number” . She chooses 7 to which he

says: “Did you make your mind up before you came

forward?”

He then gets chair 7 and places it approximately two

chair places away from the last chair (6) and says;

“Would you like to come and sit here”. “Could we have

another gentleman please? Hello you can see the numbers

there, there’s 12 & 54 and 45 and 52 give me a number” .

He says 4 .

He gets the chair and places it one chair width apart to

the right of the last chair (7) and says “There we go,

come and sit here, can we have the next gentleman

please” . (So the order so far; 3-6-*-*-7-*-4)

“There are not many numbers left we have 5, 2 & 1, 125,

215 or 512 give me a number” he chooses 5, David repeats

“5?” The guest says yes.

“I will give you a choice where you want to sit; do you

want to sit that side of the lady (7) or this side of the

lady?” He says this as he is collecting the chair and

gestures with his left hand; he is standing behind the

chairs as he does so.

The guest says the left side, to which David says “That’s

your choice then” and places the chair next to chair 6 so

the order now runs (3-6-5) then a gap then chair 7, then

another gap and chair 4, two chairs remain on stage back

1 & 2

A male guest steps forward and David says “1-2-2-1. I

will do nothing else I will turn my back on you what

number would you like 2 or 1” . The guest replies 2

please. David says; ”2” , guest replies “yes” David says

“sure?” Guest says; “can I change my mind? David says;

“In every show there’s one (to laughter), what number do

you want?” Guest says 1.

David says; “Do you want to change your mind again?”

guest says; “No thanks”. David says; “You want one”

,guest; “yes please” David “That’s the number you said,

You’ve started with 2 and now you want 1” guest; “yes

please” David; “Are you sure?” guest “definitely”

As this exchange is going on, David extracts fun out of

it by walking away and turning back as he questions the

guest’s choice. David then walks to get chair number 1 as

he does so he again says; “ So you want 1” . David then

says; “Now I have bad news because I want to sit down

to” . As he says this he places chair number 1 to the

right of chair 4. (3-6-5-7-4-1)

This leaves one remaining chair, chair 2 on stage. The

camera pulls out as he narate and says; “This is where

they left one chair for me and obviously I had no choice

so I sat down on it” . This chair is then placed to the

right of chair 1 as he says this. He then says ” I

couldn’t have possibly known in which order they would

have come up, nor which chair they would choose”

He then sits on chair 2. Then he stands up and says; “Now

remember I gave this gentleman a choice he could have sat

on the other side” . (As he does this he stands in front

of the guests and chair number 5, the gentleman that had

the choice and gestures with his left hand) He then says;

“I want to show you that they have helped me to form what

I call my chair calendar” .

“Ladies & gentleman without moving your chairs will you

please stand up and go behind them” to which the guests

do. He then says ; ”Let me show you why they’ve formed my

chair calendar” . “A year has three hundred and sixty five

days (pointing to chairs 365), There are seven days in

the week (pointing to chair 7), four weeks in a month

(pointing to chair 4) and of course there are twelve

months in a year (pointing to chairs 1 & 2). Applause

follows.

He says to the applause; “ So I must have known right” .

After the applause stops he says ;” On top of which of

course I did not know who was going to come up first and

this gentleman decided to be first (pointing to the first

guest) he pushed the others out of the way (laughter) he

did not, but he was the first to come up. And I said give

me a number and he said three and people always seem to

say three and I knew that as it was more than likely he

would say three, he was my first guest and I knew that” .

(he asks the spectator to turn the chair round) “Turn the

chair around please” . (The guest does so, on the back of

the chair it says “First guest”).

David says as the chair is turned around; “The first

guest will choose three” . He gestures to the next chair

and says; “This gentleman was my second guest who chose

number six, turn the chair around” (he does so) David

says; ” Second guest” . He point to the next guest and

says; “This gentleman chose five, turn your chair around

please” (he does so) “He was my third guest, now this

lady (pointing to lady behind chair 7) was the only lady

left there and I must have known that she would have come

up tonight, one lady and only one lady because there we

have a special present for you alright” (he turns around

her chair and presents her with a flower which is

attached to the back of the chair to applause from the

audience).

He then points to the chairs and says; “ That’s one, two,

three four and of course this must have been my fifth

guest” (as he turns the chair round to reveal fifth

guest) “and this was my sixth guest” (as he turns around

chair).

He then says; “ And do you remember what I said, I had no

choice this had to be my chair” (pointing to last chair

on stage). “And I did know that because that’s exactly

what I said MY CHAIR” (as he says this he picks the chair

up and turns it around showing it is labelled MY CHAIR).

The routine ends with applause.

METHODOLOGY & EXPLANATION

The routine relies on several very important points;

Firstly it is essential chair three is selected first as

the whole number sequence and final reveal depend upon it

being the first choice, first guest. Everything else is

built around it as the routine progresses.

Psychologically most people will select number three if

presented with a choice of random numbers from one to

seven. However to ensure 100% accuracy this spectator is

usually pre-stooged to help and chose number three.

I know from someone that worked on the TV series that

David met the Guests before the transmission with a

clipboard and asked various questions so he may have been

stooged here or actually at the performance by the

assistant.

Secondly, the routine works because the audience do not

actually know what he is going to do with the chairs or

spectators; therefore there expectation is of “something”

happening but they don’t know what. Due to their not

knowing he is in the position to perform the effect

“jazz” style. By that I mean that depending on the

selections various outcomes or predictions are possible

unknown to the audience but ultimately meeting their

expectations of something happening.

Thirdly what is not mentioned is that there are seven

chairs, seven spectators, but only six spectators are

used!. It is also important that TWO woman come up. The

rest are men as will be explained later.

Fourthly there is a deliberate miscall that relies upon

time misdirection to fool the audience literally in front

of them!

Finally two of the choices are not as innocent as they

seem. Now let’s dissect what actually happens.

The first guest (stooged either pre-show or by assistant)

chooses chair 3 which is placed to left of stage. The

second guest chooses chair 6 which David places next to

it (so far so good). But what happens if the next guest

chooses chair four or another number? IT DOESN’T MATTER

BECAUSE DAVID PLACES THE CHAIRS WHERE HE WANTS THEM.

I will try to explain the actual trickery first and then

the possible variations on the theme. The third guest,

the lady is next; note he specifically asks for a lady at

this point as the sex selection is important to the

outcome. She chooses chair 7 which he places two chair

widths apart from chair 6. This is important because he

must have two chair widths for the equivoque that

follows.

Now chair 7 contains the rose which as it happens is the

chair he wants the lady to select. If she selects another

number again it does not matter as remember HE PLACES THE

CHAIRS and the audience do not know what is going to

happen or what is behind the chairs. He then asks for a

gentleman who chooses chair 4 which he places one chair

width to the right of chair 7. So to clarify: the chairs

are as follows; 3, 6, space, space, 7, space, 4.

I hope your with me so far!

The next guest is a gentleman who chooses chair 5, he

gives him a choice but this is where the equivoque comes

in. He says as he gestures behind the chairs; “do you

want to sit THAT side of the lady or THIS side of the

lady” , note he does not say to the left or right of the

lady but “that side or this side”. His gesture performed

behind the chairs is very obscure. The guest sits in the

position that is required for the outcome of the effect.

But note David leaves TWO places between chair 6 & 7. The

reason being IF the Gentleman wants to place his chair to

the RIGHT of the lady he would say “No I mean to this

side or that side” and gesture to the two empty places so

the chair ultimately ends up in the correct position for

the final reveal.

The final guest has two choices on stage chair one & two.

Again he uses a form of equivoque choice here and he

still PLACES THE CHAIR himself. The gentleman concerned

changes his mind leaving David with the “My Chair”.

However if the guest had gone for this chair it would

have gone like this: “ So you want that chair now?” “Yes”.

“Are you sure” “yes I am”, “so you don’t want to change

your mind?” , “No” “ so that’s definitely your chair then”

“yes”.

So at the end of the routine when the chairs are turned

round he would say “You had a choice of chair sir and you

insisted that was you chair didn’t you, “yes I did” “ but

David Berglas - Berglas Chair Routine.pdf

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