TOTAL CONTROL

:
EXTENDED

MATT MELLO

No part of this publication may be duplicated or transmitted in any form without written
permission from the author.
Copyright 2015

Contents:
Introduction.......3
Total Control 2.0.4
Trippy Colors.6
Effects.7

Introduction:
Let me start by thanking you once more for your continued interest in my work, and Total
Control. It really is quite fulfilling to know that so many of you are pleased with my ideas,
enough so to keep coming back for more. Having had an adequate amount of time to absorb the
information in Total Control, and with the success of its release, it is my pleasure to share with
you this extended version of one of the most realistic demonstrations of direct mind-reading that
Ive ever created.
The focus in Total Control was essentially a drawing duplication, with the drawing existing only
as the persons hallucination. I mentioned that you could do it with different pieces of
information, but didnt go very deep into things. There were also a couple of ideas that I had held
back. Thats what this manuscript is for. Not only will you learn some effect applications, you
will learn a new handling that makes everything one-hundred percent sleight of hand proof. You
will also learn a cool new subtlety to make the participants hallucination even more trippy,
adding a bit of extra mind-reading to the piece.
At the same time, I dont want to overloadand bore--you with every possible effect that this
concept can be applied to. You can think of this as an extended additional thoughts section to the
original manuscript. What Im sharing here are the ideas that I find to be the most interesting and
unique. I hope you feel the same.
Matt Mello

Total Control 2.0:

As the title of this section suggests, this is a shiny new version of Total Control. It isnt much,
but it removes the move from the original routine, now making this truly no different from the
real thing. If you were to film a genuine demonstration of someone hallucinating an image on a
blank index card that someone guesses, and then played that side-by-side to Total Control 2.0,
there would be no difference. In the original, you had the special turnover which could have
been spotted. Now its unnecessary.
The setup for 2.0 is simply to write your force information very lightly with pencil on one side of
a double blank index card. Just light enough that you can barely see it. If you turn this card end
over end fluidly as you show the audience your drawing, they will see nothing but a totally
blank card.
I typically take out a black marker and put it behind my ear before doing this card display. Your
audience sees the black marker and automatically assumes that if there was any writing on the
card, it would be in marker, not lightly drawn in pencil. They are looking for any signs of a
marker, they see none, so naturally assume that nothing is written. This is simple suggestion at
work.
So rather than doing the false turnover move as you let the audience in on the happening, you
just flip the card a few times and show it blank; nothing suspicious or out of place. You can now
openly show the card to the participant and they will see the very light drawing on the card. The
faintness of the image will further the idea of it being a hallucination. You may even wish to rub

over the pencil marks with your finger to create a slight shadowing effect. All of this combined
with the foggy haze from suddenly opening their closed eyes will greatly add to the illusion.
To destroy the evidence, remove the marker from behind your ear and trace over the pencil
marks, showing everyone your prediction. It doesnt get any cleaner than this.

Trippy Colors:
This is one of my favorite additions to the Total Control technique. It gives you some extra
mind-reading without having to really change anything in the sequence. The effect is that a
spectator hallucinates a shape and a color, and youre able to guess them both.
This works quite easily by writing your force image in a specific color. I prefer yellow, because
it works with Total Control 2.0. If you draw a red triangle, no matter how fast you flip the card,
your audience will see the red triangle. But if you draw a yellow triangle, you can display the
card, flipping it end over end without anyone seeing it. If you want to use darker colors, you will
need to use the original false turnover move.
In presentation, you show the audience a shape youve drawn on a card, but they dont see
anything. The participant now opens their eyes and hallucinates the yellow triangle and closes
their eyes. I have them focus on the shape in their mind as I trace over the yellow triangle with
the black marker.
I can now show this to the audience and have the participant say the shape that they visualized,
to which they will answer, Triangle. This will, of course, get a reaction from the audience all
on its own, but now you can take it further.
I ask, It doesnt always happen, but yes or no, was there a specific color involved with this
image?
When they say yes, underneath the triangle, I write out, Yellow? and show it to the audience.
The participant can now name the color, and you are shown once more to be correct.

Effects:
As I said earlier, I wont bore you, or insult your intelligence by going into detail on every single
effect that you can do with this; there are too many. Im just going to share a few uses that I find
intriguing. Personally, I feel the impossibility of Total Control as direct mind-reading is the
strongest way that this can be utilized. No other props involved, just a marker and paper. There
are already other ways to achieve the following effectsexcept for maybe Multiply-a-Number
but there are few demonstrations of direct mind reading that look as clean as visualize
something and then you can immediately draw it.
Because of this, I almost exclusively use it as a stand-alone mind-reading piece. This stems from
my not wanting to use the Total Control technique for all of my effects. Things would get boring
rather fast if you were just constantly using this method, so I will leave these ideas here more for
completeness than anything else.
MULTIPLY-A-NUMBER Im a big fan of effects that appear to give the spectator an ability
to do something spectacular. With this effect, you give a spectator the ability to do impossibly
quick calculations.
Its astonishing to think that our brains are stronger than the most powerful super
computers, capable of making innumerable complex calculations without our conscious
awareness. Without trying to consciously think about the answer, I want you to simply
allow your subconscious to show it to you.
You can now say a multiplication equation like 43 x 18, and your spectator will see the answer
on the paper, 774.
7

ACTION! I must say that I really enjoy using this as a way to predict someones actions. I also
sometimes synchronize the actions of two spectators by showing them the same card. I
mentioned dancing as a possible action in the original manuscript, but it can of course be applied
to any action, making a person Scream or Cough.
Or you could make it more specific and involved, like Give me your watch and jump up and
down. Or rather than a drawing duplication, you could write out, Draw a house and then give
them another piece of paper to draw it on.
ANY CARD AT ANY NUMBER For this one in particular, I would put both the card and the
number on the same index card. I would hide the card value and suit with my fingers as I show
the number to spectator one, then hide the number as I make spectator two hallucinate the card.
You can then reveal that card at that number in a regular deck.
BOOK TEST Have the person imagine that theyre holding an imaginary book. They are told
to flip through the pages and tell you what page number theyve stopped on. In the center of
the page I want you to visualize blurry letters, almost like youre reading while wearing
someone elses eyeglasses. But when you open your eyes, your subconscious will show you
the word on the paper. They open their eyes, see the word, and you write it in marker for
everyone to see. You could also force the page number, have them open a book to that page and
find the force word circled in the middle.
CHAIR TEST Lets say you want to force the blue chair. After showing them the word blue,
you would remove a blue marker from your pocket and trace over the penciled letters. Show this
openly to your audience, and then have the participant sit in the chair color they visualized.

For myself, who only prefers to use the hallucination bit once, I feel this is a waste of the
technique. Its still very impressive as an open prediction chair test, but compared to the
impossibility of being able to visualize and guess anything, it just doesnt compare.
I could continue with time forces or date forces, or anything, but I think you get it. The main
point of this manuscript was the 2.0 version and the color idea. Hopefully you get as much
enjoyment out of these additions as I do!