The PATEO force is a weird thing – it’s deceptive (just about) and the big selling point for me is the ‘interactiveness’ of it – there’s a process, but it’s kinda fun.
There’s been lots of attempts to justify the procedure, and whilst generally I adhere to the Law Of Bannon regarding procedure (Law of Bannon – Don’t justify procedure as a general rule – you are often just calling attention to something that you want ignored.)
However, this justification speaks for itself, ties in to the ‘game’ aspect of the force, and naturally explains the turns that you take.
So, get a pool ball as a prediction – mine is an orange 5. Then, draw or print some cards with a whole bunch of pool balls on, all different colours and numbers. I use six cards, which I can lay out in a triangle pattern. One of them is an orange 5 ball, and the others are all different.
Start off by having all the bits in a pocket, and ask the spectator if they have an empty pocket (or if they can make one). Have them hold out their hand and close their eyes, and give them the prediction ball, which they place into their pocket.
Now lay out the cards, ball side up, in a triangle shape. I then have the spectator ‘break off’ and scatter the cards all over the place. Now we take it in turns with the PATEO force… I point to two cards (just avoiding the orange ball) and ask the spectator to choose which ball to pot… their choice is discarded. Now, have the spectator nominate two cards, and you pick one to discard (it is ‘potted’ in the presentation) – just make sure, no matter which balls they nominate, just don’t discard the orange 5.
At the end of the procedure, with both of you taking turns, you will eventually be left with the orange 5 card… direct the spectator to check the one in their pocket, and it’s a perfect match!
Presentational ideas.
If you don’t want to put the ball in the spectators pocket, get a green felt bag, which will look like the baize cloth.
I have a pool chalk, that I use to chalk my finger before I ‘pot’ the balls on my go. I’m a nerd.
To make the force even more deceptive, you can have the cards face down, and then just mark the Orange ball, so there’s even more randomness. This is probably the best approach (but not one that I’ve taken, as I made the sets of cards without back designs, and laziness has struck!)
Liam