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Sylvia Browne Going Down

Garrette said:
Jessica Simpson is a young and beautiful pop singer who is famous because her dad publicized her greatly and she has a modicum of talent. She is beautiful because she has a modicum of looks, more than a modicum of chest, lots of zit medicine, the right doctors, and great wardrobe assistants.

Nick is her (soon to be ex) husband who is famous and talented because he is married to someone famous and beautiful.
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And here I thought they were OJ's ex-wife and that waiter.
 
Dustin said:
In MY opinion...

You should rally about a dozen or so ....
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Thats my opinion too but I get stuck on step one. I tried last time and got some big talkers but when it comes down to getting in the car and doing the deed they all run away and wet their pants. I am a one man show on this project.

When it comes to graphic design I am like a post head injury Gary Busey. I really need help to make one that people will read and not just throw away, any volunteers?

I might not change any minds but that doesnt mean its not worth doing. I can make her feel less welcome in this town and I call that a good days work. Even if I just disrupt her con for a bit and make her blood pressure rise its worth it. I am going to show all these clowns that come to my town that there is one person here who's not impressed with them.

Come on isnt it worth $1 to have a mp3 of Sylvia being BOO'd to her face on your ipod? I just cant float this one alone I need to offset the cost a bit to justify it.
 
Fight woo with woo? From undercover, of course.

Call in the local bible thumpers? let them make lots of biblical quotes about soothsayers? False gods?

Get to the locale early, do your own cold readings, just to give an example of bad cold readings- anybody with half a brain would make their own comparison...and maybe you'll get rich and famous too?
 
casebro said:
Fight woo with woo? From undercover, of course.

Call in the local bible thumpers? let them make lots of biblical quotes about soothsayers? False gods?

Get to the locale early, do your own cold readings, just to give an example of bad cold readings- anybody with half a brain would make their own comparison...and maybe you'll get rich and famous too?
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I dont think we are deep enough south to have those kind of dedicated bible thumpers. I did see a group of "God Hates Fags" protesters downtown once.

Maybe you are on to something. I could offer free psychic readings and if they buy into it reveal the truth. If I get there early I can roam around and talk to the other people, maybe bring a deck of tarot cards. I could portray a local psychic/Sylvia Browne follower "we still have an hour till the show would you like a free reading?"

Yes you have given me some ideas to ponder.
 
Do your psychic schtick outside the venue, but make sure you reveal the trick every time.

"No, madam, you are going to have to tell me when he died - I need that info to make my amazing psychic prediction come true... Oh, and what he died of too, so I can REALLY look good. What was his name again?"
 
I think the flyers are the best way to go. You might want to make sure that the place where you end up handing them out is on public, rather than private, property, so you don't get escorted away by security.

For maximum effectiveness, include a section on cold reading and misses, so they can actually watch Sylvia doing it and know what they're seeing. And maybe a section on hot reading to explain the perfect reads.
 
Anti_Hypeman said:
The main problem I see with the pamphlets is that I would be handing them out to people that have already paid big money to see her. Im just one man and cant pass out that many, people passing out literature downtown tend to get the eyes down walk fast treatment.
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You could, hypothetically, fly poster the theater and the surrounding block with luminous yellow posters saying something like "SILVIA BROWN WAS CONVICTED OF FRAUD IN *STATE*~ 1992"

Obviously, only do this if it is legal in Indiana.

And if it's not don't put a link to the JREF on it.
 
Give lessons to others via a Pamphlet named

"How To Become A Psychic"

"Ms Jones, ask Mr Smith if he knows a dead guy whose name has any letter in it- You pick the letter, Ms Jones"....
 
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Thread title gave me the creeps and a mental image that I just didn't need.
 
casebro said:
Fight woo with woo? From undercover, of course.

Call in the local bible thumpers? let them make lots of biblical quotes about soothsayers? False gods?

Get to the locale early, do your own cold readings, just to give an example of bad cold readings- anybody with half a brain would make their own comparison...and maybe you'll get rich and famous too?
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This is the best idea so far. I would expand this to include the newspaper ad if possible, but make the add have some kind of spin intended to inflame the bible thumpers.
 
Red Siegfried said:
How come we never see a daytime talkshow with the topic of "People Whose Lives Were Ruined By Psychics?"
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Hate to say it, but Dr. Phil did an episode called 'Women Addicted to Psychics'. http://drphil.com/shows/show/447/ Do not take this as a sign that I watch Dr. Phil. I do not. I looked it up. I don't own a TV. Stop looking at me!

Anyhoo, Char was on that too (she was on Larry King last night). Very scary looking - she must have had a major face lift in the intervening time. Plus, she said on Phil's show that she had been working as a psychic for 30 years, but on Larry's she said only 20. Probably to throw people off as to her real age after all the surgery.

But my point. Phil seemed more skeptical of psychics than I would have guessed. I wouldn't trust much that he says, but even a broken clock is right twice a day.
 
And check out the 'suing psychics' thread on the same forum topic for info on Sylvia's fraud charges.
 
I think leafletting is the way to go. People can be too easily confused by theatrical stunts like setting up a free cold-reading booth, plus it's likely you'll just get shooed off like any other cold reader/psychic who set up shop by the queue.

And booing would tend to be counterproductive I would think - it might be vaguely fun and exciting, but at the end of the day you'll be disrupting a show people have paid up to $200 for, and they won't be happy. You'll be the bad guy, and you'll never get to explain your actions to them.

Though it's worth a mention, I wouldn't have thought many people would be greatly affected by Sylvia's fraud/larceny convictions - it's not how people's minds work ("What's a tax charge got to do with anything???", not "Wait, if she's committed fraud before, maybe she is now...") I think it's also important to avoid appearing to just be running a smear campaign.

But very clear, bullet-pointed, straightforward, factual leaflets, with web links and preferably some pictures, I think would do the job as well as it can be done.

And nice and prominently, perhaps a few references to some local or national grief counselling organisations.
 
As for actual content, with the addition of grief counsellors, I'd go with Garrette's suggestions. But personally I'd remove "replicated" and put "X, Y and Z are standard magic tricks" or something a bit less 'sciency' sounding.

And maybe a short introductory paragraph pre-empting knee-jerk dissonance:
... maybe you've even been told things before by a medium or psychic that they just couldn't have known. This is all a part of the 'trick' known as Cold Reading. It's not hypnotism, but it does leave you believing something happened that didn't..."
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kind of thing.

Maybe also a concluding paragraph hoping people enjoy the show, but asking them to see if they can spot some of these things happening during it, and, if they can, to think about what that might mean.

Let's hope Sylvia leaves them lots of time to read it, whilst her minions eavesdrop on the bored queue :)
 
With pamphlets I still have the problem of getting people to actually take them. Random nuts are handing out crap down there all the time I dont know how to distinguish myself. A scam the nation of islam dopes use is to shove something into your hand and then try to charge you for it. Most people will pay rather than have an argument with a gang of large black men on the street.

I can leave stacks of them in the mens bathrooms before the show maybe tape them eye height over the urinals.

I dont think it will penetrate I really need to get inside to be effective.
 
Anti_Hypeman said:
With pamphlets I still have the problem of getting people to actually take them. Random nuts are handing out crap down there all the time I dont know how to distinguish myself. A scam the nation of islam dopes use is to shove something into your hand and then try to charge you for it. Most people will pay rather than have an argument with a gang of large black men on the street.
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So charge them for your pamphlet! Actually, maybe a little marketing could help - "Free Alternate Tour Programme!" or "Free Sylvia Booklets!", or, appealing to the woo mentality "Free! The TRUTH They Won't Tell You!"

Maybe even let them come to you to get one, instead of hassling them to take one. If that didn't work, you could always start hassling at any point.

Your advantage is, you're not cold-calling or targetting random people - you know your target demographic, and you're not too bothered whether people who aren't going to see Sylvia get one or not.

I can leave stacks of them in the mens bathrooms before the show maybe tape them eye height over the urinals.
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Yeah that would work. Maybe putting them under car windscreen wipers in the car park too? Although then people would only get them on the way out.

I dont think it will penetrate I really need to get inside to be effective.
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Well it would be good to put her on the spot as much as possible if you did get in. But like I said, the trouble is that you don't get the chance to explain to people what you're doing or why. If they leave with the vague recollection that there was an annoying heckler who was removed after a few minutes, that achieves nothing; if they also recall that the heckler was shouting something about Randi's challenge, that probably works against what you want to achieve.

Tricky one! But hey, you're the guy who's up for doing it, I'm just giving my tuppennyworth :)
 
Never though much of heckling or booing myself. Seems to do nothing but commove the parade.
 
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