A.P.E.- A Perception Experiment by Craig Petty

A.P.E. HITS HARDER THAN A 500LB SILVERBACK

You ask your audience if they’ve seen the famous perception experiment on YouTube the one where you’re asked to count basketball passes… and somehow completely miss a giant gorilla walking through the scene.

“If you were there live,” you say, “you’d never miss it… right?”

Let’s test that.

You remove three cards from a sleek vegan leather holder. Each card shows a different number of basketballs. The cards are fairly displayed front and back, and they’re asked a simple question:

What’s the total number of basketballs?

They think. They count. They answer.

Then you ask one more question:

“Did you see the gorilla?”

Confusion.

You turn the cards over and spread across all three is a massive gorilla, staring them in the face.

How could they miss that?

Cue absolute chaos. Laughter. Disbelief. Talking over each other. That beautiful moment where everyone needs to process what just happened. The reaction doesn’t stop it loops and the story keeps getting better every time they retell it.

Once the gorilla appears, the cards can be shown front and back again. You can even hand a couple out though most people won’t want to touch them. Their brains are too busy rebooting.

The cards were designed by Phil Smith, the undisputed king of card marking and deceptive design, with a brilliantly subtle touch that makes the method as clever as the effect.

A.P.E. is the perfect opener or a devastating closer:

• Instant hook

• Highly interactive

• 2-second reset

• Virtually no pocket space

• Incredibly easy to perform

You missed the gorilla.