Creating the Legend

Part of my regular lecture I do is what I call “Creating the Legend” and “Maintaining the Legend”. What I teach is that by claiming to people that you can do something extraordinary, (and always putting it off with an excuse) and by “threatening to do something extraordinary” but never doing it will eventually have people talking about the stunt that you proposed to do and claimed to have done in the past.

Now, envision that all the while you are claiming to have done this supposed stunt, that there are others there that will swear to the fact that you actually did it. They will vividly recall the time that you actually did it and how difficult it actually was for you to accomplish this feat. Later on, even when you are not there, people will recall that you can do this stunt and others will recall this later, if anything, they will recall that they heard that you could do this. This process takes some time to actually build up (it takes years to build this “legend”) but it does build.

You also must remember the most important point of all of this and that is “You must already have established a reputation for doing impossible things before anyone will believe that you can do the extraordinary things that are claimed.” If they believe you truly can do these things it becomes easy for them to believe the “legends” even if they have never seen you do it. That all being said, I introduce you to the trick I call “An Eye Opener”.

An Eye Opener

I am not quite sure how old this stunt is nor am I familiar with any originator either.Perhaps if someone does know the origins of this they can let me know. I have been doing this stunt for so long I don’t even remember where I learned it from; however, there are still people circulating that would swear in Court that they actually saw me open a bottle with my eye socket.

This is the sort of party stunt that all you need is the cajoles to do. That, a beer (or other unopened bottle which requires a bottle opener) and an audience. Also, after a few parties, you will have no problem with “perpetuating the legend” as I call it. Basically once you have planted in the minds of the people that you can actually do it (even though you haven’t) they later remember the situation a bit different and believe that they actually did witness you doing such a stunt.

You begin when you see someone trying to open a beer (or other type) of bottle. You explain that you can do it with your eye. They are usually skeptical but go along with it. You take the bottle and bending your head over (as you stand upright, you bend your head inwards and down and lean over slightly) and place the cap inside your eye socket. You fiddle it around, adjusting it for a bit then apparently hook it into your eye socket you begin to open it as you would on a bottle top opener (although you do it ever so lightly) and as you do, with your tongue firmly planted against the roof of your mouth and the fronts of your teeth you make a loud and quick “tsss” sound, simulating the sound of a bottle cap coming off of a carbonated beverage.

You then exclaim “ouch” or “oh, let me try that again” as you readjust it. By now there are people who should be quite mortified at what you are doing and begging you to just use a bottle opener. You explain that you really want to try again. You repeat this process and then explain that you just can’t see to get it all but that you seem to have loosened it a bit and that they will just have to use a bottle opener after all.

The amazing thing here is that later on, because of the hissing sound they all heard, they will later swear that they saw you actually open the bottle with your eye. They will tell others what they saw too thus perpetuating your myth, thus engaging your journey to becoming a legend in your own mind.