The method as taught, absent the two words, provide you with a reasonable process for determining
someone's age with near certainty. It's clever and workable.
HOWEVER, with the addition of
two words you can extend the effect that will not only leave the spectator with a keepsake that they
will keep (for goodness sake) but also extend the presentation in two dimensions, making it play
much longer and a lot bigger.
That thought occurred to me when I saw the Penguin
presentation and I gambled my $9.95 that it would work. It appears that it did.
So, what,
you ask, are those two words? Well, you've stuck with me this far so here they are: magic square.
Once you get their age, don't blurt it out, instead, as they have been going through their
calculations, as shown on the penguin demo video, you have been construction the square. When you
learn their age that's the time to fill in the "critical squares" and then move into the square as
if it was an extension of the calculations they had been doing.
A little time misdirection
later you start to show how this bunch of numbers (that include ones mentioned in the ZAG portion)
adds up to their age... over and over again. At least, that's how I'm going to use this.
And finally, kudos to Penguin for posting a demo video with no obvious cuts or other things that
obscure the actual presentation.