37. Mental Mastery
class: tweener | impressiveness: 5/5 | factors: massive utility, highly versatile | requires: stuff to write on, presentation skills | watch full episode
This is one of the most powerful principles you’ll learn in this book. I’ve put together a super-simple version of the trick that you’ll be able to perform at the bar with virtually no preparation, but there are much more advanced versions that use the exact same technique and will blow you away.
The Effect: After the scammer jots down a guess and hides it in a glass, three volunteers are each individually asked completely fair, random questions… anything from the name of their first pet to a random color they’re thinking of. Yet, after everyone has “locked in” their answers, our fake psychic shows that he guessed all three of their answers in advance!
The Method: It doesn’t matter what the questions you ask are. In fact, the more creative and strange the questions you ask, the more fun this will be for everyone. “How tall was your dad?” “What year were you born?” “What’s the name of the first person you ever kissed?”
All you need to pull this one off is the ability to force just one of the three answers in advance. You can pre-arrange an answer with one of your friends, you can force a particular playing card, or ask a question that you already know the answer to. Heck, you could even just guess at a yes-or-no question. Even if you get that one question wrong, you’ll still be right for 2 out of 3.
This effect relies on the fake psychic working out-of-order. After asking the first question, you’ll think, focus, and secretly write the answer to the third question you plan to ask (this is the one “force” question that you already know the answer to). Fold up the paper and place it in the glass.
“Now I don’t want to accuse you of being this kind of person,” you say, “but some people like to mess with me and they’ll lie after the trick is over and say I got it wrong. Since I’ve already locked in my first guess, let everyone else know what you were thinking of.”
She’ll announce her first answer, and you’ll now know your second prediction to write.
Continue to write down the answer to each previous question until you finally get to the one question you’ve pre-arranged the answer to. This will be your last prediction.
Finally, shake up the predictions inside the glass as you ask everyone to reiterate their previous answers, and for the reveal, pour out the jumbled guesses and hand each one to its correct match.