35. The Brain Drain
class: tweener | impressiveness: 4/5 | factors: highly impressive, must be setup | requires: prior setup, secret accomplice | watch full episode
The problem with most ESP/mind-reading effects is that they’re just so damned boring. There’s no real interaction or personality to them. That’s what’s great about the Brain Drain. It’s so dead simple you can do it with any of your friends, and so over the top that everyone can’t help but have a good time watching it.
The Setup: Five objects are laid out in front of the scammer, and while the scammer’s eyes are covered, one is selected by the group (or has an object hidden within it). The would-be psychic individually grabs the faces of each of his spectators (like some kind of idiotic mind-meld) and attempts to read their minds to know which object is the selected one…
And amazingly, he figures it out every time.
The Secret: No surprise here, but ESP has nothing to do with it. Instead, pre-arrange for one of the spectators to be your secret assistant, and work out a simple number code for each of the objects on the table. When we did this on Scam School we simply numbered the containers 1 through 5.
The method of communication between you and your secret assistant is diabolical: Make a big show as you put your hands on each person’s face, but when you get to your secret assistant, make sure your fingers cover both of his temples. As soon as you grab him, your assistant will clench his teeth in a number of pulses, corresponding to the secret number you’re looking for.
Nobody will see the motion, but you’ll clearly feel the pulses on your fingertips… Try it on your temples right now: put your fingers on your temples and clench down on your teeth a few times.
Once you have the secret number, you’re good to go, and to everyone else it will look like you’re a damned wizard!