It was an hour show on public television last night. The style was similar to the "Secrets of Magic Revealed" series (or whatever the title is) but with far less time spent on build-up and revelation.
They had a few mentalists who performed one at a time for a small audience who had been told the mentalists were actual psychics. Effects were shown out of sequence and edited just to give the effect and then an explanation.
I didn't take notes, so from memory here are some things they showed:
1. Prediction sealed in envelope
2. Distant psychic reveals chosen card over telephone
3. Needle through arm as a demonstration of psychic healing
4. Spike, but with a dagger placed in a recessed stand
5. Drawing revelation
6. Remote viewing (not really, but it's what they called it)
7. Reveal chosen card while blindfolded
8. Mediumship with hot reading along the lines of John Edward
9. Psychic cold reading as per a visit to a fortune teller
10. Spirit slates
The prediction in envelope was the sum of three randomly chosen numbers. A headline prediction would have had greater audience impact, but I'm glad they didn't do that.
The card-revelation-over-phone was the old, old method that still catches people off guard, but it came across as a magic trick and not a psychic effect.
The needle through arm was clumsily performed, but sufficient to get the point across.
The magician who did Spike was the same one who did phone-over-card and the 'remote viewing.' He seemed out of place as a mentalist but fine as a magician. His verbiage was inconsistent regarding how he was purporting to accomplish the effect: was he reading minds, doing muscle reading, or traveling astrally somewhere? The script needed work. It seemed as if he was a talented magician who got roped in at the last minute to do mentalist stuff and didn't have the time to perfect the changes in presentation. In addition, the method for Spike is one obviously not accurate for the common presentations of it.
The drawing revelation method was accomplice-based and I think did a disservice by making it appear that an accomplice is necessary for this sort of trick.
The remote viewing effect was a very nice effect but somewhat sloppily presented--this is the one I think is a magician suddenly turned mentalist. The method involved an accomplice visiting the sitter's house (name and address obtained from information provided when getting the ticket) and gathering information under false pretenses. Nice to show how easy this is.
The revelation of a chosen card while blindfolded was perhaps the silliest method of them all. Certainly doable, and perhaps some mentalists actually use this method, but it's certainly the hard/expensive way.
The John Edward style mediumship used no cold reading, so that was a bit disappointing. Instead, it used accomplices mingling with the crowd prior to the show. Good that they showed that method, too, but I really wish they'd shown cold reading.
The psychic cold reading was the best of the show and very well done by a charming, convincing, lady magician I do not know. They showed her reciting a virtually identical script to three different people, each of whom swore to its accuracy before the big reveal.
The same lady psychic did the spirit slates. The method was fine, but it would have been nice if they had updated it to non-slate effects. If they didn't want to reveal the updated method, that would have been fine; they could have simply said "And fraudsters can do the equivalent with a paper and clipboard, though we won't tell you how because some honest magicians still use that method."
All in all, worth a watch, though nothing to froth about.
They had a few mentalists who performed one at a time for a small audience who had been told the mentalists were actual psychics. Effects were shown out of sequence and edited just to give the effect and then an explanation.
I didn't take notes, so from memory here are some things they showed:
1. Prediction sealed in envelope
2. Distant psychic reveals chosen card over telephone
3. Needle through arm as a demonstration of psychic healing
4. Spike, but with a dagger placed in a recessed stand
5. Drawing revelation
6. Remote viewing (not really, but it's what they called it)
7. Reveal chosen card while blindfolded
8. Mediumship with hot reading along the lines of John Edward
9. Psychic cold reading as per a visit to a fortune teller
10. Spirit slates
The prediction in envelope was the sum of three randomly chosen numbers. A headline prediction would have had greater audience impact, but I'm glad they didn't do that.
The card-revelation-over-phone was the old, old method that still catches people off guard, but it came across as a magic trick and not a psychic effect.
The needle through arm was clumsily performed, but sufficient to get the point across.
The magician who did Spike was the same one who did phone-over-card and the 'remote viewing.' He seemed out of place as a mentalist but fine as a magician. His verbiage was inconsistent regarding how he was purporting to accomplish the effect: was he reading minds, doing muscle reading, or traveling astrally somewhere? The script needed work. It seemed as if he was a talented magician who got roped in at the last minute to do mentalist stuff and didn't have the time to perfect the changes in presentation. In addition, the method for Spike is one obviously not accurate for the common presentations of it.
The drawing revelation method was accomplice-based and I think did a disservice by making it appear that an accomplice is necessary for this sort of trick.
The remote viewing effect was a very nice effect but somewhat sloppily presented--this is the one I think is a magician suddenly turned mentalist. The method involved an accomplice visiting the sitter's house (name and address obtained from information provided when getting the ticket) and gathering information under false pretenses. Nice to show how easy this is.
The revelation of a chosen card while blindfolded was perhaps the silliest method of them all. Certainly doable, and perhaps some mentalists actually use this method, but it's certainly the hard/expensive way.
The John Edward style mediumship used no cold reading, so that was a bit disappointing. Instead, it used accomplices mingling with the crowd prior to the show. Good that they showed that method, too, but I really wish they'd shown cold reading.
The psychic cold reading was the best of the show and very well done by a charming, convincing, lady magician I do not know. They showed her reciting a virtually identical script to three different people, each of whom swore to its accuracy before the big reveal.
The same lady psychic did the spirit slates. The method was fine, but it would have been nice if they had updated it to non-slate effects. If they didn't want to reveal the updated method, that would have been fine; they could have simply said "And fraudsters can do the equivalent with a paper and clipboard, though we won't tell you how because some honest magicians still use that method."
All in all, worth a watch, though nothing to froth about.
