Home to some of the world’s most beautiful beaches, Aruba is one of the Dutch ABC Islands, along with Bonaire and Curacao. I was brought out to deliver a mind reading show to an international sales group, nearly half of whom spoke no English! As you can imagine, any form of entertainment becomes more difficult with…
As a mentalist, I’m typically onstage in front of a group that ranges in size from 15 individuals to 18,000. While the sizes of the groups have varied, their dynamics for the most part have not. In fact, most groups have immutable characteristics that we can capitalize on (and defend ourselves against). The same characteristics…
As a college student, my writing 39C professor taught us to always question the source of our information. In a world where Facebook and Google know more about us than we know about ourselves (each company has a small book’s worth of information on our habits, desires, interests, and friends), it’s easy to make incorrect…
Mentalism is based in part on building performances that take advantage of natural cognitive biases and illusions. This is the first in a series that will explore the inner workings of our minds. In a study called “Rubber hands ‘feel’ touch that eyes see,” scientists Matthew Botvinick and Jonathan Cohen published an optical and sensory…
One of my favorite parts of performing for a living is catching up with old friends, as well as meeting new friends. At a corporate program in Phoenix earlier this month, I was able to meet Frank Abignale, Jr, who you may know as the subject of the hit film Catch Me if You Can…
At one of my recent events, a client shared with me their company’s mission statement. The final word was “Exceed,” which they meant as exceeding their clients’ expectations. For this particular company, there isn’t much they can do to go above and beyond in a traditional sense. Their hands are bound by numbers and regulations,…
Playing cards have been a huge part of my life since childhood. I’ve used them to learn sleight of hand, enjoyed games with family, and even cheated at gambling when I’ve had the opportunity (just kidding… maybe). As a mentalist, I’ve learned to read tells to determine what cards people are thinking of. But the…
We left our previous discussion, in part 1, with one of the cornerstones of all memory technique, the linking method. If you missed that article, then this won’t make much sense, so please go read that first! Also, a couple of great resources if you’re interested in learning more are Moonwalking with Einstein and The…
“Do you have a photographic memory?” It’s a question that I’m asked after every show, and the simple answer is absolutely not. And gladly so. Here’s a Scientific American article that explores the burden of having a perfect memory: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/group-with-exceptional-memory-remembers-what-was-for-lunch-20-years-ago/ This month, we’ll explore a method used to memorize lists of information. In future installments,…
This month, my travels took me to Barcelona, Spain. The timing was perfect, as I booked a show there the week before one of my best friends married the love of his life in the Algarve region of Portugal. If you haven’t had a chance to visit Barcelona, you’re missing out on one of my…
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