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THEPSYCHIC
PICKPOCKET
Copyright © 2017
CONTENT
The Basic Concept..............................................................................3
The Reading.........................................................................................6
The Answer..........................................................................................7
No-Reading Versions.........................................................................8
Version 1.........................................................................................8
Version 2.........................................................................................9
Center Tear Combo..........................................................................10
Progressive Anagrams....................................................................11
THE BASIC CONCEPT
Stories with predictable endings are pretty boring, right?
Now, most mind reading effects are just like that. They think
of something and the performer reveals it. The audience
expects him to succeed as he calls himself a mind reader –
so, there are no real surprises in the performance. You might
argue that the audience can’t be 100% sure if the experiment
would work or not – true, but the finale still isn’t surprising.
Imagine this …
3
You give them a quick reading, only to conclude with:
“By the way, did you notice how you let go of that
initial thought? You were thinking of the word ‘house’,
right?”
Now, here comes the first surprise: You state that mind
reading would be like pickpocketing and that you didn’t try
to reveal their chosen thought at all – but other things about
them. In order to do so, you would have had to distract them.
4
If not, here is a softer version ...
“I’m not getting any letters. I think you are trying too
hard, you want it too much – but that’s fine because
I’m getting something else from you. (do the personal
reading) Now, that you’ve stopped concentrating so
hard on the initial word, it just popped into my mind –
you were thinking of ‘house’, correct?”
5
THE READING
Now, what kind of reading do we use for THE PSYCHIC
PICKPOCKET?
For those of you, who still fear doing readings, I will explain
two no-reading versions later on.
6
THE ANSWER
“Can you read my mind?”, they ask.
7
NO-READING VERSIONS
VERSION 1
My very good friend THOMAS ROSENKRANZ (known as TOM
ROSE in the magic community) invented the following
variation, which doesn’t require any reading skills.
8
“There is a problem you struggle with. You think about
it a lot when you are alone.”
VERSION 2
Another option is to write down some “personal thoughts”
on a piece of paper, without revealing them. You actually
write down a philosophical quote, that could be the answer
to a personal question.
9
CENTER TEAR COMBO
Even though this combination might be self-explanatory, I
will describe my step-by-step choreography to you here:
• Exchange billets
10
PROGRESSIVE ANAGRAMS
At first, I thought progressive anagrams wouldn’t work with
THE PSYCHIC PICKPOCKET, as you would have to read
thoughts they are concentrating on (which a psychic
pickpocket cannot do). However, the opposite is true! You
can start out TRYING to divine what they are concentrating
on – and then fail.
Have fun!
11