Curious about the mentalism chair test?
A lot of people are.
That’s why we decided to dedicate this article to everything you need to know about the mentalism chair test.
Now, there are so many variations to the chair test trick that it’s hard to focus on one area only. So today, we’ll look into its origins, the modern chair test, and even the props used to perform a version of the chair test.
Without further ado, let’s get started!
The Origins of the Mentalism Chair Test Trick
It’s quite difficult to point out when the chair test was created as it’s been around for decades. Plus, many mentalists have added their own little twists to make the performance their own.
But one thing is for sure: the mentalism chair trick involves pseudo-psychometry, an effect popularized by Theodore Anneman.
So how does his trick work? It’s similar to most mentalism chair tricks you find online, but with a bit more psychometry involved.
Each participant is given an envelope by the performer. They are then asked to put in a personal object. It could be car keys, lipgloss, etc…
The envelopes are then mixed up by a random spectator and returned to the performer.
The objects are then removed one by one by the performer to “sense” the personal vibrations of the owner. Then he will return the things to the correct person.
But how does the performer know who the correct owner is? The trick here is that each envelope is secretly marked in the correct order.
The mark depends on the performer. It could be a small dent on the edge of an envelop, or small, discrete writing that shows the proper order of each item.
This trick sounds pretty lame nowadays, and that’s why many mentalists have made their own changes to help spice things up a bit more.
Now let’s talk about the mentalism chair test that most of us know and love!
What is The “Modern” Mentalism Chair Test?
The “modern” Mentalism Chair Test is a series of performances involving sleight of hand and some knowledge in psychometry – not that much different from the trick we talked about previously.
While we can’t exactly tell you step-by-step how to do the trick, we can talk about the effect of the trick, as well as some of the props.
“Why can’t we tell you the step-by-step how-to,” you ask?
This is because the trick has been tweaked and patented by many well-known mentalists. One of which is Wayne Dobson in collaboration with Alan Wong.
But as much as we can tell you, here’s how his trick works:
Basically what happens in the performance is that the mentalist invites four (4) spectators to come on stage to assist with the trick.
The mentalist shows a black bag containing four (4) different colored balls – one red, one blue, one green, and one yellow – to the participants. After the participants choose a ball and show them to the mentalist, they then put these back into the bag.
The performer shakes the bag to mix up the four balls. Now each participant is instructed to take a ball and conceal it with their fists so that the performer and the rest of the audience don’t know what colors they get.
These participants are then asked to sit on one of the four chairs on stage. They are then asked to peak at the color of their ball without revealing them to the others.
The mentalist then turns to the helpers and reveals the colors of the balls they are holding. Then he asks the participants to stand up and shows the audience the underside of their chairs, which perfectly matches the balls that each participant chose.
Cool right?
Here’s another variation.
This variation of the chair test trick was created by Paul Romhany and Vortex Magic.
Here’s a video for reference:
In this performance, the mentalist will select 4 random assistants from the crowd.
They are then asked to take their seats on the 4 chairs arranged on stage. The performer takes 4 envelopes in his hands labeled 1 through 4 and asks a stranger in the crowd to shuffle the envelopes.
Inside these envelopes can be a message or a sequence of numbers. The mentalist has to correctly guess the order of these numbers or words.
The shuffled envelopes are then given to the participants seated on stage. The mentalist will predict what the number sequence or the message is inside those envelopes.
They will either write it on their sheet of paper or a whiteboard.
The participants are then instructed to open their envelopes and show to crowd the message or number sequence inside.
Then the mentalist will show their prediction that perfectly matches the order in which the participants are holding their message is in.
Of course, in the video above, we see that the performer added some balls, a doll, whiteboards, and a black box.
This is what we meant by “adding your own twist”. Of course, it would be boring if you just gave them envelopes, shuffled them up, and then gave them back.
You need to add a little bit of pizzazz into your performance if you really want to entertain your crowd!
The Mentalism Chair Test Props
For the first trick we discussed, you will need 4 different colored balls, a bag, plastic color discs, and matching colored chips.
Beginners also need detailed PDF instructions with illustrations on how to perfectly pull off this trick.
Don’t worry, you can easily get all of these in Dwayne Dobson’s shop for only $60!
The second variation is by Paul Pomhany and Vortex Magic. It’s not so different from the first one. But you’ll only need a few sheets of paper (or anything you can write on).
It’s about $150 but you will be able to learn 4 variations of the chair test trick!
You can purchase the instructions in their online store.
Conclusion
As we said, the mentalism chair test trick is patented, which means you’ll have to buy the instructions to learn how to do it.
But just know that this trick is comprised of many different performances, all based around pseudo-psychometry.
And, if you bought the instructions to add this trick to your roster, never forget to practice as often as you can. The more seamless the performance looks, the more believable you are to your audience.
We encourage you to experiment with this chair test as much as you want. Add a cape, bring in some thrilling sound effects, or even collaborate with a “light man” to dim the lights inside the venue to set the mood. The limit is your imagination.