We’ve all had to make adjustments and changes due to the “new normal” brought on by the global pandemic.
Mentalists and performers have had to find ways to continue their trade even while social distancing. Doing tricks online via video platforms seemed to be the best route for mentalists to take.
But considering that touch and unconscious human mannerisms play a huge part in mentalism tricks, how exactly can mentalist achieve the same success as they would in person?
Today, we’re sharing with you this guide on how to do mentalism over Zoom: how to perform tricks on video calls. Plus, we’ll include a list of cool tricks you can try out on your next conference call with family or friends.
So let’s begin!
Mentalism Over Zoom: Building Trust and Rapport
There’s a reason why tricks you see in videos aren’t as impressive as when you see them in person. People’s minds are hardwired to expect deceit and superimposition when watching films. This can make building trust and rapport a little difficult, especially for beginner mentalists.
Luckily, there are several techniques you can do that can encourage your audience to trust you.
Always Keep Your Hands in Sight
The thing about videos is that you never know what’s on the other side of the screen. And that’s difficult for an audience to feel comfortable with.
Remember, body language still plays an important role in Zoom tricks — more so than with in-person tricks. So showing your hands to your audience can be a sign for them to trust you and be open with you. And, of course, showing your hands means you’re not using them to do anything behind the scenes.
Keep Things Straightforward
Keeping things straightforward during a Zoom call can help you avoid difficult situations where your audience might feel like they are being manipulated. You obviously can’t use the typical forces you use during in-person shows. So sticking with something simpler like sleight of hand or scripting your tricks to use fewer forces can be more effective.
We talk about “Forces” in a previous article entitled “The Biggest Mentalism Secrets You Should Know”. If you haven’t checked that out, you can do so now. It’ll help you understand what forces do and how important they are to a mentalist.
Keep Flourishes to a Minimum
Flashy, attention-getting moves during mentalism tricks might not work as well on a Zoom call. One lag and it could ruin your entire act and the trust and rapport you’ve built with your audience earlier on. Again, keep things as simple as possible to avoid botching your show and to keep your audiences satisfied and amazed.
Three Best Mentalism Tricks to Do Over Zoom
Now that we’ve gone over several points of concern about doing mentalism tricks on video calls, we can move on to discussing a few tricks you can perform for an audience.
Here are three (3) awesome mentalism tricks you can do over Zoom.
- The Invisible Deck
- Color Changes
- Coin Tricks
The Invisible Deck
One of the first few tricks every mentalist learns how to do is the Invisible Deck trick. It’s simple yet astonishing, which makes for a great performance — even one that’s being done on screen.
All you’ll need is a regular set of cards and you’re set to go!
How this trick goes is you ask your subject to name a card. Once they’ve named one, you can pull out a deck from a pocket (preferably somewhere your subject has a full view of your hands). Taking out the cards, spread them out for your subject to see — all cards facing out, except for one which will be facing toward you.
Flip it over, and your subject will find that it’s their card!
Check out this video to see how it’s done:
Color Changes
Another great trick you can easily get away with on Zoom is the Color Change — changing one card for another card.
You start with a regular deck of cards that you spread out for your audience or subject to see. Now, ask them to choose a card, take it out, and reinsert it anywhere inside the deck.
Flip the deck over, showing the underside or the last card in the pile. Make a gesture or wave your hands over the deck, and voila! The last card has changed into the one your subject has selected.
Here’s how you can successfully achieve this trick:
Coin Tricks
From making coins disappear into thin air to having them travel from one hand to the other — there is an unlimited number of ways you can perform coin tricks on a video call.
Here are a few of the simplest ones you can start with.
Coin Goes Through the Table
Place a coin on a table in front of you. Using your hand, rub the coin in a circular motion. Do this for an adequate amount of time — not too long and not too short, or else it will ruin the effect.
Lift your hand and the coin seems to have magically gone through the table.
What really happens is that as you rub the coin, you also slow push it toward the edge of the table. This gives the illusion that your coin has somehow magically traveled through the table.
Coin in Pen Cap
For this trick, you’ll need a pen and a coin.
Start with the coin on your open palm. With the pen, tap the pen three times, as if casting a magic spell. On the third tap, the coin disappears. You open up the pen cap and empty it into your other palm, and ‘lo and behold — the coin was in the cap all along.
What really happens is that on the third tap of the pen, you toss the coin from one hand to the other holding the pen. From there, you just need to pretend that the coin was in the pen’s cap and that you dropped it on your other hand.
This will require some practice, but once you get used to it, it’s a great trick to perform over Zoom.
Changing Faces
Begin by holding your coin between your thumb and forefinger, make sure it’s facing the audience so they can see its face. Show the audience that you don’t have anything else in either hand.
Make a gesture using your free hand — you can either cover the hand that’s holding the coin or just wave your free hand in front of it.
Your coin then turns into a different coin.
What’s going on is that you have a smaller coin behind the bigger one, which you quickly switch when your free hand is covering or waving in front of your other hand. This gives the illusion that the coins have changed faces.
Conclusion
Bringing your craft over to Zoom or any other video call platform can be difficult. But with a little practice and dedication, it’ll be just as if you were performing in-person, in front of a physical audience.
Have fun practicing these tricks and techniques we taught you today.
And if you notice anything missing or if you have ideas you’d like to share, we’d love to see them in the comments section below.
Good luck!