Best Mentalism Tricks

While it’s very hard to choose only a few tricks that I’d consider to be the best mentalism tricks of all time, I’ve gave it my all and managed to reduce the original mentalism tricks list down to 3 essential mentalism tricks – all with different levels of expertise – that are some of the very best ever.

While there are complex and very drawn out tricks out there, I heavily prefer the simpler, faster but extremely powerful ones instead and that’ll show on my picks as you’re about to see.

You can consider these the best of their expertise level with the first being expert, the second being medium and the last one being beginner.

You can learn how to perform all of these and many more though so let’s take a close look at them!

Top 3 Best Mentalism Tricks

1 – Smoking Card Guess

Gorgeously performed by the great Derren Brown, this is easily one of the best mentalism tricks of all time. Using a simple card selection introduction and some top-notch sleight of hands skills (pay attention to the cigarette switch at 2:15), Derren proceeds to blow Stephen Fry’s mind not once, not twice, but three times in a row. Brilliant.

If you want to learn how to do it from the master himself, watch Derren’s DVD ” The Devils Picturebook”.

2 – Paper Napkin Shiner Trick

A simple mind reading trick taken to god-like heights by the simple art of performance. No sleight of hands, no gimmicks, just pure skill, a simple trick and subtle acting that result in a super powerful effect that’ll leave your audience in awe.

The concept is simple – have your audience write something (can be anything) on a piece of paper, hold it with the word facing down above a “shiner” (something that reflects the word back to you such as a cellphone screen, glass, polished metal and so on) and then proceed to discreetly take a look at the reflection, crumpling up the piece of paper, and “guessing” the word while playing the whole performance up.

Extremely simple but so darn potent, it’s inspiring. Although it’s been used for decades and decades, Jay Sankey made a fantastic video on it with a modern twist complete with an explanation, take a look:

3 – Seth’s 3

This simple but awesome mentalism trick delivers an excellent effect that’s sure to blow anyone away. Based on Seth Rover’s principles, it’s one of the best in my opinion due to how unbelievably easy it is to perform in comparison to its huge payoff that only increases the more you do it.

You can take someone to utter madness if you keep doing it! Brian Brushwood, popular due to his Scam School works, will show you exactly how it’s done here:

Conclusion

These are only 3 of many excellent mentalism tricks, but they pack such a powerful punch that they can be considered to be some of the very best. If you want to learn how to do all of these and many more that nearly nobody knows about (increasing their effect), be sure to take a look at this!

Thanks as always for reading and I’ll see you on the next one!