Total of 45 members gathered at the Chinese Success Media at Bras Basah Complex and were treated to an evening of mentalism magic lecture by Lee Earle, formerly the editor and publisher of SYZYGY – the Journal of Contemporary Mentalism subscribed in 20 countries and included over 120 well-known contributors

He shared the 3 Ps – Premise, Platform Skills, Personality – that a good mentalist should possess.  He stressed the need to have complete control of oneself during a performance.  He gave useful tips like ‘a good conman believes his con’, to learn to move with a purpose rather than ambling without one, and to use words to create images to fill / feed audience’s minds so that they do not form their own.

Lee then went on to perform and teach ‘The Manila Miracle’, ‘The Tender Touch’, ‘Quadra-Wallet’, ‘Option Call, ‘Family Feudish’, ‘No Brainer Psychometry’, and a demonstration of his “Flashback Plus’ book test.

In ‘The Manila Miracle’, 4 members in the audience were each invited to choose one of 5 mini manila envelopes each.  The remaining envelope would go to Lee.  Four of the envelopes held a small gift each while one had an exceptional gift.  When the 4 envelopes selected by the spectators were opened up, they contained $2 each and the one envelope left for Lee contained a $50 inside!

In “The Tender Touch’, the performer appeared to be able to divine the number of cards cut to in a deck merely by weighing the cards on the palm of his hand.  A member of the audience was invited to cut off less than half a deck and place the cards onto the palm of Lee’s hand.  Another spectator counted exactly 26 cards from the same deck and place them on Lee’s other palm.  Using both outstretched arms like a balancing scale, Lee flicked off the ‘excess’ cards with the pile of 26 cards until he reached a state of equilibrium.  At this stage, the packets of cards in both hands were counted to show that they indeed contained the same number of cards.

In ‘Quadra-Wallet’, Lee wagered the contents of his wallet if he was unable to find the selected card of a member audience.  A deck of cards was thoroughly shuffled by a member audience.  Another person selected a card in a fair manner.  Lee showed that he had already predicted this card in advance from the contents in his wallet.

In ‘Option Call’, Lee cautioned the audience about “buyer’s remorse”.  Lee showed a prediction card placed face down in his wallet.  He then asked a member of the audience to call “stop” as he dealt cards one by one onto this person’s hand.  When “stopped” was called out, Lee gave him options to add or subtract cards so that he would not get the “buyer’s remorse” afterwards.  When the selected card was confirmed, it matched exactly the prediction card Lee had in his wallet.

In ‘Family Feud-ish’, all the audience members were invited to stand up and pre-select Answer A or B before a question in line with the popular TV game series “Family Feud” was announced.  The official answer (either A or B) was then read out.  The people who had answered wrongly were told to sit down.  The same procedure was carried out with the remaining people still standing, using another “Family “Feud” type question.  More people who got the wrong answer sat down.  Eventually, only one person remained standing.  Although Lee did not know this person, he could disclose her attributes and eventually even her career!

In ‘No Brainer Psychometry’, Lee showed that his method was indeed a “no brainer” to perform the popular “Psychometry” effect.  He gave 5 identical pouches to 5 randomly selected audience members.  He told them each to secretly place an item with which they have an emotional connection in the pouch and then zipped it up.  All the pouches were then returned to Lee after they were mixed up and placed in a random order.  By opening up each bag and reading the object placed inside, Lee could identify the rightful owner.  Everyone could not help but laughed at the “simple” method! 

Finally, Lee demonstrated ‘Flashback Plus’, a book-test fashioned after Larry Becker’s Flashback”, but with several variations added by Lee.  An audience member was invited to flip to any page of a book.  Lee was able to divine correctly the first as well as the last words in that page.  This spectator then turned to another random page and noted the page number.  Another audience member with another book turned to this page number.  Lee could described what was printed on this page of the second book.

Lee’s lecture was spiced with funny quips and useful insights.  Members stayed on to take photographs with him and purchase his magic products.