talkmagic.co.uk

...what could possibly go wrong?

On Sunday I was working as a reader at a psychic fair being held in a large pub in Liverpool. As well as working as a reader I was also giving a talk about the hidden intuitive powers that we all have.

The fair had only just opened when who should walk in but Simon Vanderbelt. Within an hour he had being talked into giving a small workshop as well on the subject of psychometry.

Another mentalist was in attendance (he shall remain nameless to protect his privacy, I don't think he's a member here) and his talk was to be on body language, and how it is possible to spot a liar.

Three mentalists. Three short 20 minute talks. What could go wrong?

My talk involved a pendulum demonstration with 3 volunteers stood at the front of the room. Suddenly one of my volunteers became possessed by the spirit of someone called "Eric" who started shouting at me and asking what we were doing there. Fighting back the temptation to tell this woman to step messing around, I tried to remain calm and asked the spirit of Eric to step away from the lady. After a few minutes I managed to get her back to her seat where she swooned for a moment before regaining her composure. Apparently, she informed me, it happens all the time.

I finished my talk with a ungimmicked drawing dupe and guess who got the image spot on? Perhaps she really was psychic after all?

Simon then proceeded to give his talk on psychometry, and as a demonstration he did a wonderful version of OOTW with photos of murderers and victims. As luck would have it his two volunteers were both newly qualified reiki masters who bought into the whole experience 100%. Afterwards they told Simon that the demonstration of psychometry had been a life changing experience for them, and had given them the confidence to believe in themselves more and take their lives in the direction that they really wanted. Not bad for OOTW!

The third demonstration was from the unnamed mentalist. He was doing smash & stab as a demo of his abilities to spot when someone is lying to him. The volunteer hid the spike under one of three cups and the mentalist had to detect the safe cups by asking the volunteer questions and determining whether she was lying to him or not.

We are often warned against smash & stab and now I know why. The mentalist got it wrong and smashed his hand down onto the spike. There was a stunned silence from the audience as the poor guy howled with pain and hopped around on one leg. It makes me squirm just thinking about it now.

Luckily he was okay and after applying pressure with a bar towel and then affixing a plaster to the cut he was fine. But really, ouch!

So a possession, a life changing experience, a failed smash & stab, AND I earned a couple of hundred quid from my readings. Now that's a proper day out. I had a fantastic time!

Great story!

Though if it was an English, Irish and Scottish mentalist......

Almost! One from Sheffield, one from Cheshire, one from Liverpool!

themagicwand wrote:My talk involved a pendulum demonstration with 3 volunteers stood at the front of the room. Suddenly one of my volunteers became possessed by the spirit of someone called "Eric" who started shouting at me and asking what we were doing there. Fighting back the temptation to tell this woman to step messing around, I tried to remain calm and asked the spirit of Eric to step away from the lady. After a few minutes I managed to get her back to her seat where she swooned for a moment before regaining her composure. Apparently, she informed me, it happens all the time.

I was near wetting myself at this point. The sort of reaction we dream of during a seance evening etc. but on a sunny Sunday afternoon during a pendulum demo. Priceless.

themagicwand wrote:I finished my talk with a ungimmicked drawing dupe and guess who got the image spot on? Perhaps she really was psychic after all?

I have to say, this sent me over the edge! If anyone is in any doubt whatsoever that a spec will make things fit to suit their own ideas, here's a classic example. The lady in question visualised a house, just as Paul had drawn. Not only that, she went into detail about a gate at the front of the house swinging on its hinges (quite how she expected Paul to have drawn an animated picture is beyond me).... So Paul's picture of a house is revealed (without gate, animated or otherwise) and attention is drawn to the chimney as one of the audience had visualised a chimney on its own. Our wonderful 'trance medium' then exclaimed, quite loudly, that of course that's what she'd seen... the swinging gate had in fact been a chimney.... Really!!!

Vanderbelt wrote:

themagicwand wrote:My talk involved a pendulum demonstration with 3 volunteers stood at the front of the room. Suddenly one of my volunteers became possessed by the spirit of someone called "Eric" who started shouting at me and asking what we were doing there. Fighting back the temptation to tell this woman to step messing around, I tried to remain calm and asked the spirit of Eric to step away from the lady. After a few minutes I managed to get her back to her seat where she swooned for a moment before regaining her composure. Apparently, she informed me, it happens all the time.

I was near wetting myself at this point. The sort of reaction we dream of during a seance evening etc. but on a sunny Sunday afternoon during a pendulum demo. Priceless.

Obviously I do something wrong!

Looks like apart from the smash and stab going wrong you had some great reactions. Well done those men!

I read this and thought "Only in Liverpool"

I never heard of this event though, which pub was it in?

It was in The Elephant, Woolton Village. Not a bad little venue, emphasis on little though, the function rooms were a little cramped for my liking.

The organiser holds venues all over though, the next one is April 17th at The Lamb in Wavertree. I've booked myself a table, not sure if Paul's coming. Anyone in the area should pop in and say hello!

Ahh the Elephant, thats actually my boss's old bar. Its quite big really but i suppose in event venue terms it really is small.

I don't actually know what this event is all about, does the organiser have a website with some info or would you mind giving me a little run down of what its all about?

Thanks

Have dropped you a PM mrz0mbie

themagicwand wrote:The third demonstration was from the unnamed mentalist. He was doing smash & stab

Here, I started to cringe.

Lawrence wrote:Here, I started to cringe.

Me too and that's the point when I realised I really was able to see into the future - very accurately as it happens!

Lawrence wrote:

themagicwand wrote:The third demonstration was from the unnamed mentalist. He was doing smash & stab

Here, I started to cringe.

Yep, have seen first hand this trick go wrong ... caught the whole lot on tape and for a while became the selling point of our show "That was the show where the guy stabbed himself" hahahahaha

Dan

Ouch. Just ouch.

http://smokemirrors.co.uk/Bloopers.aspx

Caution Advised ... Smash and Stab going wrong ...

You would have thought he would have known what was coming?