Any mentalist has to be something of an opportunist IMHO. What is your best piece of opportunism?

A had a nice situation arise a couple of months back. I had been performing locally the night before and one of the effects that I tried was the psychological force of the Queen of Hearts for which I had a prediction written on a large sheet of paper. On this particular occasion (as sometimes happens) the psychological force did not work, so I used the invisible deck as an out. After the performance, I retrieved my prediction sheet and put it in my pocket, forgetting about it.

The following day I was chatting with my wife, and it came up in conversation that I use a Joker from a deck of cards as a bookmark. My wife said that she could use a playing card also, but she thought that the Queen of Hearts would be approprite for her. You can probably guess the rest, but suffice it to say, she still uses my prediction sheet as a bookmark

Cheers

Mark

Isn't it great when a plan comes together....as an old friend once said "Timimg is everything"

Best thoughts,
John Smetana

How about this coincidence? I was going to start a thread about coincidence and I came across the very question I was about to pose...and that's no lie.

I agree tenfold on the power of taking advantage of coincidence. Try this: Call up a friend and have him/her pick up a magazine around the house. Now tell him to find any watches around the house...no better yet, find a watch in the magazine...in an advertisement...tell him to concentrate on the time. "Ten of ten" you say. Your friend drops the phone, the magazine and his pants not necessarily in that order. Just so happens all watch ads are set at the same time. The watch appears to be smiling (and we thought we controlled people's thoughts).

I had a situation when I first started doing magic, I had a friend pick a card & put it back in the deck. I peeked at it & saw it was the Queen of clubs. I remembered that I had the same card from another deck lying on the table, I had him shuffle the deck & think of his card.

I pointed to the card & asked him to turn it over, boy was he surprised. I was pretty thrilled, because I had only been doing magic for a couple weeks & I was pretty proud of myself.

Aaah, but as Terry Pratchett once said "million to one chances usually occur nine times out of ten"

Cheers

Mark

Boy – did I blow HER mind! Coincidence and an opportunity grasped. Only yesterday is was in my local pub and we were talking about practical jokes. The cook from the kitchen told of the time when she was very young that she awoke to find that somebody had tied a dummy, so that it looked as though somebody had hung themselves from the whale’s jawbone that crowns the hill in her hometown. Coincidence? Yes, it was ME who had tied the dummy there one night! I left it a while then grasped the opportunity… Think of the street in which you lived as a young girl… It’s an impression I’m getting, it just popped into my head… was there a street nearby that started with a “G”?

“Yes, I stayed in Gilbert Avenue!”

BIG coincidence – that was the street in which I grew up, too!

An even number? No, odd – number 13. A miss, but a BIG hit… I now knew exactly which house she lived in (I half-remember her as a young child.) I was able to reveal, bit by bit, what the street looked like, and the names of neighbours and old school teachers. I could describe her classrooms, her church… the lot. Imagine the fun I had. WHAT A BLAST!

Question: should I now tell her how I knew all this? I’m VERY tempted

Yes tell her you are the reincarnation of ......a dog or someone else like the icecream man, or the tree that was in someones back yard ....

Tell her you are someone from the past, or maybe a timetraveler. I would still have some fun with it then tell her.

I once had a similar experience but it was more of a joke. We had some actors in the studio filming for a game we were producing. I was the animator on the project but they didn't know me from lick. The filming was 90% finished, sceduled to be released in 8 months to an year.

I was at an Irish pub here in raleigh, I think in was on St Pat's day. I happened to see all three of them at the pub.The room was crowded, I had a clear site of them through the crowd ..it was almost magical even with the chaos around us we had a clear site of each other. I yelled across the room to them I said "Hey aren't you guys/actors in the "2000 League game" ? They looked really puzzeled,..they said "yea" before they could say anything as they started to speak I blurt out "I love the game!..You guys rock in it" More puzzeled look ..They get so curious, they're trying to make their way towards me and they say "How do you know about the game,...its not out yet?" I yell back and kind of loose sight of them on purpose, they can still hear me I say "I'm from the future,..Its a long story" They get all wigged out, they are now franticly looking for me and they finaly come to me . They say "What...your from the future?" I said "Yea I'm here to change something, it doesn't concern you at all, but I just recognized you guys because I was playing the game just before I got here". Through the confusion and all of us yelling through the noise and music , and the situation of how we all saw each other seemed very surreal . They're mouth's were opened.They knew it was unbelievable but I could see something inside of them said what if...
They believed me untill I just couldn't hold it anymore. I had so much fun with it though.
"Thespian's" ......?
I ended up telling them I'm was just joking, I'm not really from the future, ....I'm not really here ,..and I left.

E-Leoni.

I had another similar piece of opportunism yesterday. Again I had my Queen Of Hearts prediction in my bag although I hadn't planned on doing that effect, it never hurts to be prepared. After the performance, someone insisted on showing me a card trick (which was good, I hasten to add), but the card that I picked happened to be the Queen Of Hearts (it wasn't forced on me, just pure luck that I picked it). So when the trick was complete, I had the preson who showed me the trick reach in to my bag an retrieve my prediction sheet. I think that his jaw is still dragging on the floor.

Cheers

Mark

I remember Gary Kurtz sitting at the Cafe Paltoquet, trying to bend a spoon by looking at it... Nothing. Pause. Tries, again, staring intently at the spoon. Nothing. Suggest someone else hold it, hands cupped.

By then, a couple o people have assembled, staring at the tall guy. Concentrates again... and a lamp fixture falls from the wall and crashes on the floor. Kurtz did not miss a beat, apologized profusely, and refocused the crowd on the woman holding the spoon.

When she opened her hands, it was quite a moment.

Just this past week I was working on a movie set. This woman that I had worked with in the past knew that I did magic and always asks me to show her something. Well, I told her that I'm leaning more towards mentalism now and I did Harry Loryane's Stop Trick. She was blown away. Some people saw me doing this as she turned her card over and said "Oh, are you doing card tricks?" I repled that we were doing something a little different. She said "Do it again for them!" I proceeded to do it again. When she makes the piles of cards I ask her to use her intuition to find the pile with her card. The first pile she picked up had her card and the guy next to her grabbed the cards saying "No way! Which one is yours?" I'm thinking: 1. I'm not even done and he's excited and 2. He could screw this up by putting the cards out of order. Then somebody else asks which one is hers and he pulls it out. I'm thinking "great!," now I'm screwed. He puts it back right on top. I now know where the card is. He was amazed when I told her to stop dealing and she turned over her card. I then tried to project a card to him. I laid down the Ace of Spades. He said King of Hearts and then as I turned the Ace over he said to me "That was the card that I first thought of. How do you do this. I mean, is it a gift?" I had to stop there.