Steve Wachner is a Mentalist and Creator from USA. Intelligent and funny guy that thinks creatively and performs for real world audiences.
He recently shared with me a casual video of "InstaPsychic" and I will love to offer my reflections and ideas about this great performance.
First of all, realize the clear intention from Steve to connect with the participant and her friend. He talks in a relaxed manner, explaining part of the procedure and also showing his credentials in a subtle manner (I just came back...). This is a classic indirect technique that allows you to be seen as an authority, thus offering the confidence to experience a quality moment.
What I love about the "InstaPsychic" procedure is that it looks like just a normal "double bind" procedure to select a photo from Instagram, so every actions is naturally motivated, and Steve in this performance communicates this aspect in a clear manner.
"I dont wear any type of weird smartwatch..."
Classic "Direct Methodological Cancelation" that allows the participant to understand that this is not about those "silly potential ideas that some people could have", which is perfect if you want to use a technilogical device (like a phone) to perform. One of the criterias of "Phone Mentalism" is that the use of the device MUST be natural and congruent. There are too many "magic apps" or strange routines that screams "TRICK", and we dont want to do that, right?
"It hasn´t need to be perfect..."
I love how he implants this idea of non-expectation. This is just to have FUN! It is not a competition, but a collaboration between an active participant and the performer which gives his best to create an interesting performance and mystery.
Notice how he starts to reveal subtle aspects of the photo, in a realistic manner. Being conscious about this concept of "Realistic Mindreading" will disconnect you from the mainstream perspective of "hits" and "be right" and will allow you to be focus into the subjective experience from your audience and participants.
This is the beautiful moment, the process of mindreading, the apparent artifacts that you explicitly let them to enjoy. Use your own scripts and ideas based in your own identity and style as performer, but please dont just pretend to read minds, DO IT!
As you can see, his reveals were varied including colors, shapes and different ideas. InstaPsychic allows you to force any photo, so Steve actually KNEW the exact photo that the participant was thinking, but he was bold enough to NOT reveal purely direct aspects of that thought. He took his time and really offers an experience of exploration and connection.
Be bold to be "off". This is a classic psychological technique that we can use whenever we see fit. It is not a natural to "fake mistakes". Who wants to be "wrong" in real life?
So, we can take this tendency in our favour, and actually not reveal thoughts in 100% (as Docc Hilford says, 80% correct) and allow them to believe that the experience was actually real.
If you are 100% they can tend to believe that the process was just theatrics. Be dramatic, but not overact. Sometimes the impact of your performance increase if you are subtle.
As you can see finally, he asks the lady to focus in something specific from the picture, which is a classic idea to create "Real Time Mindreading" during the process, that allows you again, to disconnect the idea of the core method used. EVEN if our audience knows the method, they will not understand this actual revelation, which is based in calculated risks and potential adjustments, which Steve handled beautifully.
You can hear in 1:56 the feedback from the participant, which clearly experience REAL mindreading, and also at the end teh "Good Job" and "AWESOME".
Thanks Steve for this!
CONVERSATION