The AAA Phone Mystery by Marc Paul

A piece of direct mind reading with an imaginary mobile phone.

A spectator is asked to think of a persons phone number. They are given a business card and asked to write the number on the card and then fold it into quarters with the writing inside. During this the performer turns his back so there is no chance of him seeing. Upon turning around the spectator is given a second business card and is asked to write the persons name this time. Again the performer turns his back while this happens.

The spectator is now given an invisible mobile phone and is asked to pretend to dial the number. As they do this the performer watches the actions and at the same time writes some numbers on a blank card. This is placed face down on the table. The performer now opens the telephone number slip and reads out the number. When the face down card is turned over it reveals exactly the same number. Both cards can be given to another spectator to confirm.

The spectator is asked to place the folded card bearing the name into the performers pocket, the performer does not touch it. Next they are asked to pick up the invisible phone and to imagine they are saying hello to the person on the other end. Immediately the performer announces the name!

The name card can now be removed from the pocket and handed to another spectator to confirm.

This is a commercial routine that I have used hundreds of times. It is highly practical with no reset at all making it perfect for strolling performances and table hopping. The astute among you will have noticed that it is a reworking of an Annemann classic BUT this handling means that NO numbers need to be memorized in a split second (which WAS a requirement of the Annemann routine). In fact no numbers are memorized at all. Which is just as well considering mobile phone numbers are 10 to 12 digits long!