Esther Rantzen Show (Prediction Trick)

 

(Photos below). I can't be sure when I did this but I would guess some time around 1995.

This was for the 'Esther' TV show on BBC Television. It was a studio audience chat and discussion show, mostly about consumer issues and current affairs, hosted by UK broadcasting legend Esther Rantzen. They were doing a show about psychics and asked if I could do something that would look intriguing.
 

1. Before the studio audience arrived, I sat down with Esther. I had a marker, a pad and an envelope. I wrote something on the pad but the camera couldn't see what I was writing. I slipped the pad in the envelope and sealed it with tape.

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2. I handed the sealed package over to Esther. She signed it and marked the time.

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3. The studio audience came in and the show proceeded as normal.

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4. Esther invited another guest on the show, parapsychologist Susan Blackmore (not pictured here), to choose a member of the audience at random. This truly was a free, random choice and I had no say in the person Susan selected. She chose a woman in the audience with brown, curly hair called Sam.

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5. I was in the middle of the studio, about 6 metres away from Sam. I invited Sam to think of anyone in her life and to focus on that person's initials. Esther stood next to Sam, still holding the sealed package bearing her signature.

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6. Sam thought of someone she knew and announced that this person's initials were 'T H'.

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7. Esther handed the sealed package over to Sam. Sam opened it and took out the pad inside. It bore the initials 'T H'.

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8. At a later point in the show, I admitted that I am not, in fact, psychic and that what they had seen was a mentalism trick. I didn't explain how it was done.

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For anyone trying to work it out, these facts are true:

• I did write my prediction before the show.

• Once I handed over the sealed package to Esther, I never touched it again. I didn't need to.

• Susan Blackmore had a totally free, fair choice of spectator and I had no influence or control over whom she chose. I had no idea she would choose Sam.

• I had, and still have, absolutely no idea who Sam was. She was just someone in the studio audience. I don't know her, had never seen her before we did this item and have never seen her since.

• Esther did not tamper with or interfere with my prediction at all.

• Sam could have thought of anyone she wanted. I didn't make her think of anyone in particular and in fact I had no idea who this 'TH' person was.

• Esther knew a bit about how the trick was done, but not all the details.

• Sam had no idea how it was done.

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If you want to know how to do things like this, study the branch of magic called 'mentalism'. Read some good books on the subject, watch some DVDs, join a magic club, learn from me and other people who have been doing it for a while, and in about five or ten years you'll be able to do this sort of thing and much more.

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I do have the video for this somewhere, probably on VH. However, I'd need signficant tech help to transfer it and present it online and it might be tricky for copyright reasons.

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