Explaining Split Reveals and FORM in Mentlism

One key benefit of mentalism over magic is the level of improvisation it often affords the performer. Mentalists get to enjoy the fact that each performance feels unique and engaging, both to the spectator and to the performer, who often genuinely needs to think on their feet.

When we think of improvisation and mentalism, we usually think about cold reading and pseudo-methods. Cold reading is about improvising and reading a spectator's body language and responses to reveal additional information. Pseudo-methods are the pretend mechanisms performers claim they use to achieve their tricks — reading their mind, feeling their pulse, watching their eyes, listening to their voice, etc.

But there’s a category of improvisation in mentalism that is rarely discussed — one that is actually far more interesting. This technique makes your effects genuinely more fooling and increases the number of reveals.

Of course, we are talking about “split reveals.”

The best mentalists in the world rely on split reveals to disguise and enhance their effects, and there’s no reason why you shouldn’t consider adding them to effects you do, too.

A split reveal is exactly as the term describes — the performer splits up the reveal.

What you do is parse the data you can reveal and then mine the elements for further possible reveals.

By doing this during a performance, you add a sense of realism to the mind-reading and turn one moment of mind-reading into multiple stages that often escalate.

The curious thing about split reveals is that they often employ dual reality as well. This means that the wider audience also experiences an effect they find even more fooling, because they are not aware of the precise content in the original input data that you turned into a split reveal.

Time to learn by example.

Here are some very simple examples of input data (I couldn’t come up with a better term for this than “input data,” so I’m open to suggestions!). These might be written down on an impression pad or forced upon a spectator using a forcing technique.

The magician is preparing to reveal this info to the audience:

The first thing the performer should do is split the input data into chunks.

The key here is to focus on terms and identifiers within the original data.

At this point, we can see that the performer is well-positioned to reveal multiple pieces of information. Instead of telling the audience that the spectator is thinking of “Taylor Swift in Ibiza,” you can first say they are thinking of “Taylor Swift,” then say they are picturing her in “Ibiza.”

That’s the idea explained simply — but it gets better.

The next step for the performer is to add identifiers (also known as reveal mining) and further split the info where possible.