An "Everyone Else Is in on It" Target Number Mentalism Trick

I do a lot of consultancy calls with professional magicians — helping them with their stage shows, corporate sets, social media, and TV auditions.

I’m very happy to give all I can in these calls to the magicians I’m working with. It’s one of the perks of not being a performer myself — I’ve seen other magic consultants flip to the back of their notebook and jot down ideas for themselves during pitch meetings. I wrote about this in an edition on magic consulting mistakes and lessons.

At the same time, I strongly believe that those who protect their ideas don’t have many.

Note that this is in reference to “ideas,” and not finished, worked-up items. And that the mantra’s purpose is to create a headspace in which idea creation can be plentiful.

Even still, it’s hard not to want to share some of the ideas I pitch during consultancy calls with our One Ahead readers. Luckily enough, a recent client gave me permission to do just that.

Gerald Robinson is a brilliant corporate magician in Denver. We spent most of our call discussing themes that were important to him and how he could make the magic he already performs more his own. He had a lot of very good ideas, which we dove into.

One theme he was interested in led me to pitch a presentation for a “Target Number” mentalism effect.

It’s a good example of how you can make tricks unique with presentational changes. More on that later, along with how you can do this with or without the help of a professional magic consultant.

The performer tells the audience that the secret to every trick in the show is written inside an envelope.

The performer holds the envelope high in the air.

One member of the audience will be given the opportunity to open the envelope and read the secret to every trick in the show. That person will be selected at random by a game of chance.

The performer quickly takes out a pen and scribbles a two-digit number on the back of the envelope without the audience seeing it.

Then, several members of the audience are asked to guess what the number might be. The person whose guess is the closest will get to come onto stage and open the envelope.

A man named Dave, who is sitting in the third row, has the closest guess.

He guessed 42, and the number on the back of the envelope was 40. Congratulations, Dave — the audience applauds as he walks up onto the stage.

The performer hands Dave the envelope, which contains the secret to every trick in the show.

Dave opens it carefully and takes out the piece of paper.

Suddenly, Dave breaks into a shocked smile.

The performer asks Dave to show everyone what the paper says is the secret to every trick in the show.

He turns around the page — it reads:

“EVERYONE ELSE IS IN ON IT, DAVE.”

That’s it. That’s the trick.

It will go without saying to most readers that this is a presentation for a Target Number effect. We discussed the effect in a recent edition on how to force the selection of an audience member.

Oftentimes, magicians will use Target Number to force someone up onto the stage who was involved in some kind of pre-show method. But most commonly, Target Number ends with the desired audience member opening the envelope and seeing a description of themselves.

Target Number was published by Ted Karmilovich, which is where I’m getting the name from.

However, the more direct effect can be traced back to at least 1985, when Bruce Bernstein’s effect, Croiset Revisited, was included in “Psi-Tech.” Bernstein’s effect was described by Conjuring Archive as “performer writes two-digit number on envelope, and people start to guess number, one person is correct and [they are] fully described inside envelope.

A similar idea is explored by Asi Wind in Catch 23. Asi managed to develop the direct effect into a full chair test. By doing so, he effectively turned an “opener” into a “closer.” I’ve seen Asi perform the effect in person at small and large venues, and I recommend readers purchase it.