Mailbag: Planned Failures

How do you feel about the idea that getting some wrong in mentalism will strengthen the other tricks around it by making them feel more legitimate? Some performers suggest inserting misses on purpose while others say you don't need to do that because you're bound to get things wrong anyway.  What do you think? Do you put them in intentionally? —EF

We tested misses in mentalism about 5 years. My takeaway at that time was that a near miss was productive, but being totally wrong wasn't.

I would say that's still my theory.

I just don't buy the idea that being wildly off is convincing of anything. 

For example, if you were skeptical that someone could read, and you decided to test him a few times, and he got the words right that you were showing him, you might think:

"Well, I guess he can read." 

or

"Somehow he's tricking me. Someone is telling him the words I'm going to test him on or something."

So let's imagine he gets a few words correct, you’re still not sure what to believe, so you test him again.

"What does this say?" you ask

WATER FOUNTAIN

He looks at it for a moment and then replies, "It says, 'Boot.'"

Would you think, "I knew it. This bitch doesn't know how to read. He was faking it before."

Or would you think, "See, him getting this wrong proves that he wasn't using tricks the other times, or he would have got it right! He can, in fact, read!"

That would be some bizarre logic. But mentalists often think a totally wrong guess will generate that reaction.

I think it's unlikely. I think it's more likely they'll think you messed up your trick.

But a near miss is helpful. If the guy said, "Water mountain." You would think, "Ah, yes. He can clearly read. He just didn't see it accurately or he slightly misspoke."

When I want to up the believability of something I'm doing, I don't include a near miss. 

What I include is a minor almost believable impossibility. As talked about in Monday's post. 

That gets people thinking, "Okay, sure. That thing he did with his 'invisible friend' was just a trick... but was this real?"

That's my way of keeping people off balance rather than a planned miss.