Mentalist Keith Barry plays tricks on used car salesmen

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I’m six minutes in and getting frustrated - does he ever get around to explaining any of these tricks, or does he just show them off?

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TV magic is made by editing a story. it can be any story. we don’t really know if these people are random, car salesmen, or if the mentalist is even real. but he is on TV so it must be real.

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You just missed it, the explanation for the first trick started at 6:24.

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The last trick is pretty obvious, put a camera on the hood, and tell him he’s being recorded, but it’s feeding a screen under your hood.

As for the other suggestion tricks, is there a good mentalism book out there that explains the more common tricks. Something by Banachek maybe?

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I like how he keeps calling it “mentalism”.

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“Mentalist?” Talk about cashing in on a hot TV show. Looks pretty fake to me, and obviously so. The colors are done by simply painting the boards after the fact. One of the other tricks I skimmed through is a simple matter of not using the 10 times he got it wrong, or just scripting it.

There’s nothing real in “Reality TV.”

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I got to 2:19 and switched it off. But Keith Barry knew that already.

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Only slightly disappointed that unlike our previous BoingBoing post subject, Sabine, he didn’t blow up or graffiti over the used car salesmen.

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Keith Barry is no Derren Brown.

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Who the hell buys a car from a used car lot? Craigslist, Ebay if you have some particular fancy antique in mind, or you get one to your specs from a dealer if you’re rich. In any case you don’t walk on there without knowing what you want and its KBB or invoice.

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Also for the later trick where the customer guesses what’s in the trunk, “Dead body stuffed full of cocaine packets” is always the right answer.

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Can I get a serious definition of the term “mentalist”? Please.

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The last trick is pretty obvious, put a camera on the hood, and tell him he’s being recorded, but it’s feeding a screen under your hood.

Well, they already show cameras all over the car (for the purpose of taping the segment). But the salient point is that blindfolded Keith Barry is not the one who’s driving. There’s some guy in the trunk who has actual control of the car.

What I think is interesting is, if you actually thought that he was driving blindfolded, you wouldn’t let him continue. You’d grab the steering wheel and run him off the road, rather than let him recklessly drive through 5 people. By letting him continue, you’re unconsciously admitting that you know he’s faking it. (cf: Sawing a Lady in Half trick.)

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That reminds me of a disclaimer I see frequently in commercials: “Real people. Not actors.”

I had no idea actors weren’t real people. That explains why acting gigs are so hard to get. It’s tough to compete with the non-existent.

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It’s a magician that does stuff in that particular manner, different somewhat than a prop magician or sleight of hand. It’s just a kind of magician, a performer.

Cute tho, because mentalism isn’t magic the performer can honestly say it’s real, even tho magic & mentalism are indistinguishable & magic isn’t real.

& it’s been a word for about 170 years longer than it was a TV show. I only just learned of the TV show from someone posting above.

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OR, you’re a psychopath in a bit part on a reality show & you quickly calculate that being the person sitting next to Keith Barry when he plows into & kills a group of bystanders is a sure-fire way to get another reality show part.

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According to Tom Stoppard, actors are the opposite of people.

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The overbearing music made me stop playing at just after a minute and a half. Is every Discovery Network show scored like that because it’s damned annoying.