Double Coincidence
by Devin Knight and Al Mann
Effect
Mentalist tells the audience that before the show, he gave a lady a dictionary, a red crayon and an envelope. He asked her to secretly circle a word and to seal the dictionary in the envelope. She was instructed to tell nobody the word, nor let anyone tamper with the envelope. He says this envelope is still in the audience.
When it’s time to perform this effect, the Mentalist calls two people on stage.
The sealed envelope with dictionary is then retrieved by one of the spectators who holds on to it in full view. The Mentalist picks up a 300 page book and turning his head away, riffles the pages to have one spectator select a page from it. The book is opened at that place and given to spectator. It’s obvious to the audience that the Mentalist hasn’t had a chance to glimpse the pages of the open book. NO PAGE NUMBER IS CALLED OUT AT ANY TIME.
With his back still turned, the Mentalist asks the spectator to silently read the first few lines on the left page. Immediately, with no fishing, the performer describes what the person just read.
This is pretty amazing, but the Mentalist is ready for more, much more. He asks the person to read the first sentence on the right page. He tells the person to choose any object from the sentence and form a picture of it in his mind. The person has more than one choice of objects he could think of.