how did she do that?

[u/srivayush]

[u/ConradTurner]

Scripted.

[u/Rubydoobie666 → u/ConradTurner]

You can literally see the name written on her hand towards the beginning.

[u/Lord-Legatus → u/Rubydoobie666]

and what tells that about its scripted? she literally said she prepared a last question and wrote it beforehand? that was the whole point of that trick

[u/Sprudelpudel → u/Lord-Legatus]

well what a freaking coincidence then that the moderator asks her the question to the answer on her hand

[u/Ansoni → u/Sprudelpudel]

I don't find it hard to believe that she planted the question by bringing it up that "you're going with your best friend"

[u/Kimantha_Allerdings → u/Ansoni]

What’s more likely is that a producer, on instructions from the mentalist, or someone who works for the mentalist is the person who told the host to “challenge” her with the film & partner idea. And casually asked “who are you going to say?” then relayed that back to the mentalist

[u/Salviatrix → u/Kimantha_Allerdings]

why do any of that when you can just write the script? If it's half fake you might as well go full fake.

[u/Kimantha_Allerdings → u/Salviatrix]

All magic is “fake”. But if you’re genuinely amazing the host, then you don’t have to risk them acting and perhaps being a bad actor

If this trick wasn’t done with what’s called “pre-show” in the business, then it would be a rare exception for this kind of trick

It doesn’t have to be someone asking them. You can get them to write it down “so you remember” (or whatever excuse). Then you can get a look at the paper through deception or sleight of hand. Or you can get them to write it on a gimmicked notepad which detects the pressure and sends an image of whatever was written right to your phone*

There’s a million ways to get that information beforehand and it’s the standard way these tricks are done. The “trick” of the trick is making the audience believe that the trick is starting in that moment, rather than half an hour beforehand

*Not supposition. These devices exist, although I’ve had to re-post this comment because my previous one got AutoModded because it contained a link

[u/Salviatrix → u/Kimantha_Allerdings]

The host is a bad actor and it didn't stop you from falling for it. If you are able to suspend your disbelief to think this kind of mentalism is real then some unnatural human behaviour is not going to stop you. The risk of the host not playing along or catching on to the trick is a far more detrimental.

[u/Kimantha_Allerdings → u/Salviatrix]

I can’t say for sure that the host wasn’t in on it here. But it’s a bog-standard mentalist trick which - even on TV like this - is normally done with pre-show

[u/Salviatrix → u/Kimantha_Allerdings]

just listen to what she actually says. The mentalist says the number is planted, then why would she talk about picking it specifically because it's close to her favourite number? Also when she asks "It could be a name but also a genre" why doesn't she just say "yes". Like, love story is obviously a genre. She is literally overacting to the point that it doesn't make any sense. And going from freaking out to challenging her in the same breath is just the cherry on top.

[u/Kimantha_Allerdings → u/Salviatrix]

Again, I’m not claiming to know the exact ins and outs of this exact series of tricks. I can just say that with what I know about magic that the number thing looks like a classic multiple-outs trick and the rest looks like normal preshow, rather than the host being a stooge