Sydney ABC with James Valentine

Hi all, just a quick note that I'll be on 702 ABC Sydney with James Valentine this Tuesday at 1.30pm (GMT+10). If you want to hear some mind-reading, or hear a little about my upcoming Newspaper Headline Prediction here in Sydney, or maybe you want to take part in the show, call in and we'll see what happens...

Hope you listen in, thanks x

Vale illusionist ‘amazes’ audiences on his world trip

The Glamorgan GEM - Friday 22 Jan 2010

AN illusionist from the Vale is amazing people with his mind-reading abilities as he continues a globetrotting world tour that will take up to a year. Tom DeVoe, a former pupil of Cowbridge Comprehensive School, who lives in the village of Aberthin, began his journey, which he called the ‘Without Borders World Trip’, on August 13 last year – his 21st birthday. Tom told The GEM: “To travel the world doing what I love, performing for people across the globe, is the most challenging, exciting venture I could ever have imagined.” He started in London, but his itinerary takes in India, Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, the Cook Islands and the USA. He is currently in Singapore and astonished a local journalist and photographer from ‘The New Paper’ with his mind-reading abilities, by correctly guessing which numbers they were thinking of, and confidently predicting which word they would pick out of President Obama’s autobiography, Dreams From My Father. Germaine Lim, the impressed journalist, reported: “The word was ‘goat’. Can it get any more random? “I bet DeVoe, who is in town to perform his Mind Illusion Show, probably knew my darkest secrets the moment I said ‘hello’!” Tom has also made his mark in India. “I performed in Delhi for Fever104FM, a Virgin-owned radio station, reading the minds of the DJ and callers to the show. “By the time the show was over, there was a huge crowd of people waiting outside the studio to see me. “The boss of the station pulled me into his office and asked me about what I do, and even asked me if I would go with him to a meeting of his main rival stations’ bosses to read their minds!” Tom uses psychology, suggestion and what he describes mischievously as “more devious methods” to read minds and baffle his audience. While in India, he was also featured in one of the country’s leading newspapers. Tom said: “I was featured in the Hindustan Times, a major Indian newspaper, opened in 1929 by Mahatma Gandhi. “With a readership of 6.6 million people, it is the second largest English-language newspaper in India. “I was also on CNN’s News and Entertainment shows in India. “In Hong Kong, I performed for social groups, the British Council of Hong Kong and City University of Hong Kong, receiving a beautiful engraved metal plate from the University as a mark of thanks. “I spent Christmas with friends in Singapore, and have had a great time – it has been 32 degrees C outside, so there was no chance of a white Christmas for me. “While I’m here, I’ve been working with a large entertainment agency that was involved with the recent Formula 1 race in Singapore.” He completes his world trip in August. Tom’s adventure can be followed on tomdevoeworldtrip.blogspot.com

Sydney, Australia

I was very sad to say goodbye to Singapore. Some friends I made there will be friends for life, for sure. Each time I move to a different country I feel uprooted, having previously just settled into the swing of things. To feel homesick for many places is no fun. But we move onwards and upwards, or downwards, to sunny Sydney where Bondi beach, a few tinnies, and several shrimps on barbies beckon.
I’ve been here for more than a week now, and I’m happy to have plenty of Western food back on the menu – I tried the Fish Head Curry, a Singapore speciality, on my last few days there and it actually wasn’t too bad, though the eyeball I promised my friends I’d eat was just too much!
Very surprised to see beautiful parrots flying around as regular as pigeons back home, along with a host of other exotic and unusual animals I’d never seen before. Hopefully there’ll be many kangaroos and wallabies to point at like a good old tourist in the next few months. Everything here is BIG. The food and drink servings, the money, the sun, the waves, and some comically hefty guys – all extra large and extra loud.
I’m reading the newspapers here, locals and nationals, eagerly…but more about that later. It’s going to be good, this one ;)

The New Paper – 6 Jan 2010

Welsh Mind Illusionist:
No magic in ‘reading minds’, bending spoons
REPORT: Germaine Lim

In front of Thomas DeVoe, I felt exposed.
Fifteen minutes before meeting us yesterday, the 21-year-old Welsh mind illusionist already knew what numbers The New Paper photographer Jonathan Choo and I would be thinking of.
He also knew the word I had picked out from US President Barack Obama’s autobiography, Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance – which DeVoe had taken along – though I kept a poker face.
It was “goat”.
Can it get any more random?
I bet DeVoe – who’s in town to perform his Mind Illusion Show at Downtown East on Sunday – probably knew my darkest secrets the moment I said “hello”.
Despite my coaxing, he refused to tell me what his impression of me was because he did not want to risk offending me.
DeVoe joked: “I don’t want a Sherlock Holmes moment to happen to me.”
In the movie, Sherlock Holmes, Mary Morstan (Kelly Reilly) splashes wine on Holmes’ (Robert Downey Jr) face in a fit of anger after the intuitive titular detective spilled her secrets to her fiancé, Dr Watson (Jude Law).
Besides “mind-reading”, he also demonstrated bending a spoon forwards and sideways just by rubbing the handle lightly with his index finger and thumb, and focusing on it.
At one point, it even broke into two pieces right before our eyes.
No brute force was involved.
There’s no magic in his craft, DeVoe said.
The self-professed sceptic said he doesn’t believe in so-called “supernatural psychic powers”, which well-known Israeli-British entertainer Uri Geller claimed to possess.
There’s an explanation for everything, even when bending a spoon, he insisted.
“It’s easy to say that I was born with supernatural abilities. But my parents always tell me that I cannot mislead people. Telling the truth is the most important thing.”
No one in his family is in the business of magic.
His father works in a university, his mother with charity organisations and his brother is a musician.
It is not by mere coincidence that DeVoe predicts numbers and words correctly.
“What I do is just psychology, suggestions and some other more devious techniques.”
Which is his polite way of informing you, “Too bad, I’m not telling you”.
You could say he’s like Simon Baker’s character in the US TV show, The Mentalist. DeVoe uses skills like astute observation and principles of stage magic to present the illusion of mind-reading.
Ironically, DeVoe – who recently graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in sociology and social policy – said he was very bad in psychology. His best subject was English.

Observing since young

He also has strong observational skills, which he says he has used to assess potential playmates and friends since he was little.
When he was 6, he learnt more about magic as he received books on the subject as Christmas and birthday presents.
His reading led to books on veteran illusionists like Geller, and his craft developed from there.
At 14, he started practising his craft on friends by guessing letters and numbers they were thinking of. But he was often wrong.
Seven years on, he says he has fewer slip-ups, though he still gets nervous just before a member of the audience reveals his answer.
“I’m not embarrassed when I make mistakes because I have the rest of the show to make up to my audience.
“Sometimes, people apologise for ‘messing up’ my tricks. But it’s never their fault. It’s mine”.
Of course, he has used his skills in his personal life, like trying to get his friends and himself into bars and clubs when they were below UK’s legal age of 18.
He doesn’t have to do that anymore, but added that he doesn’t do it also because “it can get people into serious trouble”.
When it comes to impressing someone he’s interested in, the bachelor prefers to use good manners like being genuine and polite.
Next up for the ambitious young man?
He wants to up his game by predicting an Australian newspaper’s headline when he goes Down Under later this month.
“I’ve been reading their newspapers. My plan is to foretell the headlines a week in advance.”

Downtown East - January 10th - 7pm

Aaah, well I've just about recovered from New Year's Eve, the four shows all went well, but getting to each in NY's Eve traffic was not much fun.

Here in Singapore I'm throwing a show for my friends who've yet to see me in action at the top of Zsofi's Tapas Bar this Thursday which should be a larf - all welcome.

Sunday 10th will be the big show at Downtown East where huge, larger than life-sized posters are already up, and I met with two newspapers at the venue this morning to discuss the show, the trip, and perform for them a little. They were both incredibly sweet and we had a good morning and afternoon together. The first, New Paper, is a big Singapore publication and should be out tomorrow, the other, Berita Harian, is a Malay paper which I'll have to have translated before I put a copy up on the blog. Looking forward to both articles :)