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.”
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.”
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