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One of my favourite mentalism effects of all time is So Sato's "Bath Towel Mentalism." It's a very strong card divination effect with a super clever method, and I've been performing it for more than 5 years. As good as the effect is, for a while I'd been trying to improve it in two ways. (1) I wanted to allow the spectators to look at their selections during the routine (rather than at the end), and (2) I didn't want the spectators to swap their selections (it always felt a bit unjustified to ask them to do this). Eventually, a solution to achieve these two things occurred to me and that is what I call Bath Towel Mentalism: On Steroids.
Imagine:
The magician introduces a deck of cards, where he hands one half to one spectator and the other half to a second spectator. (The two spectators hold these halves underneath the table.)
The magician says, "Holding the cards under the table, I want each of you to reach into your half and select any card. This is a free choice. Pull it out, look at it by peeking under the table, then turn it face-up and slide it into the middle of the rest of the face-down half." The two spectators do as instructed.
Once they're done, the magician continues, "I have an uncanny ability where just by touching a deck of cards I can immediately know which cards, if any, are face-up. Let me prove it. Let's start with you [the first spectator]. Keeping your cards under the table, hold one end yourself and allow me to hold the other end." At this point, the magician reaches underneath the table to grab the other end of the first spectator's half-deck. As soon as the magician grabs it, he says, "I am starting to pick up on the identity of the card you reversed." Having said this, the magician uses his other (empty) hand to secretly write down his impression on a slip of paper, which he then places face down in front of the first spectator. After that, the first spectator's half is brought back on top of the table.
This exact process is then repeated for the second spectator.
At this point, the two halves are back on top of the table and there are two face down slips of paper (one in front of each spectator). The two spectators are invited to spread their halves face down across the table to reveal (to each other) their reversed selections. The magician then turns over all the face-down cards (in both halves) as he says, "You each could have selected one of these cards instead. It was a completely free choice." The spectators nod in agreement.
Finally, the two spectators are asked to turn over the two slips of paper for the mind-blowing reveal - the magician's impressions for both of the selections are seen to be correct!
Some important conditions of note:
- The two spectators can look at their selections under the table (this is the main thing that differentiates this effect from Sato's original - in Sato's effect the spectators cannot do this).
- While the magician is formulating each impression (when he's holding the half under the table while the spectator is holding it from the other end), he does not peek under the table in any way. He genuinely cannot see under the table.
- After the magician writes down each impression, he never touches the slip of paper again - the spectators themselves check the slips at the end.
- Everything is completely examinable at the end; in fact, the deck can be given away as a souvenir.
- To perform this effect, you may need to buy a special deck of cards for ~$5.
Note: In addition to learning the effect described above, you will learn two variant effects that are similar. So in total there are three effects taught in the PDF. (The third and final one is the strongest in my opinion.)
1st edition 2025, PDF 12 pages.
word count: 3315 which is equivalent to 13 standard pages of text
