More Magical Mind Reading
Posted on 9th November 2025
Right from the outset, Alex McAleer made it clear that he wasn’t a psychic with supernatural powers. His powers come from hours of practice and learnt techniques, but in many ways are no less impressive. The biggest trick mind readers play on their audience is the central misdirection that they are using body language and mind mapping to draw out information known only to a volunteer, when deep down it’s a combination of conventional magic tricks, his memory palace and cold reading that’s doing the heavy lifting. We may not know exactly how McAleer pulled off his stunts, but he, more than anyone, conceded they weren’t beyond rational explanation. In a way we were playing a game with him – something, as adults, we rarely do.
McAleer knows this only too well, his easy charm quick to undercut audience expectation with self-deprecation or a twinkle in the eye. His opening routines were classic tricks expertly delivered, even when the elephant in the room turned out to be a rhinoceros. I particularly enjoyed the way, Penn and Teller style, he explained how he identified the cards held by the audience, a trick no less impressive by revealing the method. Even though he explained why I picked the number thirty-seven, it still felt pleasingly disconcerting to put my hand up. And while I might have guessed how the flower ended up on the second board, I’m still scratching my head how he could have known it was what the audience was going to present to him. I wonder if magicians have a name for the distinctive chatter that then rippled through the audience after the trick – a murmuration, perhaps.
Less successful on the night, unfortunately, was the cold reading based on audience secrets, but I thought it telling that his volunteer seemed more upset than he when regretfully shaking her head. He is such a personable fellow that we all wanted it to go well for him. Thankfully, he glossed over this part of the show like a pro, and finished with a flourish – he will always have Paris – after which he then cunningly turned incriminating evidence into celebratory confetti.