Wayne Hoffman: Mind-Blowing Mind Reading From Top Mentalist. Virtually Speaking Ep. 12

Wayne Hoffman is a multiple award winning performer and recognized as one of the top mentalists in the world. He is an in-demand television personality who tours the world with his stage show Mind Candy. He also authored a best-selling book, by the same name, Mind Candy. He even has a captivating keynote called The Power and Potential of The Human Mind.

Wayne has been featured on: America’s Got Talent, Penn and Teller: Fool Us (where he was actually one of the few guests to ever fool Penn and Teller), The TODAY show, NBC\’s hit show Phenomenon, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, HARRY (hosted by Harry Connick Jr), National Geographic, CNN Money, The Science Channel, and many more.

Wayne\’s passion for the mysterious was sparked at a young age leading him to study the art of magic. Later, through extensive studies in sociology, psychology, body language, and human behavior, Wayne was able to develop the foundation of his skills today. Audiences rave about his dynamic and stimulating performances where they experience seemingly supernatural phenomena in a fun and upbeat way.

In this entertaining and quite intriguing episode Wayne takes pleasure in messing with Chris’ head three times by reading and controlling his mind – performing some mental hacks that are truly mind-blowing and Chris verifies were real!

For more on Wayne or to book him to perform or speak: https://slot22.silverline.dev/portfoliotype/wayne-hoffman/

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Wayne Hoffman: Mind-Blowing Mind Reading From Top Mentalist.

Joining me in this episode is the multi-award-winning and incredible Wayne Hoffman, who is recognized as one of the top mentalists in the world. He\’s an in-demand television personality, and he tours the world with his stage show, Mind Candy. He also authored a best-selling book by the same name, Mind Candy. He even has a captivating keynote called The Power and Potential of the Human Mind. Wayne\’s been featured on America’s Got Talent and on Penn & Teller: Fool Us, where he was one of the few contestants who\’s ever fooled Penn and Teller.

He\’s been on the Today\’s Show, NBC\’s hit show Phenomenon, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Harry hosted by Harry Connick, Jr., and he\’s been on National Geographic, CNN Money, The Science Channel, and many more. I am so excited to have him with us. Let me tell you, he really messed with my head by reading my mind and performing some mental hacks that are truly mind-blowing and real. Let\’s get to the fun with this very talented and intriguing man, Wayne Hoffman.

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Wayne Hoffman, thank you for joining me here on the show. How the heck are you doing?

I\’m always awesome. I\’m just waiting for the rest of the world to catch up.

You are indeed very awesome. I\’ve seen your performances on America’s Got Talent. I\’m a big fan. Also, on Penn & Teller: Fool Us. You are the only person I\’ve seen on that show to fool them.

I got them. It worked. That was the mission, so mission accomplished. It was cool.

On America’s Got Talent, how many rounds did you get through?

I went on AGT and I got the four yeses. I got on and they passed me through and then I mysteriously vanished. It\’s behind-the-scenes stuff. I was never eliminated from the show, but then I never made it to the finals either. I kind of ghosted as a mentalist and illusionist would. It\’s funny because AGT asked me to go on the show for about 7 or 8 years in a row. They would call me and I never did the show. I never wanted to do the show. I never did it. Finally, the year that I decided, “AGT has become a powerhouse. It\’s a great credit to have. It showcases what you do.”

The production value is off the charts.

You can\’t pay for a demo reel like that, a 37 camera HD shoot. I was like, “I\’m going to do it.” I never went on thinking I was going to win. I just wanted that demo clip. That’s what I wanted and I got it. It ended up being played. My performance ended up getting played on the loop in Times Square and some guy called me up. He was like, “I\’m watching you in Times Square on one of the big screens.” I\’m like, “What?” That was a cool experience.

You\’ve been on a lot of other great shows too. You\’ve been on the Today Show and Regis and Kelly.

I feel like I\’ve done it all. That\’s the thing. I\’m the most famous person you\’ve never heard of. That\’s what I like to tell people. The Ellen DeGeneres Show, I\’ve done them all. It feels like it anyway.

Have you pop out of the table because she likes to surprise people?

No. I always think when I go back on, if I go back on the show, what would happen if someone was in there or somebody would pop out.

She’s got to want to get you. You\’re the guy everybody wants to get because you get us. Your talent is unbelievable. Your stage presence is great. Every time I have seen any video or had the chance to see you, I had to stop everything and watch it. It\’s addictive. I try not to Google your name too much or look you up on YouTube because I know I\’m going to go down this rabbit hole of video after video. It\’s awesome what you do. I heard you say, and I know that you started out as a magician very early on. You decided that the mentalist thing was more appealing to you. Is that because you got a degree in psychology or was it because you just liked that aspect better? Was it you realized you had this gift? What\’s going on?

Anybody in the mystery arts, whether you\’re a hypnotist, an illusionist, the close-up magician, and escape artist, anybody in that genre, we always, I think as a whole, get started as a child doing magic. That\’s where you first get that sensation of, “I like making people smile by doing fun things.” You feed off of that. That\’s my story and later, I started performing as a magician. I studied psychology at a university and that\’s when I slowly started putting what I like to call the science of the mind into my magic show. What I realized and it was interesting is that over time, I slowly put in another mental experiment into the show, and afterward the reactions that I got were different.

You would have somebody come up after the show and people would say this, “That was a really cool trick that you did where the thing disappeared or whatever. That was cool. How did you read my mind? What I think has happened over time is magic, and I love magic, I bill myself as a mentalist and illusionist because I love both and I do both. It was a big hurdle for me. I said, “I’ve got to pick one,” and then I realized, “No, I don\’t. I do both and I love both.” I started doing magic put in to mentalism and the effect that the psychological stuff had on the audience was emotionally impactful and real. It had the impact that I feel shamans had years ago where people have this feeling that you are a witch doctor or a shaman, or there\’s some type of other worldly experience happening instead of saying, “That was cool, how you did the sleight of hand.” They get the feeling of real magic.

There’s almost fewer explanations available for the mental side of things. I did something before and we talked about you\’re going to do a couple of cool examples and tricks or whatever you want to call them, mind hacks or whatever it is. I guess I\’m going to be the guy who you’ll use for some of this stuff, right?

Yes. Unless you have somebody hiding out over there, you\’ll be the guy for sure. It\’s boring to stand here and read my own mind.

Maybe we could have a caller call in. I could call somebody else and let them deal with you. I did do something before we started. This is trying to prove to myself something that you\’re real. I don\’t know if you\’re going to like this, but I went on the internet and I picked a word. I scanned through and I picked a long word and I let the internet give it to me. I\’ve remembered that word, so I\’m going to put you on the spot right now. I\’ve seen a lot of mentalists, I know how some of these things are done. I just wanted to have some fun here. I\’m thinking of a word that again, I went on the internet, I looked up, I saw the word, and I remembered it. It was a nice long word. I thought, “That\’s a good word. I\’m going to remember that.” What’s the word?

[bctt tweet=\”Moving mentalism into the virtual space is surprisingly seamless. Everything you would do on a live stage still works virtually.\” username=\”calentertainmnt\”]

I can try. In my live show, in the virtual show, and when I do my performances, the whole concept is, I figure out what people are thinking. Let\’s try whatever it is. First of all, did you tell anybody? Did you text it to anybody? Did you do anything or are you the only person that knows what it is?

Yes.

Think of it. Concentrate on it and think of it in your mind. Say it over and over in your head. It\’s interesting because I feel like you almost picked a different word. You had another word that you almost picked, but then you jumped to this one. I\’m getting multiple letters. I’ve got two letters out of your mind right away. Now the question is, are they two different words, part of each word or is it the first two letters of the word you\’re thinking of? Let me ask you this, does it start with the letter R?

No.

What\’s the first letter? Can you tell me?

It’s A.

Keep thinking of it. I\’m getting something. It’s like an O, but it has the line down the side. That\’s the thing. It\’s a D. It wasn\’t an O. I got A, O, but I got A.

Don\’t freak me out.

I have something written. On the internet, there are billions and billions of words. Is the word that you\’re thinking of meaningful or random?

Both. It\’s a word that I think could be considered random.

I have something written. I have it written on my side of the card over here. What\’s going to happen is on the count of three, I’ll turn this around and at the same, you\’ll say out loud what word is in your mind. Are you ready? 1, 2, 3.

Advantages. That is insane.

That\’s a little weird.

That’s ridiculous, Wayne. I swear to God, to everybody reading, all my friends and family, I did not tell him that word.

If anyone can prove otherwise, I\’ll offer you $1 million in cash. He\’s telling you the truth. This is what I do for a living. Do you know what\’s funny? I had this but I also had something else that I had a feeling you would think of at some point and I had written it down. I know this is weird.

I don’t think I was thinking of another word, but okay.

For some reason, initially I had a vibe that you would think of something else. It\’s in here. Did you think of a word that started with a letter D at all?

Yes, I did.

What was the word?

Drums. That is insane. When did you write that down? Was it before we started the show?

Before we even jumped on, I had it written down. I told my broadcast manager.

Mind Candy: The Power and Potential of The Human Mind

You told your guy you were going to ask me to think of a word?

Before I even met you and started doing this on the video here, I told my broadcast manager, “I have a feeling he\’s going to think of this for some reason.”

Did you watch any of my other interviews on this show?

I hate to say that I have not, but I definitely plan on it because I started seeing all of your other guests and by the way, they are great people you\’re bringing on. That’s why I was excited to do it.

Thank you. I know you know The Passing Zone.

I think everybody knows The Passing Zone. They\’re awesome.

They\’re great and I know that they were also on America’s Got Talent. Do you also know Jon Dorenbos who was on America’s Got Talent?

I met Jon in Florida many years ago at a wedding of a mutual friend.

They\’ve already both been on the show. I love this entertainment aspect to this show and the virtual presentations because I\’ve had so many meeting professionals say to me, “We need something that\’s going to pop through the camera that\’s going to captivate people,” and you just did that with me. I\’m a drummer. In all of the interviews that I\’ve had, drums have come up a couple of times here and there where somebody would say, “I know you\’re a drummer,” or I\’ve said to somebody, “I\’m a drummer.” I even had a drummer on one of my favorite episodes, Kenny Aronoff, who\’s one of my good friends and an amazing speaker. He\’s a drummer who played with everybody. He’s an incredible drummer and it was an incredible interview. He has an incredible resume. He has 1,300 gold, platinum or diamond records.

That doesn\’t even sound possible.

It\’s a 30 something year career. The fact that you picked that word and wrote it down before, were you going to ask me that before we started?

I had a feeling you would be thinking of that.

How did you do that? That is incredible.

Thanks, brother. It\’s fortunate because you\’re feeling the feeling of having your mind read. I think everybody reading knows that it\’s genuine and that you didn\’t tell me that in advance or anything like that. You can tell by a person\’s reaction. That\’s really the concept of doing things through this medium, through a virtual thing. You have to go beyond watching something. That\’s why everything that I do, I try to make it interactive either as an individual or as a group. I get everybody involved because then you get that impact. It\’s cool. Luckily for me, translating and moving from my live shows into the virtual space, believe it or not, it was surprisingly seamless because I can still do exactly what I would do.

I was just going to say, it still works.

It’s great. It literally translates right through because I can still read your mind. Everybody can still watch. I can still have everybody volunteer as a group as well. It\’s not just one-on-one. I did a celebrity live stream with Willie Nelson and a bunch of people. They had me perform. I think there were over 75,000 people watching that we broadcast to. I had everybody, all those 75,000 people, doing something, thinking, engaging and it brought the thing to life. I\’m glad I got it because if I was wrong, it would\’ve been a terrible ending to that.

Not only are you an entertainer and people can have you entertain and you can do a whole show. It could be like an hour-long show if people want it. You also have a keynote speech. Tell us a little bit about the topic of the speech and what the takeaways are from that.

My career as a performer, I\’m proud to say it worked. As a kid, I grew up in the middle of nowhere in Pennsylvania. My dream as I grew up was to become a magician/mentalist. I said, “One day, I\’m going to travel around the world, perform on the biggest stages in the world and I\’m going to be on television.” Everyone around me, as you can imagine, said, “You\’re crazy. That\’s impossible.” Even the people closest to me said, “Think realistically. Get a real job. You\’re never going to make it.” They would say things like, “Name one person that you know that\’s successful and that\’s done it.” Growing up, there were only 1 or 2 people that were on television doing it.

I had to reframe my own mind in order to do what I do. I was in Japan and I met a guy in Japan and we were talking. I was out there performing. He said, “How did you do it? How did you get to the point you are? You weren\’t rich.” He was like, “You\’re not a GQ model. You\’re just some random guy with this crazy vision, but what enabled you to do it as opposed to anybody else?” Over a three-hour period, I told him, “Here is how I think my special paradigm, my viewpoint of the world and how to get things done.” I explained this and he said, “You’ve got to write a book.” I said, “I don\’t even like to read, let alone write a book.”

Some time went by, and I started to reflect upon what he said. I started to realize, “I need to do it to help people.” It came from a calling of wanting to serve people. I ended up writing a book called Mind Candy. It\’s on Amazon, Apple Books and all that stuff. I wrote this book and I started to realize I could take the writing that I have. These ideas and mind hacks that are going to help people become successful. I can take my experience in the entertainment world. Being able to go on the stage and present well, combined with educational content, it was a no-brainer, and working with planners, DMCs, speakers bureaus and everyone in my network. I said, “I want to do this.”

Many years ago, I presented the keynote for the first time in Las Vegas at the Rio for a corporate event. I got a standing ovation out of the gate and people came up. It was a different type of response. When I do the entertainment show, they say, “Great show. It was awesome.” After the keynote, people came up crying and hugging me, saying, “You\’ve changed my life.” I\’m like, “I have something here.” The concept of the keynote, in a nutshell is, I teach a four-step process on how to achieve goals, restructure your to-do lists, how do you use no as a powerful weapon to serve you rather than to be fearful of it, and takeaways that are tangible for your personal and professional life. You can use the stuff to reach sales goals for your company or you can use these things to make your marriage better. I wanted to serve people as a human being, not just in their industry. It’s a cool thing to be able to do both.

[bctt tweet=\”How does Wayne Hoffman do what he does? With style and finesse.\” username=\”calentertainmnt\”]

Is it about mindset and visualization?

It’s a combination of the power of positive thinking and manifestation and that whole concept, then I mix it with business tactics and I blend those two together. You\’ll see a lot of people say, “Envision it and your dreams will come true.” You have other people who say, “Here is a file system on how to structure your to-do list,” and so on and so forth. What I\’ve done is I\’ve blended them together. I use narratives and stories from my own life combined with magic and mentalism use to highlight the points.

The cool things that you\’re seeing, these amazing wonder-filled moments, are to engrave that into your brain so when you leave, you take it home with you. We\’ve all been to a keynote where you\’re jazzed, and then three days later you go, “How did that go again? I\’ll go back to Netflix.” You forget what it is. I never wanted to do that. I wanted to make sure these concepts would stick with people for years or decades after they watched the keynote.

I threw that one at you, even though you had the drums already ready to go, which is crazy. You probably brought something with you that you could show me about your show and maybe you could have some fun with it.

I\’ll do 1 or 2 quick ones with you. I\’ll show you some. This is a fun one and this goes back to my roots of magic. When I was about 17 or 18, I took a road trip from Pennsylvania to St. Louis, Missouri. While I was there, my buddy and I were in the tourist area, the river walk and the arch. A guy came up to us and tried to hustle us. At that time, I was already performing as a magician. I basically live by the rule, “Never bet a man in his own game,” but my buddy wasn\’t happy. He was like, “I can figure this guy,” and he did a classic thing. I\’ve seen this thing in every major tourist area, London, Paris, Vegas. It\’s everywhere, but I\’ll show you my version.

It\’s a simple game. I would venture to guess millions of people have lost money doing this, but luckily for you and everybody, you don\’t have to bet. You can just place your bet in your mind. It involves three cards. I have three cards. We have the three, we have the ace and then the two. Your job, if you choose to accept, is very simple. All you have to do is follow the ace. That\’s it. Right in the middle. Keep your eye right there on the ace. If you can do it, you win the prize of being cool for the day. I\’m going to do this as slowly as I can so you know everything is fair. It\’s the one right in the middle.

Keep your eyes on that card. If it\’s early for you and you haven\’t had a cup of coffee yet, I\’ll give you a hint. All you have to do is follow the ace. Place your mental bets on where you think it is. Most people, for some odd reason, think it\’s over here and I haven\’t figured out why, because the ace is actually over there. It\’s a simple one, but it cuts right to the point. It’s a visual thing and hopefully engages you. If you got it right, congratulations. You\’re on top of things. I have one more that I have to show you.

That was magic. That was a sleight of hand magic or illusion type of thing. I have something for you in my pocket. It\’s in the world of mentalism. I\’m going to ask you some questions and I want to point out and this is important for the readers. What you\’re about to learn is not prearranged. This is real and it\’s happening. He has no idea what\’s about to happen. What I want you to do is imagine. Let\’s say we bet in that card game, and let\’s say you won. As your prize, hypothetically speaking, let\’s say you\’ve won a free vacation anywhere in the world that you want to travel to. The catch is you have to leave right now. Tell us all out loud, where would you go if you could go on a free vacation right now?

Italy.

Imagine you\’re there. Go into an imaginary hotel, walk up to your hotel room and on your door is your room number. What room number are you picturing on the door? Tell us out loud.

201.

Is that important to you in any way? A lucky number? Is that your birthday?

I just saw the number and I said it.

In other words, it\’s not something that I should have known you were going to say.

It has nothing to do with me, whatsoever.

Here\’s the weird part. Remember how I told you I had something for you? I wrote something on a Post-It Note and I put it inside of my wallet as a prediction of what I believe was going to happen. Behind my driver\’s license here, there is a little Post-It Note, behind the little plastic thing, I\’m going to take it out. Don\’t take your eyes off of this Post-It Note at any time. I jammed this behind my driver\’s license here and I\’m going to unfold it and you\’re going to see something absolutely incredible because I had two things written on here. I had Italy and 201.

That is so ridiculous. I should have changed my answer. How\’d you do that?

It was with style and panache.

I was like, “I shouldn\’t say Italy because I really wouldn\’t want to go there with the COVID thing.”

I\’m trying. Do you know what\’s funny? It’s when people say, “You\’re ridiculous,” I also get, “You\’re the devil. Are you an alien?” These are all compliments.

You did that a long time ago. I had no idea you were going to play that game with me.

Mind Reading: Magic and mentalism can be used to highlight the points of a keynote and make them stick in people’s minds for years, even decades.

It was ready to rumble in the event.

How many other wallets and Post-It Notes do you have?

I have 3,286 wallets about my body. No, this is not true. I wish it were that easy.

I’m speechless.

It\’s a crazy one.

It\’s great. Was there a point when you were like 10 or 12 or 15 or something where you started realizing you could read people\’s minds? Was there ever a moment where you realized you were good at that or did you learn it because you’ve got a degree in psychology? How did that all come to view?

For full disclosure or my disclaimer or whatever you want to say, I don\’t claim to be a psychic or anything. Every time I do any type of television appearance, and I just did a national TV appearance. Immediately afterward, I always get the emails and messages from people saying, “I\’m having these life issues. Can you help me? Can you predict my future? Am I getting married?” They want me to predict their fortune. I\’m a mentalist, not a fortune-teller. There is a difference between a psychic and a mentalist. With that being said, a good way to put it is this, I don\’t have a sixth sense.

You do. You knew I was going to say Italy.

The point is or the only explanation is, he must be a psychic. The catch is I don\’t have a sixth sense. I highly tune the five senses that I already have to create an experience that appears to be a sixth sense, if that makes sense. I\’m creating this based-upon psychology and human behavior and things that you could study.

Let me ask you a question. If it wasn\’t me sitting here and it was some other speaker I represent or a friend of mine or a stranger, whoever, would they have also said Italy 201?

Sometimes and I\’ll tell you why. You\’re on a very interesting track and almost one where you\’re going to get a peek behind the scenes. I have two skillsets. Maybe I\’m saying too much here, but I have the ability to predict things that are going to happen. I also have ways of implanting thoughts into your mind, so you believe that you thought of things on your own when in actuality, I put them there.

The drums thing is ridiculous.

If you look at the world of advertising, let\’s say. If you looked around your room where you are right now, you would see more logos than you could ever imagine. There\’s one right behind you on your chair. If you look in the tag, there you go. It’s subliminal messaging. You have a subliminal message there in the back of the tag or the inside of your jacket, on your socks, underwear, or wristwatch. Everything has a logo on it. People are implanting logo recognition subliminally into your mind so that when it\’s time to buy, you\’re going to have that sense and that feeling of familiarity and instantly go for it. It\’s the same thing.

Maybe I picked that exactly 201.

I\’m not going to tell you my methodology. It\’s one of those things where I have the ability to do both.

Show me some more. This is cool. Have you got anything else?

I\’ll take it. At least you\’re not saying, “Stop doing it.”

I want to do one more.

Let\’s rock and roll. I\’ll let you decide because I do magic and illusion, things that are visual. I also do mentalism and both are equally cool. You\’ll decide.

There are so many great magicians, let\’s do it. The vessel is rolled. Let\’s do some mental stuff.

I\’ll do a simple one. Would you like me to attempt to read something that\’s in your subconscious or would you like me to force something into your brain?

[bctt tweet=\”Getting the audience to lead the show is what always make every performance fun.\” username=\”calentertainmnt\”]

I don\’t want either of those things.

It depends on how much stuff you have to hide. That\’s the question.

You tell me what you think is best for you.

How about this? I\’ll do it and I\’m not going to tell you which one it was. How about that? I want you to imagine that right now you go to a convenience store, like a 7-Eleven type of place. You go in and I want you to imagine you\’re buying some stuff, drinks, food or whatever it may be. I\’m going to write something down while we\’re doing this. I want you to imagine you go to the register and pay in cash. No credit cards or debit cards. Imagine that you get a receipt back and some change back. I have something written here that I believe you\’re about to say. You’re not able to see it.

Just to make sure that I heard the question right.

I haven\’t even asked the question yet so you’re safe. Here\’s the question now. On my side of the card, I have something written. What I want you to tell us is, how much change did you get back from your purchase at that convenience store? Make something up and tell us.

$5.03.

You could have said anything up to a million dollars. I didn\’t exactly give you any type of limitations or anything like that, but do you find this weird at all? I had, “You will say $5.03,” right on the dot. Literally right on the money.

When did you write that?

Just while I was telling you to picture the scene of being in the convenience store. For some reason, it\’s weird because I saw your mind shift. Did you start under a dollar at all? Were you in the cents and then add dollars or did you start with the five and then go with it? Do you remember?

I was at $14.97.

I saw a shift.

It was the amount of money I was paying of stuff I was buying and that $5.03 was going to be my change.

It ended up correct. That\’s all that matters to me. That would have been a terrible ending if you would have said $0.37. I wish I could step on the other side. The only interesting thing from my perspective, that I wish I could switch is to devoid myself of knowledge. When I watch other performers do this type of thing, my skillset is like engraved in my brain. I see it at for a different reason. It\’s like watching Penn & Teller: Fool Us. It\’s when you watch somebody else doing your art form, and you know how it\’s done, that wow factor is hedonic adaptation. You\’re so used to it, you see the same types of things. From your perspective, I wish I could go back there and sit in your chair.

I don\’t know if you want to sit in my chair right now because that\’s almost to the point of like, it\’s this rush of adrenaline and it\’s amazing. Honestly, because when you\’re watching it on TV or even if you\’re in an audience with a corporate event, he\’s doing it to other people. You\’re not a participant.

I always tell people this whenever I do a show, because I know that and I live in that space and I am keenly aware of that. That\’s why in my live shows and virtual, I make it a point to get everybody involved several times so they can have that feeling. I have to make sure every single one of those people has that OMG moment. That\’s why I tell people to do things as a group. I tell everyone to take something out of your pocket or, “Everybody, think of something. Everybody, do something.” There\’s a payoff at the end for the entire audience.

I\’ve seen a lot of performers where they will do something as what I\’ll call a little vignette. They\’ll stand there and do a trick and say, “Look at this.” The catch is, if I wanted to see somebody do something cool, I could go on YouTube and watch that. It could be high production value. It would be great, like an AGT or something like that. When you\’re experiencing a live show, be it on a stage, in person or through a camera, you have to go beyond having your audience watch something and you want them to engage with it and participate with it.

I always like to put it in the realm of every single show that I do is like a choose your own adventure book where you, the audience, are determining the outcome of everything that happens. For example, you thinking of Italy and thinking of drums and doing those things, this will never happen again. This show we\’ll call it, will never happen ever again. It\’s something unique to the moment. Getting people engaged and having the audience lead the show is what it\’s all about. That\’s what makes it fun, in my opinion.

One other question I was thinking of. If a corporate event sponsor or the company itself or the organization that\’s hired you has a theme, a new product, a new sales mantra, tagline or something that people are struggling with to adopt as a mindset. Can you help the planner or the event people, who are producing and putting on the event, put something into the minds of their employees or of their association members that\’ll help them through or give them something that they want them to adopt and believe in?

There are two different levels to it. I have great relationships with some of the top planners in the world, thankfully. I like serving them because I don\’t do a cookie-cutter show where I say, “Here it is and this is how much it costs. Take it or leave it.” It\’s not the real world. It\’s not the world that planners live in. You have to ebb and flow and things are constantly changing. You need to adapt to the event. What we do, I work collaboratively. The first thing I do is ask questions and listen. It\’s in that listening, “What is your theme? Is there an underlying message? What is the purpose everybody\’s getting together?”

There are two ways you could go from there. You can do a subliminal kind of overtone where you\’re mentioning the theme or the through line. We did one. It was the journey of life. Constantly, I was talking about the journey of life and I was intermingling that in with my presentation to help support the theme. You have it in a very loose way and then you can do the things that are pretty much in your face and overt where it gets to the point of custom scripting. I\’ve done a lot of events and things for corporations where they\’re doing trade shows. I do a lot of business out in Vegas, where they want to intermingle a sales message because there are potential clients in the room as well.

Mind Reading: Mentalists don’t have a sixth sense. However, they can highly tune the five senses to create an experience that appears to be a sixth sense.

I spout out facts and figures about the company, about their product or service. If I can or if they hire me to, I can customize and script it to the point where I\’m using their products or services in the performance, not in a sales way, but in a fun, light-hearted way so that it\’s subliminal. They always say, “A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.” If people are watching something cool while they\’re hearing a theme or something, it helps them absorb it and do it. I think this is a perfect time. I happen to have some stuff here. This is cool because we have a bunch of stuff in the studio here. I have a Coke and I have a red bull coconut. Which one do you want to recycle?

The coconut?

Trash gone. That\’s going into recycling. That leaves me with this. Watch this Coke can. You can see it\’s crushed, open and emptied. Watch the dents in the can. All you have to do is imagine that every time my finger goes around this can that we can go one minute back in time. If my finger goes around the can and we go one minute back in time for each rotation, if you believe something strongly enough, it\’ll start to become your reality. Watch the can and watch the dents. You\’re going to begin to see them go back to where they came from. The dents are coming out of the can. We still have a hole, but if you imagine, I can grab it and throw it away.

If you believe I can grab nothingness like that and throw it away, the lack of nothingness would be the presence of something. If that something is real, it becomes a seal. It\’s resealed. There\’s nothing in it, nothing in there. If you imagine and believe we can refill it, it\’ll just get heavier and heavier. Now, make it cold again. Why not? It\’s filling up. You can hear it filling up. It\’s getting colder and on that note, I\’d like to make a toast on behalf of Coca-Cola. Cheers.

That\’s a little example of utilizing a product or a service in the show where you\’re grabbing something that has their logo on it. I\’ve done that for a bunch of companies, beverage companies and so on and so forth. There\’s a subtle message in there about the product or service. To answer your question, underlying themes, messages to help people, inspirational stuff, or overt sales messages, it can all be put in. I live in a world of mental manipulation, so absolutely. That\’s what it\’s all about.

Is there something that you haven\’t done that you are trying to figure out how to do, or you haven\’t had the opportunity to do yet, and you\’re waiting for the right moment or that you\’re building right now? Is there anything out there that you\’re excited about?

Do you mean in the sense of a piece or an act to perform, or are you thinking of a bigger picture?

It’s both. What excites you about the future in your profession and your job? Is there something that you are working on or is there something you want to be able to do that you haven\’t had the opportunity to do yet with a huge audience or something like that?

I\’m constantly creating. Anytime you’ll ask me that, the answer is going to be yes because the world I live in, the fun part is coming up with new concepts. That\’s the artistic part of it where you\’re using your skillset to create things. I\’m constantly working on things. I have things that I\’m working on right now that they\’re so deep down the rabbit hole psychologically that you have to do things. In my world, I can\’t practice in a room alone. I can\’t stand in front of a mirror and read my own mind so I need human beings in order to do it, and I need audiences to do it.

The way I test stuff is I just throw it into the show and see what happens and see what I can create. I don\’t just make it up on the spot. I have the core concept and I know it\’s going to do something and the outcome is going to be entertaining, but to what degree and what specificity? There are a few things. I know this is going to sound crazy, but I\’m working on a way to make everybody that\’s watching the show either virtually or in person travel through time. I make the audience travel through time and it\’s going to sound absolutely ridiculous. Would you like to see a sample? I wasn\’t planning on doing this at all, but I want you to name a number between 1 and 10 or anything that you want.

You\’re talking about 2 to 9 or including 1 and 10?

This is why I like reading your mind because there\’s so much going on in there. You never know what\’s going to happen. A single-digit other than zero. How about that? Say it out loud.

Eight.

I\’m in a different time zone as you. I have my lovely better half and my son here. This is the time where I am, but check this out. Watch the clock. You said eight. We just went back in time eight minutes. Not only did I travel back in time for eight minutes, but you did as well. Check your phone and check the time, we just went over by a minute. If you look at your clock and your phone, you\’ll see that you also went back eight minutes back in time. Your clock went back eight minutes as well.

I looked at my clock and it said 2:38 and now it says 2:30.

That experience is what I\’m bringing to people.

I\’m going to have to rewind, but I\’m not going to be able to know what my clock said here.

It’s doing that and then having everybody experience that. I\’m working on things like that, where the viewers take out their phones and have an experience like that.

If you could do that every day for me, it would be great because I need more time.

I\’ll tell you I\’ve added years onto my life. I\’m actually 87. Do I look all right?

Much better than you would normally have looked. Wayne, this has been absolutely so fun. I feel like we could go on for hours here and I can\’t wait to hang out with you in person once all this COVID stuff is all over. It’s unbelievable. It\’s all real, which is so cool. I love to help people visualize things. I love to tell people about people like you. Believe me, I\’m going to do my best to tell people how amazing and real all of that was. That was all real, folks.

Mind Reading: The fun part is in coming new concepts and using your skill to create new things.

Thanks for participating. Thanks for letting me in your mind.

We can talk about some other things on my mind off camera.

I already know part of it. He\’s got some things in his brain.

Enjoy that Coke. Enjoy your night. Enjoy your week and have a great rest of your summer. I will look forward to talking to you, hanging out with you and booking you. Thanks again so much for coming on the show.

It’s my pleasure. This was fun.

Important Links

• Mind Candy
• Mind Candy
• Wayne Hoffman
• The Passing Zone – Past episode
• Jon Dorenbos – Past episode
• Kenny Aronoff – Past episode
• Amazon – Mind Candy
• Apple Books – Mind Candy

About Wayne Hoffman

Wayne Hoffman is a multiple award winning performer and recognized as one of the top mentalists in the world. He is an in-demand television personality who tours the world with his stage show Mind Candy. He also authored a best-selling book, by the same name Mind Candy. He even has a captivating keynote called The Power and Potential of The Human Mind.

Wayne has been featured on: America’s Got Talent, Penn and Teller’s: FOOL US (where he was actually one of the few guests to ever fool Penn and Teller), The TODAY show, NBC’s hit show Phenomenon, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, HARRY (hosted by Harry Connick Jr), National Geographic, CNN Money, The Science Channel, and many more.

Wayne’s passion for the mysterious was sparked at a young age leading him to study the art of magic. Later, through extensive studies in sociology, psychology, body language, and human behavior, Wayne was able to develop the foundation of his skills today. Audiences rave about his dynamic and stimulating performances where they experience seemingly supernatural phenomena in a fun and upbeat way.

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