Postmentalism

THE BLURB:
Postmentalism is impossible to film a standard demo for.
The impact hits when your friend is sitting at home! So
what I did was I told a handful of working pros (Tom
Krzystof, Oz Pearlman, Paul Draper and Morgan Strebler)
about the effect, what happens and then I gave them 24 hours
to think of a method. Then I gave them a call the next day
to chat. The following reactions are from those calls...

"I love it. How did you come up with this?? I have to ask!"
-- Tom Krzystof

"That's sick. I'm going to use it for the next UFC fight."
-- Morgan Strebler

"That's *!@#'n good. Really good. I'm going to use this." --
Oz Pearlman

"It's fantastic.. it's phenomenal.. I think it's great." --
Paul Draper

"I just came back from the future, and everyone there was
doing this trick. Seriously." -- Alvo Stockman

Before a major event (football game, election, etc), you
offer to make a prediction to one of your friends. However
in the interest of security, you don’t want to hold on to
the prediction yourself, nor do you want your friend to. You
offer to mail the prediction in the form of a letter to your
spectator's house, using the US Postal Service. In this way,
it would be a felony to tamper with it!

You write the prediction, put it in an envelope, address it,
put a stamp on it, and hand it to your friend. You then
invite him to put the letter in any mailbox in town.

The following day (or whenever the letter happens to
arrive), alone at home, your friend's brain will slowly
disassemble itself and finally shut down, trying to figure
out how you knew.

YES. It's as clean and straight-forward as it sounds.
There's absolutely nothing misleading in this description.
Get ready to be talked about, this is a reputation maker.

MY COMMENTS:
This is Kenton Knepper's Perfected Prediction. Kenton's
routine is more of a formal stage presentation, where this
version is more of a one-on-one effect. Also, Kenton did
lecture on this routine and briefly mentioned this idea in
Perfected Prediction, but didn't fully explore the mail
premise that Alvo uses. The other difference is that the
pens are included and that Kenton's manuscript is far
superior. And, just to be clear, the controversy really
centers around the crediting for the use of these specific
pens in a mentalism routine.

Alvo and Penguin have agreed to include the
following:

"Kenton Knepper originally published a method for posting a
prediction letter using vanishing ink way back in 1998 and
again in 2005! While Postmentalism was independently
conceived and developed, the historical record of our Art
matters, and it should be noted that Kenton's work on these
kinds of prediction effects preceded this one. Kenton's work
is worth looking into for additional predictions and other
uses for your pen too. His thinking on the subject is
available in his manuscript "Perfected Prediction" available
from www.wonderwizards.com"

Penguin/Alva offered no monetary compensation, nor do they
offer to pull it from the market. A letter from
WonderWizards (Kenton's official product site, though it's
not run by Kenton) sent out an e-mail suggesting that you
buy this so you can easily obtain the pens, but then get
Kenton's original manuscript which has much more material on
the subject of its uses. Originally, I was going to pull
the item from my catalog due to it being a ripoff.
Technically, it is, since the creators now know its history and
continue to sell it. However, since WonderWizards has sent
that e-mail suggesting that you buy the pens and then get
the book, and with Kenton's consent, I will follow their
lead and do the same.

I do think that this is a wonderful idea that can be used
for some great publicity or a great piece in one's show. I
only wish that Penguin had done their research and/or that
they had decided to compensate Kenton. Penguin has a
history of being quite an unethical company. And, though
they claim they're trying to change their image, this
incident has proven that their infamous reputation is
well-deserved. The package comes with a booklet detailing
the routine, the pens, and some refills.