The Ross Johnson Legacy: Hard-Hitting Mentalism

This book is Truly Ross Johnson’s Legacy project. It contains his full repertoire that he has used as a professional mentalist throughout his entire career and additional material that was once part of his working set. Any time a titan of the field releases their life’s work, you should take note. Ross Johnson may not even be a name you’re familiar with. That’s because he’s been working the markets and getting paid to be a mentalist, and the material in this book proves exactly why he was able to make a living by reading minds. 

Before we dive into all of the content, I wanted to say a quick word about how the book is put together because I found it pretty unique. First of all, there is a webpage where you can watch Ross perform his full two-act show for a live audience. This show essentially contains all of his core material. What a treat! 

The routines in the book begin with the transcribed audio from that very performance, which acts as the script. Then you get whatever explanation you need to understand the effect. The section ends with commentary from Ross about the performance/script, which covers the reasons behind the choices Ross makes. 

This means that the entire book essentially reads as a conversation between Ross and his audience/onstage volunteers and then between Ross and Larry Hass. It’s almost like reading an interview or even like being in the room with Ross as Larry acts as your voice and asks the questions you may be wanting to ask. 

I definitely recommend watching the full show before reading the effects so that you can really get a feel for Ross’s style. This also means that when you read the script section, you can kind of gloss over it because it’s literally transcribed from the video you just watched. Then, during the commentary, you can go back and read the script for the sections Ross talks about to see how it all comes together. The commentary is especially great because you get a real pro’s insight into the WHY behind the means. And I’m happy to report that even though he’s been doing this a long time, Ross has been smart enough to allow his lines and jokes to adapt to modern sensibilities. Ross never crosses the line with a participant and always takes genuinely good care of them while they’re on the stage. 

Also, it’s worth noting that the webpage with the performance video contains additional videos that are referenced throughout the book. 

With all of that out of the way, let’s look at the contents. 

The book begins with a Foreword by Michael Weber and an Introduction by Larry Hass: The Fine, Yet Disruptive Art of Mentalism

Part One: Ross Johnson: Working Pro—Pro's Pro

Chapter 1. Making a Career in Corporate Mentalism

This is an interview between Larry and Ross where he speaks about his journey from his first introduction to Magic/Mentalism to how he was able to make it his full-time career. 

Chapter 2. Fundamental Vision and Values

Here, Ross discusses his seven values as a mentalist. These are: 

1. 1. The performance of Mentalism should feel deeply believable.

2. 2. This theatrical goal makes Mentalism different from Magic and mental magic.

3. 3. Mentalism bends over backward to avoid contrivance, clichés, and moves. 

   1. 4. Effective Mentalism understands the difference between procedure and process and performs process in a plausible way. 

4. 5. Achieving deep believability requires a different model of show building. 

5. 6. It is better to have a small, strong repertoire than a large, weak one. 

6. 7. Mentalism is a lifestyle. 

Chapter 3. A Funny Thing Happened... Tomorrow

This is a little background about the history of his two-act show that we get to see a performance of. 

Part Two: Openers

Chapter 4. Dunninger

This is Ross’s cold open. It’s his method to quiet the room and get everyone’s attention at the top of the show. It is essentially a few psychological forces on the entire audience, which has become a sort of standard approach thanks to Bob Cassidy and his idea of starting with a “major” effect. I’m usually not a fan of this approach because it’s so transparent, and any performer who thinks he’s actually fooling anyone with that is crazy. However, what makes this version unique is that Ross doesn’t try to play this as mind-reading. He makes it very clear that these are just statistically the most likely answers. He almost leads them down the garden patch and then snatches the rug out from under them by stating exactly what they are thinking—that it’s just the most probable answers. This causes the audience to let down their guard a bit and see that this is an honest performer.

Chapter 5. Liars Die

A couple joins Ross on stage. One of them is the liar, and one is the judge. The liar rolls a die, remembers the number, and is told to answer “no” to every question asked. The performer asks them about each number on the die and eventually determines which number they’re thinking of. This is repeated, but this time the spectator only answers in his head. Ross gets it correct again. The lair is dismissed, and the judge now plays one final round. This time, she gets to choose a number on the die. The performer names it without her even uttering a sound.

As you may have guessed, this is Ross’s handling for the Real Die prop. It may even sound like your average performance with the gimmick, but there is a LOT of subtlety in the routine that makes it stand out. It is at the perfect spot in the show (the first real trick), and its main job is to ease the audience into the believable world, but more importantly, to see that if you’re on stage with Ross, you’re going to be taken care of. It’s truly an inspiration to watch him work because you can just tell the spectators are totally comfortable with him. He gets laughs, but it’s never at the expense of the people on stage. In the commentary, Ross explains how he is reading the spectator's reaction to things in real time and adjusting his performance by actively backing away to give them space or delivering some lines to the audience to make the spectator feel less pressure. It’s truly a masterclass on dealing with people on stage so they don’t just feel like props. I read several things that made me pause and think about my own work, which could be improved by using these techniques.

Alternate Finish: Birth Date

Sometimes Ross uses the same premise but with the revelation of someone’s birth month instead of using the gimmicked die. It involves a little preshow, but the volunteer doesn’t even know that it’s happened. He touches on several methods he uses to obtain the information. Personally, I prefer the die approach not only because it doesn’t need preshow, but also because you get three hits with the die version instead of just the one that you get with the Birth Date version. 

Chapter 6. Poker Face

This is Ross’s only routine in the show that uses playing cards. A deck of cards is shuffled by multiple audience members. One spectator deals himself about a quarter of the deck and puts the rest away. The spectator spreads the cards that are left between his hands and looks at them. The performer (without looking) tells him what color is the most dominant in the hand. The spectator then chooses to work with red or black cards. They remove the ones they don’t want to work with. The performer tells him exactly how many cards are remaining in their hand. Then tells him exactly which cards are left. 

Again, it may sound like your run-of-the-mill card calling routine, but the devil is in the details, and the details make this routine one of the best card calling routines I’ve ever seen. The shuffle sequence is simple, but so deceptive that I’m almost ashamed to say that it fooled me when I watched the performance. Ross is using multiple methods combined to make this feel totally impossible. He only calls 5-8 cards, so the audience isn’t stuck hearing someone rattle off 52 playing cards. And yet, nothing is lost. Again, he has slotted it into the perfect position in the show. It is more impossible than the die effect, but without jumping into the “impossible” realm. It feels like a natural progression. I also love the way Ross gets the three spectators to the stage. The presentation is very entertaining, and there isn’t a single beat of downtime. 

Interlude 1: Lessons Learned

This section gives us three anecdotal stories from Ross’s life.

Part Three: Feature Effects

Chapter 7. The BOOK Book Test

Ross has two volunteers come on stage. He riffles through the pages of a book, and one volunteer stops him on any page and remembers the first word. He then hands the other volunteer the book, and she turns to any page and chooses any longer word she wants. The book is put away. Both volunteers imagine being back in school, and eventually, both words are revealed. 

The description above does an absolutely horrible job of indicating how great the routine is. As you’re starting to discover, Ross uses routines that are classic hits, but what makes them stand out are all of the details that surround them, and those are exactly the things I can’t really effectively describe in the brief words of a review. The method is pretty common nowadays, but the things surrounding it turn it into a full showpiece. The book is justified with Ross’s presentation (which is something I will absolutely use), the way he gets the spectators on stage is clever, the book is out of play almost as fast as it’s brought into play, there is a ton of byplay with the two volunteers, and the revelation of the words are different. This is a true performance piece. It’s simple for everyone to follow and feels about as direct as mind reading could possibly feel while still being totally entertaining throughout. If you’ve seen Ross’s penguin lecture, this book test is better than the one taught there. 

After the commentary of this, there’s also an interview between Larry and Ross about Ross’s history and approach to book tests over the years

Chapter 8. Blindfold

The performer is blindfolded and is able to reveal items brought up by three spectators in detail. 

This is a full masterclass on the blindfold act. He gets the participants involved in a great way. We are also lucky to get to know his thoughts about why he makes all of the decisions that he does in the routine. I prefer another blindfold technique, but Ross brings up great points about why he chooses this over other methods. I don’t really like blindfold routines that are merely telling people what object they hold, but it has clearly been an effective worker for Ross throughout his entire career. In the course of the full show, this is his Act 1 finale.

Chapter 9. Minding the Store

This opens Act two. A woman is given an envelope to hold. A shopping list is shown, torn from the pad, and put in the performer’s pocket. Three spectators call out a single digit number. The lady holding the envelope chooses one of those three numbers. She comes on stage, and the shopping list from earlier is handed to her. She locates the item at the number she chose. It’s a bottle of champagne. She reaches into a bag that has been on stage the entire time and pulls out a bottle of champagne. The envelope is then opened, and it says that the total of his shopping trip will be projected into the minds of the audience. She then reaches into the bag and removes a small stub of paper. It is a receipt from Target. She calls out the total of the shopping trip, and it matches the three numbers that were called out by the audience members.

This is Ross’s handling of a Ned Rutledge effect, and it is a killer. Elements of it fooled me. It takes a bit of preparation for each performance, but the trick is totally worth it. I love that the prediction of the amount really does come as a surprise, which is unique for these types of routines. I can absolutely see myself using this in my shows. It’s simple, foolproof, and entertaining.

Interlude 2: Influences

This interlude covers Ross’s appreciation for three creators: Koran, Ned Rutledge, and Tony Andruzzi.

Part Four: Closers

Chapter 10. Sins

A spectator brings three envelopes on stage. They had jotted down three different pieces of information before the show started and put one in each envelope. With absolutely no moves and nothing to see, the performer successfully reveals all three thoughts that were written, as well as some things she supposedly didn’t write, such as the phone number of a close friend, her birthday, and the name of her friend. 

This routine is an entire show in itself. You could effectively use this piece alone if you had a 10 minute slot you needed to fill. In fact, Ross uses this as his closer in his shows if the audience is too small to effectively do Q&A. It is essentially his take on Fourth Dimensional Telepathy, but this version doesn’t rely on one ahead, doesn’t use a force, doesn’t rely on electronics, and doesn’t involve miscalling one billet as another. It DOES, however, involve Preshow. But it’s a good form of Preshow where the audience is fully aware that things happened before the show. There is a little bit of dual reality happening for the person on stage, but the final revelations should come as a surprise to them because they are certain they’ve been holding onto that information all night. I didn’t really like it when I first saw the method, but when you go back and watch the performance, it’s easy to see why he has used this as a closer. There’s simply nothing for them to see—literally nothing happens on stage other than mind reading. 

Chapter 11. Q&A

Fifty years of work on the Q&A is revealed for the first time in its entirety. This is Ross’s show stopping finale. It fills 20 to 30 minutes, and it is a deceptive and bewildering Q&A. It is a bit of a jazz piece, so the explanation is quite lengthy to cover all of the options and to give you all of the information on exactly how Ross uses it. This version does use preshow--the audience fills out the questions before the show. There are several benefits to this, but the big one to me is that you’re able to construct your Q&A before the show even begins so that it is dynamic and ends strong. You don’t have to just hope you get something good, and you don’t have to cross your fingers that you won’t get a dud. You can have the full Q&A portion of the show crafted before you ever set foot on stage. Some won’t like the fact that the questions are written before the show, but this does eliminate a possible slow moment in the show while you wait for spectators to write their questions. It also means that during the show… there’s literally nothing to see. Ross is so great at getting all of the dirty work done before the show so that there is nothing to see during the show itself. It’s one of the big reasons his shows feel like mind reading instead of mental magic. 

When I watched the performance, I had no idea how much was actually going on. And that’s a testament to the trick because it’s a lot of work beforehand to make it look like so little work on stage. I actually found the performance of the routine in the full show to be a bit lackluster, but I think it’s mainly because in that performance space, he decided to sit for the Q&A portion, and to me, that made part of the method a little less deceptive—especially for the camera. But there’s also a video of him performing it at the Chicago Magic Lounge, standing, and that performance was stellar. But that performance only uses the first half of Ross’s method for the entire Q&A. Also, unfortunately, the full show doesn’t include the second half of his Q&A. I mean, it DOES, but Ross actually had to improvise a bit. We didn’t get to see the way it USUALLY plays out. But that’s okay because it’s all explained in the book. It’s amazing that we are getting all of the details of Ross’s Q&A laid out like this. I’ll admit, it’s a lot to take in. There are a lot of moving parts that all come together to make something that is beautiful and fooling. I think it may be the best and most deceptive Q&A I’ve seen. I will use this. It’s hard to imagine a better Q&A. 

Interlude 3: Life in Show Biz

This section treats us to a few more stories from Ross’s career. 

Part Five: Working Routines and Secrets

This part of the book looks at material that is no longer part of Ross’s set, but rather, material that he uses in different situations or that he once used in his shows. 

Chapter 12. Voice Print

A man from the audience brings up an envelope that contains two lists of names that he wrote before the show. One contains female names, and one contains male names. Their mother’s name is one of the names on the female list, and their father’s name is one of the names on the male list. The performer calls out the names from the first list and effectively deduces which name is their parent’s name. The second list is handed to someone in the audience, and THEY read out the names. The performer is again able to deduce the name of the parent from the list. 

That bare bones description doesn’t do it much justice, but this is essentially set up with the same premise as Liar’s Die. It is very fooling—especially the second list, which the performer never sees. Ross admits this plays best in a more informal situation, like a house party or something. He teaches the original Rutledge method along with two other methods he has used to great effect. It’s a great example of taking a classic method and turning it into a full showpiece, but I don't think I'd use it.

Chapter 13. Double Speak

Early in the show, a spectator is handed a newspaper. She looks through it, chooses an article, and reads it silently to herself. The performer is able to deduce images on the page, a big word from the article, and even predicts a word from the headline of the article that she chose. 

This entire routine is a masterful use of preshow. The preshow is so fooling even for the participant who gets preshowed--they will be just as dumbfounded as the audience. This is a great prediction effect you can add to your show. It works especially well if you’re also doing Ross’s Q&A because it cleans itself up nicely, but they also discuss the method Larry uses when he uses it in his shows without the Q&A. 

Chapter 14. After-Dinner, Walk-Around, and Media Mentalism: An Interview

This is Ross’s personal view on performing Mentalism after dinner, in walk around environments, and on radio/tv. It includes a story that Ross told on his Penguin Lecture, which I think is one of the wildest situations I’ve ever heard, and a quick witted response from Ross wrapped it up perfectly.  

Chapter 15. “?Princess?” and Princess A-Hoy

Members of the audience are handed a packet of cards and asked to just think of one. The cards are collected and shuffled with the rest of the deck. The performer spreads through the deck and calls out cards that he thinks they could be thinking of. He is then able to name each of the thought of cards. 

This is Ross’s take on the matrix card effect. It was his main card effect in his set for a long time before he replaced it with Poker Face. It is a really deceptive take on the classic effect that eliminates having to show a spectator a hand of cards to see if their card is there. I was particularly impressed with Princess A-Hoy. He says it’s best not to perform that one for a smaller group because of the method used, but I really do like it. One has to ask if it’s actually better than tossed out deck, and truthfully, I’m not sure. With tossed out deck, the spectators each apparently have 52 cards to choose from; with this, each spectator only has 5 cards in their hand to choose from. But this routine allows you to know specifically which card at least one spectator is thinking of, and it’s likely that you’ll have more than one that you can work with at the end. I don’t know if I would change from the tossed out deck to this, but I do like the method used, and I think it’s a clever combination of methods.  

Chapter 16. Some Bits and Pieces

A. The Ross Johnson Hoy Book Test Subtlety

This is a great subtlety with the Hoy Book Test that cements the idea that the page call is legitimate. They say once you read this, you’ll never do the Hoy book test without… I think they may be right. 

B. Lazy Man's Card Trick Handling

This is Ross’s closer at house parties. It’s really a presentation angle for the Lazy Man’s Card Trick that makes the cutting procedure a funny “bit” instead of an awkward moment. This bit hides all of the dirty work. 

C. Jack Yates's Line-Up: Handling and Presentation

This is a really great Mentalism effect you can perform with a borrowed and shuffled deck. About a dozen cards are removed. Six spectators select a card and remember it. Those are shuffled back into the packet. The performer shows the cards one at a time and eventually hands five of the cards out to their owner. The last spectator, unfortunately, didn’t get a card. The performer solves this by reading their mind directly. This is a highlight for me. It’s so simple, but I can imagine how strong it would play. You could play it as a lie detector routine, pure mind reading, or somewhere in between. It’s quick and punchy, and the final “pure mind reading” revelation of the card is really great. And the best part is that it can be done with a borrowed and shuffled deck. 

Chapter 17. The Five-Star Miracle Prediction

A spectator deals through a deck face up, stops on any card, and it’s the one card predicted in an envelope in the performer’s wallet.

This classic trick is especially effective with Ross’s touches. He strikes a great balance of control over the spectator’s action and casualness that feels like he truly doesn’t care where they stop. This was eventually removed from Ross’s set because he no longer performs prediction effects and because he vowed to only have one card trick in his show. But it is a very direct prediction, and Ross’s presentation makes the most out of such a simple technique.

Chapter 18. Free Will

This is Ross’s handling of Michael Weber’s refined handling of the Almost Real Prediction. Essentially, it’s a number prediction that involves four people on stage and someone in the audience making decisions. 

Ross doesn’t really suggest any methodological differences for the trick, but he does provide a couple of presentation ideas for it. I really like the last version that he calls “It’s Inevitable.” It uses brand images as a lead to discuss subliminal influence. It’s a nice way to make the number aspect become less apparent. 

Chapter 19. Two Headline Predictions

This take on the headline prediction isn’t the cleanest one on the market for modern day, but it gets the job done. The first version is an updated take on an older method. It uses a gimmick, and the dirty work is done on stage. The second version doesn’t require the gimmick, and the dirty work is done before the show. The second version is definitely superior to the first. But even then, I don’t think it’s the best because after the preshow, the person who received the envelope walks away carrying an open envelope, and I just don’t love that idea. 

The book ends with Acknowledgments, Appendices, a Bibliography, About the Authors, and About Theory and Art of Magic Press

Overall, I am really impressed with the material in this book. It’s not really new or wildly original methods. Instead, it’s polished methods that have come from decades of working the material until it shines. Often, what he is adding is simple presentation changes, but those changes make a big impact on how the routine is perceived by the audience. If you want to perform Mentalism and you want it to seem “real” and not “magical.” You should really consider all of the advice he shares in the book. His spectator work alone is worth a deep study because it’s just so gentle, kind, and clear. As he often says throughout the book, the deception lies in the words. If you ARE just after interesting methods, his Q&A is fantastic and genuinely makes me rethink my own approach to Q&A. 

The Ross Johnson Legacy: Hard-Hitting Mentalism is available for $195 here:

https://www.theoryandartofmagic.com/product/the-ross-johnson-legacy-hard-hitting-mentalism