Digital Social Hour - Oz The Mentalist On Winning Marathons, Performing for LeBron James & Reading Minds | DSH #144

Episode Date: December 11, 2023

On today's episode of the Digital Social Hour Podcast, Oz the Mentalist reveals how he won the New Jersey marathon 4 times, how he can read people's minds, and how he's been able to use his skills to make money. BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail] APPLY TO BE ON THE POD: https://forms.gle/qXvENTeurx7Xn8Ci9 SPONSORS: Policy Genius: https://www.policygenius.com/DSH LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We had a magical straight up like he did a trick and it was like can you top that I did a trick and he's a Chicken ended up with him going out in the front yard and floating like a David Blaine style card Was it red or black it was red was it a heart or diamond diamond which one 10 take a look That's great I was watching him the whole time too. Say it. What's your name? Lauren. Lauren. No. Oh my gosh. Lauren.

Yo, what? All right. Welcome back to the Digital Social Hour. I'm your host, Sean Kelly. Here with my co-host, Charlie Cavalier. And our guest today, Oz Perlman. Thanks, guys. How's it going?

Going great. Man, the marathon runner himself. Ultra. Ultra marathon. Ultra marathoner. Man, you've won four New Jersey marathons. Dude, wow. You did your homework.

I got a little plaque in my office that says Hall of Famer New Jersey Marathon. That's the heyday. You know what's fun about that race? You did your homework. I got a little plaque in my office says Hall of Fame or New Jersey Marathon. I that's uh, The heyday, you know, what's fun about that race is it's an out-and-back which means you kind of turn around Yeah, and if you're in the lead, there's a police escort There's like a police car in front of you So everyone sees you and have always been a battle for that race That's dude you get fired up like thousands of people like dude. Yeah, and by the time I the third or fourth time They knew me so you're like yeah Oh, and you just get fired up. It's like the closest thing to feeling like a real athlete, even though I'm not one. Yeah. What's the secret? Cause you don't

have the ideal runner's build. I don't know. I, uh, mental motivation. I can just suffer better than other people. I feel right. You've trained your mind to be able to withstand. Honestly. Yeah. And also psychological warfare, dude. When I pass somebody in a race, not to tip my hat, I literally control my breathing. I get myself rested. I go by you really fast and usually give you encouraging words, which will break your spirit. I'll be like, dude, you're looking great, bro. Keep it going.

When you do that and they're feeling like, and then you, I don't think it's fair, is just, you know, I, uh, it breaks you mentally. Oh, so you're talking while you're running. That's like some Kobe Bryant stuff right there. Hit a three and then be like, don't worry, young fella, you'll get them next year. Like, you know, like honestly, it's encouraging words, which are honestly discouraging. Wow. I love that. Cause runners don't really be talking because I used to be a runner and no one really talked during the race. Oh, if you can talk and you have a normal breathing pattern it it really messes with the other person because they're like how am i breathing so heavy dying and this guy is out for an afternoon stroll yeah they get in their own head because now they're like oh my god if you pass them like

they're walking backwards now their spirit is broken they're like i'm not gonna try and catch this guy have you ever got into like talking competition with somebody during a race that lasted maybe longer than it should have oh full-on man i'll start reading their mind which will even like go jedi mind trick i'll be like think of something right now i tell them what it is they're like dude this guy's next level like i don't i don't even want to pass him right now so how did you develop that ability was it at a young age or did you develop it later in life? I started doing magic. So most people who become mentalists, which a lot of people don't know what mentalism is,

it's kind of magic, but it's magic of the mind. Yeah. Like I can show up here right now. I got no props and I could do an hour show, you know, for you two or for 2000 people. Because with magic, like you go see Criss Angel, David Copper, there's props. There's big props. And even though, listen, I love magic. Like you go see Criss Angel, David Copper, there's props, there's big props. And even though I love magic, you know that somehow there's slight of hand or there's something you're not seeing on stage, right? There's like, they call it smoke and mirrors.

You know, there's something with mentalism. It's like, it's the most pure pursuit, almost like standup comedy where you just get up there with a microphone and you talk. I don't need props. I am the show. So I've learned how people behave, how they think. And it started with magic where there's misdirection. Misdirection means when I say, Charlie, you see how I look there? You look there. Naturally, your eyes go where I want them to. So take that to the next level. Instead of a card trick where I know where you're going to pick the card, I can just say, think of a card. Look at a card. Use your mind. It's very different. You start to know and analyze how people behave, what they think.

You can influence their thinking. It's a little more cerebral. I have a lot of people after my shows that go, I don't like magic, but dude, I love what you do. Because it challenges people on a different level. Right. He got me too. I literally looked at the pillow. I looked too.

Well, it's that pause, that timing. It's the same as a comedian. How do comedians make you laugh? They can tell the same joke. Ten men and women say the same joke one you laugh the hardest it's because the way they time it the way they look the way their facial expressions all those things are they're on an instinctive basis gotcha and then how long did it take you to develop your mentalism skills to be able to go on america's got talent so it's funny i went on america's got talent and i didn't

get on the first time i tried out which is is so funny with that show. First time I tried out, didn't even get on. Second time, I got third place. So go figure, man. Timing is everything in life. But I was still doing magic when I went on there. But the year before, shout out to Matt Franco, who's here in Vegas, who's awesome. He's a friend, amazing magician. Are you someone that doesn't have life insurance? Why leave anything up to chance in a worst case scenario? Luckily, Policy Genius makes finding the right policy simple and their team of licensed experts are on hand to help you through it. Life insurance gives your family a safety net that they can cover expenses with so they don't have to worry about money while getting back on their

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They work for you, not the insurance companies. They don't have an incentive to recommend one insurer over another so you can trust their guidance. Policy Genius is for parents, caregivers, and anyone else who has people who depend on them. They simplify the process of getting life insurance so you can protect the people you love. They got thousands of five-star reviews on Google and Trustpilot. Your loved ones deserve a financial safety net. You deserve a smarter way to find and buy it. Head to policygenius.com slash DSH or click the link in the description to get a free life insurance quote and see how much you could save. That's policygenius.com slash DSH. Show you should see it is he won the year before I went on and I made a calculated decision saying, yo, if I want to go far, I got to

differentiate. Like I can't, if I do magic and he did magic, you're never going to win the same thing two years in a row. So I was doing 50-50 mentalism, but it was kind of like a crutch. Mentalism is scary to do because there's no safety net. Like if you screw up, you screw up versus magic. You know, you practice a card trick in the mirror. You can always, it always works.

So I made a decision at that point, like my social is owes the mentalist. Everything is owes the mentalist. I was full tilt sink or swim, man. I'm gonna do all mentalism. Yeah. And are people able to combat your mentalism skills? Like, can you penetrate everyone or certain people on penetrable? That's a weird way to put it. Who's penetrable? I don't penetrate anyone in the show for the record. Charlie, I'm not penetrating you. It's true. I'm safe. I'm safe. That costs extra. It's Vegas. So certain people it works better with.

It's not really like hypnosis where certain people are more suggestible, but what I would say is some people have bigger barriers so that when you're trying to guide someone, think of sales. If you call someone on the phone, number one thing to tell a marketer calls you like, dude, I don't want to talk to you. A dot, dot. So let's say not a telemarketer. How does this salesperson build rapport?

How do they get you comfortable? You have barriers in place. First thing you want to say is I don't need that. I already got that. Right? So what if they say, yeah, I'm with you. You don't need this. Oh, so I'm pretty much a salesperson. But what I'm selling is the feeling of, I know what you're thinking.

And in a lot of ways, it's very much sales 101 is I need you to become comfortable with me and what I'm asking so that your resistance lowers. And so is I could do certain things on anybody, but the difficulty for me is that I'm not trying to be cryptic is that certain people are easier to work with and they're going to give me bigger reactions quicker. So in that sense, in my show, what I'm doing is curating content. Think of like when you go on social, the best curators, like, you know, the fat Jewish, like certain people are so funny because they find you the best stuff right that matches your sense of humor so the same thing is in my show i can look at somebody and in one second no they're gonna this thing wow they're gonna

this thing and that's who i'm gonna pick out of a thousand people but other times we throw frisbees out in the audience and anyone can catch it so you know it's not set up right right if somebody watches youtube they're gonna be like oh he must have told you what to think or something no matter what i say people think it's set up if you see me on stage with a thousand people yo you throw frisbee one two three people there is no way that could happen they stand up i guess your atm pin code you know it's legit man like if you watch the espn stuff from last year i hacked dk metcalf's phone dude he grabbed his phone so fast oh my gosh he goes give my damn phone back it was you know it's not set up so I could do with anybody certain people are easier than others yeah see I'm a bit of a skeptic too so I'm the biggest skeptic Charlie that's why I

became a mentalist I was like this ain't this is not real I gotta figure out how they're doing this you use a lot of analogies about like stand-up comedy and uh my favorite thing to watch and me too and I've done a lot of uh work with comedians where I noticed that what they put out in a smaller room show is them testing material for those big stadium audiences. Fully. Is what you do similar? Are you like, if the three of us are doing this, are you more willing to try out some new material on us?

You're not just going to walk into a 10,000 person arena and just try something and see if it works. True. True. Yeah. If I'm getting paid and there's that many people in there, you don't want to bomb. So in that sense, yeah. It's exactly like a standup comedian because the difference between magic and mentalism and why if you were to look it up, there's so many fewer mentalists is because there's

this steep learning curve where it drops off. So with magic, you can practice magic by yourself. So I could sit in a mirror and I can watch myself do a move, a slight hand move over and over and over, and I can perfect it. And now when I do it for an audience, listen, it might go wrong a little, but you still know that you can do it. Mentalism is all about like, there's a trick I do, I guess a number straight up. Just think of a number one to a hundred. It's kind of one of my signatures. I've done it more times than any other trick i just got i've done it probably 50 000 times and i've done it so many times that i can just analyze how it works it's one of the hardest tricks i do wow seriously so what i'm saying is that went wrong for years

before it went right and most people don't have thick enough skin where like imagine bombing like comedians you tell a joke. Only way you know if it's funny is if the audience laughs. You could think it's funny. That doesn't matter. If it bombs in a show, you got to keep polishing the stone. Get it better. Get it better. And suddenly you find a hook and a tag.

And suddenly, bam, it's hilarious. So it's exactly that. Like I've seen Chris Rock at the Comedy Cellar just working material with a notepad. He says a joke, bombs, bombs, bombs. But then he starts –ar just working material with a notepad where he says a joke. Bombs, bombs, bombs. But then he starts – and then you come back a week later. Tweak it a little bit. Because I love Cellar's like where I go, New York City in the Village.

And yeah, exactly. A month later, that thing brings down the house. Wow. So with mentalism, it's the same thing. The tricks need to be – get perfected over time. Or sink or swim, man. Most of the stuff I do on TV, you're seeing, I'm doing it for the first time. Or, you know, sink or swim, man. Most of the stuff I do on TV, you're seeing I'm doing it

for the first time. Wow. Because I always challenge myself to do new stuff. Always. That's what's gotten me kind of the momentum and longevity.

I've been on a lot of TV because I always do new things. I kind of push the envelope. I don't just do the same thing over and over. Yeah. Speaking of TV, you got on ESPN.

You even did a trick for LeBron James. Yeah. What did you do for him? it's i didn't do something for lebron i wish man hopefully in two days i'll see lebron at the espys but i did a trick where somebody uh on sports center thought of lebron james and one of my signature tricks i have somebody think of someone famous and i cut out a picture of them like a silhouette i cut out a silhouette if you want to see like you go on google watch agt was one one of the first things i did and so i cut out a picture of them, like a silhouette. I cut out a silhouette. If you want to see, like, go on Google, watch AGT. It was one of the first things I did. And so I cut out a silhouette.

So on SportsCenter, that day I cut out LeBron. I'm going to make this short story, but I was on ESPN on a show called Mike and Mike. Mike and Trey. Classic. Great show. Great show. And it was at 7 in the morning in Bristol, Connecticut. For those that don't know, ESPN shoots in Manhattan, but they also have a major headquarters two hours from New York City.

And I drove up there. I got driven up there the night before and there was a snowpocalypse. They called it. Dude, all the roads, the governor of Connecticut closed the roads. Legit, state order, executive order. So you couldn't leave. So all their guests that were supposed to come for the morning and afternoon Segments mine was so early that they drove me up the night before right so did I do Mike and Mike Jay Williams walks off set

It's so funny man. You could find this on YouTube. You could waste a lot of time watching these segments So I get off and I go back to the hotel and I'm hanging out We can't go anywhere right and I get a call and they're like yo Do you want to be on another show who's SportsCenter and I'm like, uh, can't go anywhere. And I get a call and they're like, yo, do you wanna be on another show? It was Sports Center. And I'm like, uh, when? They're like in 27 minutes. I'm at the Holiday Inn and I'm like in the suit

and I'm like, oh, I gotta go upstairs. Always bring an extra shirt. Lesson learned. You're gonna be on TV, always bring an extra shirt, extra set of pants. If you're wearing a tie like I do, I brought three extra ties. So I go back to the studio.

I literally run upstairs and try to figure out what am I gonna do? I'm about to be on Sports Center. So I go back to the studio. I literally run upstairs and try to figure out what am I going to do? I'm about to be on SportsCenter. So here's what happened that day. I got on four more shows because every one of them I killed it. So they're like, do another one, do another one, do another one. I was on SportsCenter every hour for 24 hours. So LeBron James, he either tweeted or went on YouTube and left a comment.

I got to remember. I think it was on YouTube, a comment. He goes, dude, who's this guy? It was Perlman because I cut out him and everyone tagged him in it yeah he goes who the hell's guy was pearlman he's on sports center more than i am today because i was on every hour and he's pn all day for 24 hour cycle wow dude sometimes better to be lucky and always say yes man always see i feel like can you do another one yes i can hell yes i can and dude that that just boosted me like crazy it was luck wow it was crazy so you believe in luck i think you make your own luck because that day yes was i lucky that it was a snowpocalypse nobody got in but when they called me and said can you do another segment can

you do another segment dude i work well under pressure every segment i did something new if you watch those i was on i made like probably 40 minutes of TV that day. No repeats. Everything I did was new and different. Wow. That's impressive. Do you think it's like, is it harder for you to accomplish? Well, I don't know if accomplish is the right word. Is it harder for you to do what you're doing through a screen? IE like with social media nowadays, do you think you could pull off some of the amazing things you can do talking to somebody like who's watching you on Tik Tok or Instagram or something like that? You got to tailor stuff to the medium so i think you got to adjust man if you're if you're like you know tv's dead like in certain ways when i make stuff for tv i make it with the

thought of how are we going to clip this down for social so get the furthest reach smart because if you distill what i do like what do i do right if you think what do you guys do right you're giving somebody a certain type of content that's gonna add value in their life or is it creating humor or entertainment I create memorable moments of amazement right and it needs to be genuine authentic reactions because otherwise if I'm watching myself I'm like this is fake and everything nowadays people say is this fake and I don't even mind if people think some things are fake because that's engagement right if you're in the conversation but if you make it authentic like especially when you do stuff with celebrities or sports stars or

people that like you've been in people's ears you you know they watch you they're loyal they know who you are so you get that feeling or just somebody random on the street you create these moments where you can sense you have this sense in your body of that had to be real man you see the reaction you see the pauses you see those moments when people are acting you can tell you can feel when something's fake wow don't you don't you know what i mean like can't you see on certain videos i think most people can and even if they can't so uh to answer your question i'm always thinking how will this be consumed and so i make stuff that gets right to the point Yeah, have you ever had a mentalist battle where you went up against another mentalist? I'm all about that man

Let's go eight miles straight up I've done a mentalist off in high school. There was a kid This guy named Ryan hurts I love this guy who was a magician when I just started. And this guy was, when you're a magician, other magicians, unless they know you're a magician, don't want to teach you a trick. Right. Like if Charlie's like, all right, that was sick, show me how you did it.

I'm like, I'm not showing you, man. But if he has the cred where I can feel that he's super interested, he's read books and he's actually getting into it, then I'm going to start showing you how stuff works. Because how did I learn, right? Other people showed me so this guy didn't know if I was if I had like genuine like what were my intentions and so after about a year of me bothering him like crazy be like dude show me I did that show me how to do that please teach me he got the gist that I was legit into this and he was just getting

out of this stuff and we had a party this is like a high school party sophomore year where we had a magical straight up like he did a trick and it was like can you top that and i did a trick and he's a trick and ended up with him going out in the front yard and floating like a david blaine style float back in the day you're probably too young for this but david blaine's first street special he floated on water right dude it wasn't on water it was just on the street. And people went crazy. And that blew him up, man. This is the original street magic special.

And once he did that, everyone tried to learn ways to do that. How can you do that? And this guy did it. And it was just bonkers. I had to tip my hat. I'm like, dude, I'm not beating this. No card trick of mine is going to beat you floating in the middle of the street, man. So shout out to Ryan Hurts, dude. So that was the one magic off I think I've had recently. trick of mine is gonna beat you floating in the middle of the street man it was it was so shout

out to ryan hertz dude so that was the one magic off i think i've had recently and that was 25 years ago that's sick have you done anything with david blaine i have done shows where david blaine and i were both performing one time at lance armstrong's house um and i've met david blaine at some of his specials and stuff but man man, that guy's goaded for me. Icon, legend status. I wanted to see him in Vegas. But every time I'm doing a show in Vegas and he's doing a show, we're both working at the same time. The curse of both being in the same performance where he's doing a show at 9 p.m., so am I.

What do you call what you do? I mean, I don't want to use the wrong word. Tricks? I don't care at all. I'm not precious. I would call them tricks. Okay. They're routines, whatever.

But at the end of the day is a trick, right? But my goal is not to trick you like I don't want you to think like I'm smarter than you What I'm doing you both Billy you an ability No, but you literally both could do this but you'd have to dedicate your life to it for probably years I've never seen anyone who could do it within like a month. You might be able do something simple But it's everything I do comes down to one or two things One is if you see it you go that's insane if i told you how i did it you'd be like there's no way you just did that on live tv with millions of people watching what if it went wrong i'm like dude that's the rush that's the yeah that's the adrenaline or two it's so simple that you go

that's ridiculous right it very rarely in the middle it's either so hard or so easy um but yeah it's a trick but my goal is not to trick you. I'm not trying to show you I'm smarter than you. I'm trying to just give you an authentic moment of being like, wow, because how often do you get that nowadays? So since you're able to read people's mind, has that affected your personal life, dating, friendships? So I can't really read your mind. It sounds like that. What I'm reading is other things you give off.

Okay. Right? You're communicating in other ways that you don't realize, but it's not like an X-Men, you know, Professor X. I can't get inside your head like that. You're communicating things you don't realize, and I'm also pushing you in certain ways. I'm the director in my show. I'm kind of pointing the camera in the direction I want for you to do what I want.

Got it. It's a switch you flip. So day to day, am I doing the same thing? No. It's kind of like a poker player. When they're there and they're playing poker, their skills are very refined for that exact skill. Right. They're not at the grocery store being like, does this guy think I'm a jerk?

Oh my God, they just looked at my butt. It ain't Jason Bourne. So it doesn't affect my personal life i try to use it as an advantage in certain things like if i'm negotiating a real estate deal i'm using my skills a bit right sure trying to get the best price i can yeah um so it's helped you in business for sure yeah yeah that would be a useful skill it's also very helpful i can i can get a good sense of whether people are lying so that's always helpful in life so how can you tell if someone's lying?

So there's certain tells for certain people, but again, it's all based on a benchmark. So like if I just told you there's a certain moment where you can tell when most people aren't listening to you, right? When their eyes glaze over, when they look, when their mouth is about to open, when you're speaking, that's them thinking of what they're going to say, right? Or you can see their eyes, which is very basic level NLP stuff. You can learn from one book like Cliff's notes, watch a YouTube video, but not everybody lies the same way. So for you to know how someone is lying, you need to observe them for a longer amount because what works for one person might be different. It's kind of like blood doping. You know how they do a blood passport. They check

your blood against your own blood. Right. Because some people have higher testosterone levels naturally. Wow. You know what I mean? That's why they do like a blood, they check you versus yourself. Yeah. And that's how you know if you've been doping. So the same example works for me. If I have somebody in my show and I get them up and I start talking to them, it's like a polygraph. I ask them questions and I know they're telling the truth on. I'm like, tell me where are we at right now? And they go Vegas. I can see and I go, name somebody you've never talked to. And then say, I'm a huge fan of theirs, even if you hate them. And I see what they look like when they lie and I can kind of see the difference.

So now if I do a trick where I go put a coin behind your back, hold it in both hands. Something I like to do. And I say, say it's in this hand and say it's in this hand. I know they're lying. I want to go boom. I know 100% of you lied. Because I can tell the difference. Right, wow.

You see, so I can see the way their face moves, but I need to know a truth and a lie first. Yeah. Do you get it? Yeah, for sure. Got to build that benchmark. You've got to, you have to see a comparison. Do you think you'd be able to beat a polygraph lie detector test? I think so.

Really? I haven't done it. Well, I actually have. I was on a TV show for it back when they never aired called Moment of Truth on Fox, which is crazy. But you'd have to have a polygraph to practice with, but I do think I could. I also don't think the science is unequivocal on those. It just measures your heart rate, right? And if it goes up. I think it measures a lot of things that if you practice on them, you can control or you

can fake. Right. You can spike your blood pressure. You have like auto hypnosis things you tell yourself to mimic a lie yeah we were talking about this yesterday I see if we could pull it yeah we should get a polygap you should get one in there man I'm down we would have somebody storm off as soon as we got an answer like do you actually like Charlie and you're like yes and they're like truth is out man have you ever left somebody worse off in your opinion than when you started doing whatever you do with them i don't think so because anything that i'm about to reveal that's

uncomfortable like i don't go there um even though i've had stuff where i figured out something that's a little bit risque like but that's always something people put out there like if somebody's cheating on their husband and wife and stuff like that where it's not psychic but they're like they challenge me they go yo I'm thinking of something you'll never guess and I'm like I know what you're thinking and I'm not going to tell them I'll sometimes write it and show them on a piece of paper and be like if you don't want them to know because in my show I guess things like ATM pin codes or security phone codes but I'll always say, are you comfortable with me revealing this?

And if not, I'll show them. And I did this on CNBC earlier this year on Squawk Box where I guessed the host ATM pin code. And dude, she is the most skeptical. It's really worth watching. If you go on my social at O's The Mentalist from earlier in the year, I guessed her pin code. She lost her mind. She was like, we need you out of the studio. I'm changing it right now. And I only showed it

to her because again, I'm not trying to burn bridges. People will want that stuff, but I won't leave you worse off. My show is all about having fun, leaving, talking about what you experienced and never feeling sad. Sometimes people cry because they thought of someone that's passed away or someone close to them in their life, but I'm going to come give them a hug and I'm going and never feeling sad. Sometimes people cry because they thought of someone that's passed away or someone close to them in their life, but I'm going to come give them a hug and I'm going to let them know I feel, I can feel that they're happy and sad together

because they're being reminded of somebody to care about. I also saw online you could predict financial market downturns. I don't know about that, man. My portfolio would say otherwise at times, but I'm guessing. So when I try to predict Super Bowls, Final Four, I've had some good luck. It's like a sports handicapper.

I'm friends with a lot of sports gamblers. I love picking their brains, but I'm not psychic. I do not pretend to know the future. I'm not talking to dead people. I have skills that you could acquire if you were willing to work on them. It is not something that i would say is supernatural or right god given it's it's a talent that i've honed yeah would you say your abilities are kind of spiritual like you're able to read energies i don't know if i would call it that

i don't know i've gotten i've done things i can't explain but again i would never attribute those to psychic powers or like spiritual or from like a sixth sense or when i've done things like that i think that it's the same way athletes have pushed themselves to a level they couldn't explain like i've had ultra marathons where i'm literally throwing up for eight hours straight where i've heat stroke and i come back from the dead man and it's like i don't know how but you can dig deep it's like we're talking about david goggins uh who love that guy, known him for years. He's got a rule that's like, when you feel like you've given it all, you only give him 40%. There's so much deeper. You could like, you know, like those Navy SEALs who hell week, they don't sleep for five

days. They dig and you find out who you are in your soul. I've done stuff where I can't explain it, but I think it's all those years of reps and 10 years, 20 years of doing this. My intuition kicks in and i just know something and i go i don't know how i did that i don't even know how i did that because it wasn't my normal thing and i do not know how you just thought of that and i'm going to try to backtrack and figure it out but i can't explain it wow but i don't think it's psychic it's just sometimes you got to trust your instinct interesting i like i love it i love it so is there like is there a mount everest for something you want to pull off like is is there a trick, whatever you want to call it? Like that you're working towards that

when you pull it off, that's going to go on your Mount Rushmore things you've done. I don't know if there's a specific trick, but there's an achievement, which is something. So in this country, there's no, you think of like, we're in Vegas, there's Chris Angel, there's David Blaine, there's David Copfield. These are names like Eric Penn and Teller, legend status, where each of them is carved out like a niche of what they are and what they do. And I feel like in this country, if you say to somebody a mentalist, a lot of people don't know what that is, which is wild.

Because I guess it hasn't blown up in that way. Like I think people know what skateboarders are. Like you wouldn't have known what X Games people were 20 years ago, but it blew up. So I think there's a place, like a placeholder where to become the most known mentalist, where you're known for this,

where I can get inside people's heads. I know what you're thinking before you're even thinking at times. I can control your thoughts. I would love to elevate the craft to a level where everybody knows where it is. And if I can be that person who when you hear that word mentalist, you go, it's O's. That's the guy. So I'm working towards that end. And that just involves kind of upping the ante each time,

doing crazier things. You're going to see every time I do it, I try to push the envelope. Like the ESPYs. I'm going to be on, I don't know when this goes out, but July 13th, you'll see me on. Or July 12th. My bad. I forgot the day. I can read other minds. I don't know when this goes out, but July 13th, you'll see me on. July 12th, my bad. I forgot the day. I can read other minds. I don't know my own. I think it's July 12th in two days. But I'm trying to do stuff that I've never done before.

Just kind of always step it up. That's awesome. And I feel like David Blaine's a beast at that. Like he'll always do like something crazy. Putting like needles through his arms, holding his breath for 10 minutes. When he did the, he was up in the air, the balloon one, like i was nervous yeah but he pulled it off well he's taking that level of is it magic or is it real where you start questioning like you know this guy an alien like is this is this a trick because with him a lot of it's not a trick there's you think but when he's putting a needle through

his hand that's real these are real that's not a fake needle that's you know sewing his lips like that stuff is really being done. And he just pushed his mind by the limits. And I admire it. Joe Rogan pushed a needle all the way through his arm. Oh, dude. Yeah, I'm watching. I'm cringing because I'm not you show me a video. I have a friend who's a plastic surgeon and he always wants to show me. He's like, look at

this. I'm like, oh, I'm the guy who gets squeamish. I'm not watching that. The bone sticking out of a leg. I'm about to faint. Yeah. Man man so what are you working on next you doing another ultra marathon you know what so last year i had a couple big stunts i ran around central park in new york city it's a 6.1 mile loop and there's a record it's like a world record of how many times you could do it in one day okay and i broke that record it was front page of new york times and i raised uh i did 116 miles in about 18 hours of time to park. So I just kept going around nonstop, nonstop.

And I did it for, this is right when the war in the Ukraine started. So it's fresh in everyone's mind. I wanted to help out. And we ended up raising a thousand dollars per mile, 116 grand. Wow. And that just blew up. And then it was so fun. And it was such a fun team experience. I was the only one running, but people joined me that i ran from montauk to manhattan uh which is in long island i ran long island in 21 hours hottest day of the summer so i think what i might be doing soon is i might run around a track as many times as i can i want to run 100 miles as fast as i can 401 loops around a track wow i'm probably gonna do it on a hot day i don't know i like to suffer and then i'm just coming up with my next stunt you're insane man but i got a lot going on family

farm i have my fourth kid in a month so congrats thank you so it's busy in the household busy work busy family so i don't know i can't run too much running away from my problems yeah man that's insane 100 miles do we have time in here can we try something fun yeah let's do it you know what let's do this we're in vegas Let's do this. We're in Vegas. And so I asked you before I got here, full transparency, said find a deck of cards. You guys ran around. They're like, is there a deck of cards somewhere in here? Yeah.

And you have like a box. I got it. Can we check these out? Yeah. Okay. Now, we didn't even check. Is this a full deck? Full deck.

Okay. I get accused, Charlie, of not playing with a full deck. Really? In many ways. Me too, but in mental ways. Seriously. So here's the difference. If I take these cards, and I told you, I love magic.

I love magic tricks. And I were to tell you to pick one, physically take one out of the deck, out, and you put it back, and I find it. First off, that can be amazing, but it's expected. Do you understand? You know what the ending's going to be yeah and it also you're going to think well he's doing something with his hands so if instead okay it's going to be like deja vu you were to look through the deck and decide on one card that's i'm going to call air quotes your favorite card of the day

and that you've not physically touched that you are imagining i want you to close your eyes close your eyes and you know the cards in the deck they're red and black yeah hearts diamonds clubs and spades and they go from ace all the way to king and i want you behind your eyes to see your favorite card of the day right there can you visualize it right now yeah visualize okay open your eyes watch red black you don't say anything i want you to see that card that you saw red black hearts diamonds club spades and you saw that card and you're visualizing like i said deja seen this over and over your head ace two three four five six look at his hands getting nervous seven eight nine ten jack queen king ace two three four five seven ten jack queen king there is no way he could know what this card is could he no 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King. Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King.

There is no way he could know what this card is, could he? No. And swear to God, before you walked in this room, you had no idea what you were going to do, what this card was going to be, any of this, before you walked in here, did you? Yeah, no idea. All right, hold your hand up like you're holding that card right there in your hand,

your favorite of the day, and close your eyes. Don't open them until I tell you. See, I watched his reactions as he went. I watched when I said red or black, hearts, diamonds, clubs, fates. Please don't open your eyes. I'm going to move the mic for just a second. Sean, don't open them so no one thinks you're looking. Keep them closed tight. You're imagining a card. I'm going to make the card appear. Not really magically. I put it in there. Keep your eyes closed for me. Keep your eyes closed. And don't open them yet. That card that was in your head, tell us. Don't tell me the whole card.

Was it red or black? It was red. Was it a heart or a diamond? Diamond. Which one? Ten. Take a look. What?

Ten of diamonds. That's crazy. I was watching him the whole time, too. I'm like, I'm just like, and he's watching you. Wow. Wow. That's nuts. Was it the him the whole time too. I'm like, I'm just like, and he's watching you. Wow. That's nuts. Was it the hands? You know, it was not the hands.

When I say that, that's exactly what misdirection is. Sure. Misdirection is when you say it, people start focusing on the thing you said. Right. Right? It's like, it's like Talladega Nights. You remember? It's like, I don't know what to do with my hands.

You remember that? I don't know if you know that Will Ferrell reference. But so when you point something out, people always notice it. Think of a pickpocket. Always tell somebody, oh my God, where's your wallet? And do that when they touch. Now you know where their wallet is. Okay, that's a number one rule of pickpocketing is on stage.

If you see a pickpocket. When they make you think about it, you instinctively touch it to check if it's there. That's after that moment is when they take it. Yeah. You know what? Let me ask you a question. Do you remember the name of your third grade teacher? Third grade teacher.

Third grade. Yes. do you remember the name of your third grade teacher third grade teacher third grade yes see he wasn't sure but when you're in third grade most people around eight or nine years it's more like nine or eight or nine years old and so it's fascinating is some people do some people don't I don't like guessing teachers or things that are available online because you're a young guy Facebook was around right around then like available online because you're a young guy facebook was around right around then like you told me you're from new jersey anyone watching this is like dude he must have googled you you know right big fan base i like to do things that nobody's thought of before if you were to go back in time and i i sometimes tell you think of their atm pin code but that's kind of invasive because i'm gonna steal all your money or if i say think

of the first boy or girl you ever kissed that's a good question that's like one thing like how would you know that but the other person kissed you so two people know that so technically it's impressive but there's still one other person go back in time and i want you to try to picture the face of the first big crush you had okay look at that got a little excited that was he's like go back uh i want you to count have you ever posted about this have you can you think to yourself have you ever mentioned on the show or did this ever come up we're like oh my god this girl i had a crush on her no way no way no way would he know it no fourth grade fourth grade all right i said third that's funny uh have you ever said this to somebody here like

i don't know have you communicated this recently you post this on facebook you write down a piece of paper nothing hard stop before today and me asking you to think of this girl fourth grade when was the last time you'd even thought of this days months or years ago before today i would say years years before this even got in his head. All right. Count the letters without using your fingers. Count the letters in her first name just to yourself.

Okay. Interesting. So watch. It was long, but it wasn't too long. Right? If that name's like Michelle, Alexandra,

it's a struggle. It's a struggle in the moment. You're like, oh God, that was a medium-sized name if it's if it's three letters you don't count you can't fake me out he would have known three or four letter names you know so i'm watching him and i know just by how long it took him it's five six seven letters guaranteed watching five six six letters isn't it look at that head nod hundred percent six letters all right i'm gonna write down let me bring a pad of paper? I got something.

Okay. Mix up the letters. Mix them up like you're just drawer jumble. In her first name, stop, grab a letter somewhere in the name, and just focus on just that letter. You got a letter in your head? Yeah. See, people always try to avoid the vowels.

Not always, but they think the vowels are too obvious. Did you do a vowel? No. Didn't because they know there's a vowel in the name. There's less of they think the vowels are too obvious. Did you do a vowel? No. Didn't because they know there's a vowel in the name. There's less of them. R, you thought of an R, didn't you? You did, right?

Yeah. Rolled his tongue. It's R. It's not Rachel, most common name. I think this is kind of, it was a little bit of a common name. Tell us all, fourth grade. You see what I wrote, right, Charlie? You see this. I see it.

Because some people, I've already written this. Say it. What's your name? Lauren. Lauren. No. Oh, my gosh. Yo, what?

That's crazy. I'm about to walk out of our own show. What is going on here? That's insane. No one knows her. And you know the craziest thing is whenever I tell somebody, think of a card, like I told them, think of a card or think of a color or think of anything that's got like a finite amount, is people always, their minds race. They race around. And you ask me, what do I do?

I'm good at getting you to focus on the right thing at the right time. Because when you were doing Ten of Diamonds, you looked and thought of other cards before, but you're like, nah, not this one, not this one. You change your mind a bunch of times. That's natural. That's human instinct. Marketers know that. On podcasts, when you do ads, they say you have to listen to an ad 21 times before you buy the product. You know, like you never buy me undies the first time. Is that a shout out?

Get them to be a sponsor. But like, I must have heard that ad a million times before I bought me undies. So when you thought of Lauren, you thought of another person, right? I got you to think of somebody else that you're like, I thought of Lauren, but there was somebody else in my mind too. Somebody else that I don't think you thought of it even longer. Am I right? Yeah.

Another girl, not a crush. Did you have a crush on this girl or no no just like what was the connection because you thought of lauren you thought of somebody else she had a weird name why did she pop in your head is there like a reason for it or you don't even know we were on the bust uh or we were classmates we were classmates yeah and do you keep in touch with this girl no do you even know why this person's name popped in your brain? I kind of do, yeah. Okay, there it is. Hold on.

Did she live in Las Vegas? No. Imagine she showed up here. You'd be like, yo, I cannot believe you're here. And you say the name over and over in your head. It just keeps repeating and repeating. First syllable, second syllable, third syllable, fourth syllable. It was two syllables.

Okay, hold on, hold on. Keep thinking of it. Keep thinking of it. Keep thinking of it. First letter is a hard sound. Hard consonants. Hard consonants. Watch him. T or D.

Don't say it. Don't say it. Duria. Is her name Duria? Yeah. What the fuck is that? What is happening right now? That's insane. That is insane.

D-U-R or D-E-R or something like that. Y-A? Yeah. Dude. That's not even her name. D-U-R or D-E-R or something like that. Y-A? Yeah. Dude. That's not even a name. I don't even know what just happened, Charlie. Yes, you do.

But what? That's not even a name. Dario. Yeah. That's insane. That's why I picked it. Can you do the card thing with me?

I got to leave you wanting more, baby. All right. For next time. All right. For next time. For part two. That's it.

Part two. Part two. You got to leave people wanting more. That's the... When Charlie goes, what about me? What about me? That's when I part two. That's it. Part two. Part two. You got to leave people wanting more. When Charlie goes, what about me? What about me? That's when I leave you.

That's how I come back. I feel like I got to get him back. I got to see this again. You got me hooked in. That's it, man. Sell the sizzle. The first hit is always free. You know what I mean?

There were three hits for free just now apparently. I picked the hardest name. I mean, Durian, that's really a name? I thought that was a fruit, bro. I'm thinking of like Daria, the show from really a name? Yeah. I thought that was a fruit, bro. Durian. I'm thinking of like Daria, the show from the 90s.

Yeah. Good call. Good callback. What are you working on next, man? Where can people find out more about you? I'm always dropping clips on social. That's the best place to find me. It looks like Oz.

So everybody who sees this and is like, it's Oz. Blame my parents. Israeli name. So it's Oz, but it's Oz the Mentalist. I post everything on like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook. I'm doing the ESPYs. I'm doing a ton of stuff for ESPN. They've been really good to me.

Last season, I did stuff with a bunch of the teams. I go to the training camps for NFL teams. Nice. I'm going to tease it here, but you're going to see me with a bunch of teams, also potentially some college teams. And I just, I love doing stuff with athletes. Yeah. I mean, I love stuff with everybody, but but athletes are just I almost feel like their kids at heart and

they really just wear their hearts on the sleeve and like they just let it go and a lot of them are tough you gotta like get to this point where where you you get just past this barrier of them being like kind of tough because you know you're on the field whether you're basketball you got to stay tough but when they drop their guard yeah dude they just let it out like kids. They go crazy. And their whole job, it's like I told you, is getting inside people's heads.

Mental edge. What defines how you become a professional? It's mental, man. It's physical, but for every 100 people that don't make it, 99 had that mental edge. So I love being around people that have that mental fortitude and it's a challenge for me too. So yeah, a bunch much stuff for espn

uh and just constantly working on new things um yeah those are the ways to see me around the country watch me on tv thanks for having me i'll be watching man thanks for coming on and thanks for watching guys i'll see you next time