MIND GAMES

Mentalist Oz Pearlman on using storytelling to read his audience and the secret to sticking to New Year's resolutions

- - BY KATHERINE FUNG

I CAN HARDLY DISCERN UP FROM DOWN when Oz Pearlman is revealing to the audience that I've been thinking of traveling to Mexico City, and that if I had to pick a different destination, I'd be on a plane to Los Angeles.

I stumble over my words as I try to answer each of his carefully crafted questions, baffled at how he knows what I've just conjured in my mind. My jaw drops as I sit there with my eyes still closed. And as I try to gather myself to do as he says and picture someone I have not thought of in years, Pearlman is already shaking my hand, uttering the name of my long-lost childhood friend.

The audience is speechless. Pearlman has the room wrapped around his finger, so much so he has to break the silence and tell the crowd: "Don’t hold the applause inside, Newsweek. Let it out!"

As one of the world’s most sought-after mentalists, Pearlman has some astonishing tricks up his sleeve. But the real magic behind the 43-year-old, the thing that keeps audiences coming back for more, is his ability to craft a narrative.

Within the first 20 minutes that Pearlman spends onstage for Newsweek's in-office interview series, he manages to recount four stories—between answering questions about who the hardest people to read are (children) and what it's like performing for the mafia (“I’m not there to judge”).

It seems natural to him. Pearlman has a friendly charm that makes the room feel like its edges are sparkling. He’s personable. He remembers your name and the name of everyone else he encounters. He has anecdotes that range from eating at the impossible-to-get-into pizza restaurant in his Brooklyn neighborhood to bartending on Bravo's Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen.

But there’s a method to his storytelling.