Tell Monte was born of the desire to marry a convincing “tell-reading” demonstration to a kicker prediction climax… something so unexpected and baffling that it just might convince an audience the performer read minds rather than tells.

The magician places a row of five different, readily available objects on the table top — let’s say a wedding ring, folded dollar bill, cell phone, car key, and a wristwatch. These serve as positional markers for the demonstration. He then hands a packet of five standard ESP (Zener) cards to a volunteer and turns his back to the table. The volunteer freely shuffles the cards — consisting of a Circle, Cross, Wavy Lines, Square, and Star — and deals one in front of each object. She then fixes one of the five symbols in her mind, without in any way indicating its position or identity. The magician claims to identify the volunteer’s verbal “tells” by instructing her to 1) swap various cards and 2) repeat statements verbatim about these swaps. (These statements may be true or false; only the volunteer knows.) Upon fully calibrating the volunteer, the magician again instructs her to move cards and repeat statements such as “My card is now in front of the watch.” This time, he unfailingly differentiates truth from lie. Cards are eliminated until the volunteer’s selection is successfully identified. To conclude, the magician reveals that he has also predicted the selection and another personal fact about the volunteer first divulged during the course of the demonstration.

Of course, in the tradition of all self-respecting magic copywriters, I’ve omitted something critical from the above description: The prediction has been sitting in plain sight, contained in (or written on) one — yes, ONLY one — of the five objects.

No equivoque, multiple outs, electronics, magnets, threads, granules, daub, pre-show work, stooges, secret partners, trap doors, or flying monkeys are employed — and the bulk of this demonstration is genuinely conducted “sight unseen.”