Mindvention began here in Las Vegas today, over at the Palace Station Casino. Mindvention is a convention dedicated solely to mentalism. As I unfortunately didn't have the time available to attend the whole convention, I spent the afternoon in the dealer's room, and I'm glad I did!

Chuck Hickok was there, with his complete line of mentalist's tools, including his brand new book, Mentalism Incorporated, Volume 2. The new book contains just about everything that Chuck has published since the original book, except for his limited edition of the Diagonal Magic Square. I picked up the Diagonal Magic Square along with the new book, and I'll be pouring over the both of them in the coming days.

Mark Strivings was demonstrating his new trick, Mnemerica. The tools themselves are a clear board with 9 pegs, and 9 black disks marked 1-9, which magnetically adhere to the pegs. In the routine, the disks are mixed up, and used to create a random equation, the answer which has been predicted. The principles behind this are similar to Predict Perfect (scroll to the bottom), which I've mentioned in an earlier entry.

These are the ones that really caught my attention, but there were many other dealers with routines to catch the eye and melt the mind. This small taste of the Mindvention did prove to be the best advertising, so I may have to set aside a little more time and money for when it comes back to Vegas next year.