How do they do that? Tricks, remembering names, fast math and more

We've all seen them...those people who can do these enviable things in front of a crowd you just sit there and wonder, how do they do that? Sometimes it is as simple as remembering every name in the room or doing a mind trick. Let's face it, most of these "skills" are small and trivial, but when you watch them, don't tell me you are not a little curious or even a little jealous. So i have asked around and come up a few tricks of the trade. Just for fun.

So this trick is kind of stupid, but it worked on me. And of course, the moment I learned how to "read someone's mind" I did it on everyone. Most people fell for it, a few people were amazed by it, and there was that one girl who saw it a mile away; oh well. So here it goes:

First, tell the person that you are going to read thier minds by answering five questions that there is no way for you to know or guess the answer. They will be about a variety of things, but yours will prove to be correct. To play the game you both need to have a pen and five pieces of paper. You will write down the answers and place them in a hat (or cup or anything for that matter). After each question you will ask them for thier answer to make sure you are actually getting them correct (or so you say). Tell the person, "At the end we will see how well I did."

The subject (or sucker) agrees and you begin by asking a random question. Make them varied but intriguing. Emphasize that the subject must write down immediatley what pops in thier heads, because that is how you read thier minds.

Example questions:

What color was your prom dress?

Name an animal.

What is your middle name?

What's your favorite movie?

Name a vegetable

After each time you two write down your answers and place them in the hat. Ask the subject what they put. Laugh or distract them or even on occasion tell them you were way off. Keep doing this until the final question. Pour out the hat and wow, low and behold all your answers match.

The catch: The reason this works 90% of the time is that if you tell someone to name a vegtable, 90% of the time they will say "carrot." So, while you are asking them what color thier prom dress was, you are actually writing down the word "carrot" on your card. Remember her answer for the next question and then write down the prom dress answer. Finally ask her to name a vegetable. Her answer will already be on a piece of paper in the hat while you are writing down the answer she told you last time.

The sell: Distract the person, pretend you got them wrong, emphasize quick answers, and have them check the answers in the hat at the end. The better you sell it, the better it works.

"I am terrible with names." Stop. Now think for just a minute. How often do you say something like this? At a bar. At a party. At your job. Until recently, I was probably the biggest offender. It is the ultimate self-fullfilling prophecy that can easily be corrected. So here are a few tricks, straight from that guy who you met once but remembers your name a month later (whose name you forgot the moment it came from his mouth).

There is this lady who I see about once a week at my job. At first our converstaion was centered on boring small talk, but as we saw eachother more we joked around and got to know each other fairly well. She works at a hair salon and she told me her name was Lisa. A few months ago I would have heard her name and not even bothered to remember. Of course, I am bad with names. But this time, I used a trick. Lisa works at a salon and understandably always has great looking hair. When she told me her name I immediatley thought of the only other Lisa I could conjour up; Lisa Simpson. We all know that the cartoon character has the most ridiculous hair that is, for some strange reason, part of her head. There you go. Everytime Lisa the customer comes in, I picture Lisa Simpson. It is stupid. But, who cares, it works.

I know, Math is boring. There was nothing worse than dozing off in class to a teacher we affectinately called "Roboto. " All I could think about was, "when in the hell will I ever need this again?" Well, here it is. While this lesson cerainly is not Calculus or Trigonomotry, it is a lot more practical, and can even make you look smart. Sounds dorky, well it is.

There were three of us huddled around the safe looking aimlessly for the calculator. There is only one place where you need a calculator in the store, so it should never leave there. But of course, about once a week the stupid thing wanders off by itself and we are all left without our mathmatical crutch. While I was trying to figure out where the calculator function was on my cell phone, one of the girls in our circle blirted out, "It equals $800." I turned in amazement.

"Did you just figure that out in your HEAD?"

"Yea, so?" she replied.

"There's like, fifteen numbers and you added them up in about five seconds!"

Here's the trick. She told me a way to break everything down into usable parts and then add the leftovers. It worked well for addition and even better for multiplying. The concept is to round one of the numbers into the nearest ten and then subtract the distance. When dealing with a bunch of numbers you can even keep track of the leftover numbers on your hand. Let me show you an example:

Add the numbers: 18+19+27+31+45

The way I was taught in school would involve a piece of paper and a lot of "carrying the ones." Instead round the numbers up to easy numbers like 20 or 30 and then subtract the difference at the end.

Multiply 52x12

Just do 52x10= 520 plus 52x2=104 the answer is 624

These are obviously simple examples to make my point. With practice you can apply this technique to harder problems or more applicable ones, such as tipping (move the decimal over, divide by 2 and add that number with the original and you have 15%).

-Can't remember what items you need at the store or what you need to bring on your trip? Simply visualize the items in a familiar room and when you need to remember the items again close your eyes and think about the room again. The items will appear right where you left them, sort of speak. Ridiculous but effective.

-If you need to remember a phone number but cannot write it down, group the numbers together in three's and fours. It is easier to remember 759 then to remember 7,5, and 9.

-Feel free to give your own little tricks.