2025 RECOMMENDED FAVORITE MENTALISM PRODUCTS OF THE YEAR

I’ve always been uncomfortable with making a “best of” list, mostly because what’s best for me isn’t necessarily best for you. I’ve decided that I’m much more comfortable with a general recommended mentalism list for the year, and let you decide whether it’s for you or not.

That said, I will crown the product that I most highly recommend for any mentalist. To get a higher rating for products I recommend, I look for ones that any type of mentalist can use at any level and for any venue. The more versatile it is, the more I’ll want to recommend it. This is why I generally give higher recommendations to books and gimmicks than to effects with specific themes.

Also, bear in mind that I just can’t afford to buy everything for review. Since I also sell mentalism products, people consider me a dealer and not a reviewer. I’m working on rebranding Marketplace of the Mind. It may be too late, but we’ll see. Anyhow, many products came out during the year that I didn’t buy, and there are those I did buy but haven’t officially reviewed for various reasons. If a product you saw or purchased isn’t among my favorites, it may be that I just didn’t purchase it for some reason. It’s not necessarily that I feel that it doesn’t belong on the year’s recommended list. Feel free to ask about it in the comments, though.

So, let’s start with what you most want to know, and that is:

JHEFF’S TOP RECOMMENDED
MENTALISM PRODUCT OF 2025

I had a hard time choosing between two products. Since I set the rules for this list, I decided I could make this a tie. I had to. Yep, they’re Ted Karmilovich’s THE KARMILOVICH COLLECTION and Christopher Carter’s IN THE SPOTLIGHT (Both available exclusively from Penguin Magic).

Both books have been ones that mentalists have been waiting for ever since the authors announced they were writing them. Ted K.’s book took a bit longer than Christopher’s (well, decades longer), but both books delivered exactly what they promised and both books are invaluable for different reasons.

Briefly, most know Ted Karmilovich as the creator of The Mother of All Book Tests, but mentalists know him as the mentalist’s mentalist. Top mentalists hired him to create material for them and consult for their shows. If you’ve been a mentalist for some time, then you may already know this. This massive tome contains everything he ever published or produced, plus three times as much material from his private notebooks. It’s a massive library of information worth every penny.

Christopher Carter is another very busy performer and speaker. Originally, he was more of a college performer, but now he’s a very busy corporate performer and also works cruise ships a few times a year. More non-mentalists may know of him because of his Penguin lectures. IN THE SPOTLIGHT contains almost three dozen routines and essays. What makes this book special is that Christopher not only explains the hows and whats of the routines included but also delineates the whys so that you understand his thinking behind every effect. It’s a masterclass in performing mentalism in general and in these routines in particular. And most of these routines are still used by Christopher in his performances.

It is no exaggeration to say that if you have just these two books in your mentalism library, you’ll have enough material and wisdom to create a wide range of powerful and memorable mentalism acts. This is why I’ll say that anything you were planning to buy from last year needs to be put on hold until you have these two books in your library. This is why these are the top recommended products this year. Although, frankly, I would probably put any one of these two at the top of any year.

And now on to the rest of the list…

GRAVITY CLIPS (Greg Van Holsbeck)
This is debatably a mentalism product and more of a mental magic product, but one can definitely work a presentation of this into a mentalism set. This is a set of clips on a string that holds 8 cards of any type (or anything with a bit of weight the clips can hold). When the string is pulled, all but one card falls. That card is the selected card. The string and clips are self-working. What’s also nice about these is that the clips can fit easily into any case or bag, for close-up and stage.

MENTAL TOWERS (Jeff McBride and Alan Wong)
If you’re familiar with the classic Mental Logs, this is Jeff’s solution to having a stage version. The “logs” are bright yellow with bold black numbers and they pack flat. There’s even a clamshell case included. For those who like effects like the magic square, this will certainly appeal to you.

SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES and TOSSED OUT BOOK TEST (Josh Zandman)
SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES is one of the best force books to be released. If you need the participant to choose one word, or one of two, this works beautifully for that. The performer doesn’t need to touch the book, and it’s direct: the participant opens the book, looks at the page, and thinks of a word.

Several creators have created a book version of the Tossed Out deck, including Chris Philpott. Josh Zandman, with his TOSSED OUT BOOK TEST, has come up with the best, most organic version that matches the deck routine. Just like the tossed out deck, you can five participants choose words from a random page in the book. One can choose a word from the top of the left-hand side, one from the top of the right-hand side, one from the bottom left, one from the bottom right, and one from the middle of any page. Five words are called out, and those participants who hear their word sit down. Four sit down and one remains standing. Of course, you then proceed to get the fifth person’s word. I’ve performed this and it gets just as strong a reaction as the standard Tossed Out deck routine.

PERSONA by David Jonathan
One of my favorite effects David Jonathan released is PROFILE. Even though it used a deck of cards, participants are asked questions that have nothing to do with the playing cards. The cards are only there to provide the kicker ending. PERSONA takes the same idea, but applies it to a set of cards with personality traits on them. It has a kicker ending. It’s not the same as the one PROFILE uses, but it’s equally powerful and memorable. The questions one asks, except for one, are entirely up to you. It comes with a wallet, it resets instantly, and the cards are examinable.

THE CRATED COIN – Mark Strivings
Though this plot has been around, it became popular when Wes Iseli fooled Penn & Teller. The performer flips a coin and the audience guesses the flip. Those who are wrong are eliminated from the game until only one audience member remains. The performer shows that they predicted that outcome. Jon Allen’s version used a chip with two different colors and a more precise prediction. With CRATED COIN, Mark took it a step further. Instead of a coin, he uses a black-and-white plastic game chip and a small plastic box to shake it so it won’t drop and cause an awkward situation on stage. The box has specific dimensions and features that keep the performer in complete control of the chip’s outcome. It’s no wonder that versions of this routine have become popular as openers because they get the whole audience involved and Mark’s version makes it even more practical and powerful.

THE SAVANT DECK by Craig Petty
Craig Petty released many products in 2025, many of which dealt with playing cards or decks printed on playing card stock. I wasn’t too impressed with The Atomic Deck as it didn’t live up to its ad copy, though Craig added some subtleties later that helped a bit. But the Savant Deck really caught my attention. It’s a deck that can do many things and function like other decks, such as a mem deck. Its flagship feature is shuffling the cards, having a participant pick up a stack, and the performer naming how many cards were selected and the total value of the cards. This can be done with stacked or mem decks, too, but note that I said the cards can be legitimately shuffled. Most importantly, this deck can be made by combining a regular deck of cards with a short deck. In fact, two decks can be made, which makes this easy to replace.

NAME DROP by David Alnwick
David has put together a really strong idea and uses a variation of one of my favorite principles. This principle is so well-hidden that I’ve fooled quite a few magicians and mentalists with this. They had an idea of what was going on, but it bugged them that they couldn’t pinpoint the actual method. The basic presentation is that you hand out a bunch of cards with lists of first names. The participant takes one card, thinks of a name, and reads aloud all the names on the card. The performer can then immediately reveal which one was the thought-of name.

Since this is an instructional video, you have to make the cards yourself, but it doesn’t take long. For me, the theme of first names didn’t work, and I changed it to childhood career goals. The point being, that once you understand what’s going on, you can use your own theme, if names don’t appeal to you. I’ve been having a remarkable ton of fun with this, which is why it’s on this list.

SVENGALI ALBUMS by Winston
I truly love Brett Barry’s SvenPads (and his whole line), but these Svengali Albums will allow you to do a few things that the SvenPads can’t do quite as well. First off, these are photo albums with plastic pockets. This means that will be a bit thicker and larger than the Svenpads. The key difference is that the pockets make it easy to swap themes. Also, one has be careful when customizing the SvenPads. One wrong entry and you’ve wasted your money. With the Svengali Albums, if you make a mistake, just replace what’s in the pocket. Finally, the Svengali Albums are much better for graphics, as you can just insert them into the pockets as opposed to worrying about attaching them to the SvenPad pages. Personally, I’m using both: the Svengali albums are easier to customize in a pinch, but the SvenPads are more portable and natural-looking.

TBC X by Luca Volpe and Alan Wong
The TBC 2.0 is my recommendation for the best switching box for mentalists. It’s much more versatile than the Amaze Box (which is perfectly fine for magicians who want one clean function) and more portable than David Regal’s Crystal Billet Box (though if you want something elegant, then this is a fine choice). The new TBC X is larger and includes a flap that doubles as audience signage and a discreet way to mask the method. Though both will work with all audience sizes, the TBC X is better suited to larger audiences, and the TBC 2.0 fits more easily into a small case and is fine for smaller audiences. I only mention this in case you have and are wondering whether to get the other. If you don’t have one, then get the TBC X.

ON COLD READING: THEORY & PRACTICE by Timon Krause
Most cold readers will tell you to start with the standard twelve statements in the Forer Effect (Barnum statements) as a foundation, then move away from them. I’ve always felt that the issue with those statements isn’t their intent, but that they were written a hundred years ago and just need to be modernized. Timon not only shares this same philosophy but has taken his modernized version of the statements and added so much more. If there was one book that I studied more than any other last, and one that I’m still referring to, it’s this one. The eighteen chapters in the book not only cover modernizing the statements, but also how to use them in many different types of reading structures, including personality tests and palm reading.

THE MARK STRIVINGS OEUVRE
Mark was very busy in 2025 and put out quite a few books. Many of them I got. Some I still haven’t gotten around to getting. The books that stood out were the reference books in which Mark delved into one particular subject and provided a catalog of routines and ideas on that subject.

The standouts that I recommend are:

1: THE GREATEST ONE-MAN PSYCHIC EFFECT OF ALL-TIME
To me the title is confusing because most modern mentalists consider the Q&A routine to be the greatest mentalism effect, but the title refers to the fact that in early part of the 20th century, psychometry was considered the greatest one-man psychic effect. This huge book is a reference of ideas from earlier works. Since psychometry is one of the cornerstone effects in mentalism, this compendium is naturally a must-have for a mentalist’s bookshelf.

2: A THREE-OBJECT TRIFECTA
This is another compendium with a rather unique subject: Effects with three objects, three participants, or both. Another goldmine of ideas.

3: MENTAL SURVEY
This collects Will Dexter’s wonderful articles from The Gen in one place, along with some commentary from Mark. It covers a wide variety of topics.

4: TAP DANCING MENTALISM
Remember that classic effect in which the participant spelled a chosen object in their mind while the performer tapped objects on the table, and when the participant stopped spelling, the performer stopped on the object? Beginning with this original effect from the 1920s, Mark has released another compendium of effects that build on or are related to this idea. This is yet another wonderful reference book for mentalists and magicians.

Because I do not have these books yet, and will assume that these provide the same value as a reference book as the others, I will tentatively give Mark the benefit of the doubt and give an honorable mention to MENTALISM CUBED, a compendium of dice routines, and MULTITUDINOUS MONETARY MENTALISM, a compendium of money mentalism effects.