Billet reading

It was one of the main acts that brought fame to Charles H. Foster, an American medium who popularized a version using folded slips some time in the 1850s or 60s.

[2] In his book The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism, Hereward Carrington revealed the tricks of billet reading (with diagrams) that fraudulent mediums would use.

[4] Martin Gardner wrote that Reese was an expert mentalist no different from stage magicians of the period such as Joseph Dunninger but managed to fool a number of people into believing he was a genuine psychic.

[8][9] To start the act, the mentalist selects the topmost envelope on the stack and pretends to mind-read the contents, typically by holding it to his forehead.

Another variation is to claim to be unable to read the first card due to some problem, perhaps that the audience member's mind is closed or too powerful.

In either event, the mentalist then opens the envelope to "make sure they got it right" or perhaps to "see what is so confusing" and is then able to read what a real audience member wrote on his billet.

To disguise the reason for opening the envelope, the typical variation used by mentalists has the audience members write questions on their cards, which the magician will answer.

[8] There are numerous variations on the theme of reading sealed notes which use sleight of hand to achieve the basic effect.

The bit was borrowed from similar routines performed by Steve Allen ("The Answer Man") and Ernie Kovacs ("Mr.