Nevo Abutbul is the youngest mentalist in the world. But even though it may seem that way, he can’t actually read your mind — he just knows how to tell what you’re thinking.
Confused?
“I’m using techniques that it's either me putting something inside your head, while using techniques such as natural language processing and suggestion, or watching body language, reading statistics, sometimes I guess and I do have good intuition,” Abutbul told the ILTV Podcast.
He combines these techniques with stage presence, humor, and even hypnosis to create the illusion of a sixth sense — convincing people he can truly read their minds.
“If I could read people’s minds, I would have said immediately where are the hostages,” Abutbul explained. “I would win the lottery. I can’t. But I am able to do things that other people are not able to do.”
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According to Abutbul, anyone can study to be a mentalist, but not everyone can become one. It’s like soccer, he said: Almost anyone can learn the rules and kick a ball, but few reach the level of Lionel Messi.
“I managed to find my destiny,” he told ILTV. “That’s what I am driven to show everyone, to look for their goals, dreams, destiny, to see what they're good at, what they want to achieve, and to force them to do it… I’m not working, I’m just doing what I love, doing what I'm passionate about.”
Abutbul has spent nearly a decade mastering his craft. Even as a child, instead of playing outside, he would stay home and ask his sister to think of a color and try to guess it, or quiz classmates to test his intuition and sense of statistics.
“I just tried again and practiced more and more until I figured out to understand that the human brain is kind of a safe, and if I'll have the master key that opens every safe, I'll be able to know not what you think, but how you think,” he said. “So I can either manipulate you or take that thought from your head.”
He even forged his parents’ signature to audition for Israel’s Got Talent while underage, and it paid off. His career took off, and he later spent his army service performing for soldiers across the country.
“Almost every day, sometimes two times a day, I went to a base, went to a camp all around Israel … performing, meeting soldiers, meeting fighters, giving them 45 minutes of escapism,” Abutbul said of the service he just completed. “I met amazing soldiers. I can tell that we have such great people in the IDF, and it was an honor for me to perform in front of them, our fighters. They are really heroes, and that was the most interesting and fulfilling thing that I've ever done.”
Now, Abutbul has moved to the United States, where he hopes to perform and represent Israel on an international stage.
“I am always saying that I'm Jewish, that I'm from Israel … inspiring people,” he said.
Most importantly, Abutbul hopes to inspire others to follow their dreams.
“Even if you're 40 and you want to change your job and just go for your dream, do it,” he said. “It doesn't matter where you're from, what you're doing, what your age is, just fight for your dreams. Do what you love, do what you like … wake up being so passionate about what you're going to do this day that you'll be happy every day and always keep thinking good and positive thoughts no matter what happens in life … because you can never know who might be reading them.”
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