Australian Mentalist Phoenix Reveals Secrets on Mind Reading

He has openly declared that he’s not psychic. Yet, Phoenix has turned even the toughest critics and sceptics into believers with his mind-reading skills.

Known as Australia's “Rock-star of Mind Reading” after being a finalist on Australia’s Got Talent, Phoenix is coming to Singapore on 26 January 2019. His award-winning show Psyche!, raved as “absolutely astonishing”, will showcase his skills as he uses micro-expression training, psychological tricks, body language reading, and lie detection to predict and influence spectators’ thoughts and abilities; as well as to create premonitions and predictions. These incredible feats are infused with visual effects to create a fascinating show like no other.

Psyche! will even showcase Phoenix performing an incredible water escape twist as the spectacular finale at the end of the show. So get ready for full on entertainment for the whole family as Phoenix brings his mind-bending tricks to Singapore this January!

Vanilla Luxury: What is a mentalist?

Phoenix: A mentalist is an umbrella term for someone who fascinates over the mind and extending the abilities of one's own. Generally, the term covers areas such as hypnosis, influence, advanced memory, deception and lie detection through body language, profiling, speed math, and psychological illusion (i.e. creating the illusion that the entertainer is psychic). Typically, within the industry known as “mentalism”, there is a sliding scale of entertainers ranging from those who perform magic tricks designed to look like mentalism or mental ability, and those who are the purists. Essentially every practitioner sits somewhere on that sliding scale. As my start was at a very early age with genuine body language reading, I like to loiter around the genuine ability zone.

Vanilla Luxury: How did this all begin?

Phoenix: My Father was a businessman and at home, he had a small library of books consisting of predominantly business psychology. One book, in particular, was filled with illustrations that piqued the interest of an eight-year-old me. This book was about Body Language.

Armed with my new book, I would follow my father for his business meetings and observe. It wasn’t long before this eventuated into everybody having a one-way conversation with me of which they were not aware they were having. I became quite good at deciphering this language and it became a part of who I am. I really had no idea what I had stumbled upon until much later when I was nineteen and performing a long contract on a cruise ship as an acrobat and was working with a magician from Las Vegas who, upon observing the skill set I possessed, introduced me to the world of mentalism.

Shortly after this contract, I ventured to Las Vegas and London to learn hypnosis. I then travelled much of the world both performing and researching all I could about areas such as advanced memory, influence, micro-expression training, speed math, and of course, magic. When I had learnt much of what was known, I began testing some of my own theories and put into practice my own results and concepts to create some of the stunts I perform today.

Vanilla Luxury: What has been the most mind-blowing moment in your career?

Phoenix: Every so often a moment occurs and I have to pinch myself. X-Men was a period in my life of which I was constantly doing this. Last new year’s eve was certainly the most recent. I was performing live on stage in Texas alongside Rob Thomas (Matchbox Twenty) at a gala event. The evening was a spectacular success, and I have remained friends with Rob since. The event also saw my reunion with my good friend Taylor Kitsch who played “Gambit” in X-Men.

Vanilla Luxury: What made you decide to participate in Australia’s Got Talent?

Phoenix: In absolute honesty, at that time I was looking to film a variation of my water tank escape, as well as create a little buzz around the routine. I didn’t expect the response to be so great. I have been approached each year to revisit. Who knows, maybe I will return one day with my more powerful stunts.

Vanilla Luxury: How was it being on Australia’s Got Talent?

Phoenix: It was eye-opening, revealing, heart-breaking, and loads of fun all in one! I saw what was really behind the curtains and how it all works.

Vanilla Luxury: What was it like training an X-Men character?

Phoenix: Insanely enough, when first approached about this role, I turned it down. After several calls and discussions, I jumped on board and agreed to meet the actor playing the role. We instantly became good friends and hung out well beyond the role of training. There were moments on set that still blow my mind including the poker playing scene featuring Gambit and Wolverine at the table. I was actually sitting at that table off camera opposite Dan Negreanu, Will-I-Am, Kitsch, and Hugh Jackman!

Kitsch, myself, and some of the cast were often out and I got to know them very well as I became a bit of a self-appointed tour guide of Sydney. These days were beyond memorable, and fortunately for me, we are still in contact and still good friends. Training any character for an X-Men movie is an amazing honour, but training “Gambit”, who has a huge fan-base, is something that will stay with me forever.

Vanilla Luxury: How do you use your mentalism in daily life?

Phoenix: Mentalism comes in very handy when negotiating a price when you can read the seller’s face.

Vanilla Luxury: What do you say to sceptic and critics?

Phoenix: I don't really have many sceptics or critics. Sceptics generally enjoy my performance as I am very upfront about not possessing any psychic ability. I think audiences quite enjoy the fact that I am very honest about not being psychic; some say that it inspires them, others like the honesty about not being psychic. However, there are still people at every show who insist that I have some psychic ability. When I say that I do not, they then suggest that perhaps I do, but I am unaware of it. I find that respond most amusing each time it comes up as it happens more often than you would think. Again, I am not in any way psychic.

Vanilla Luxury: This is your first time performing in Singapore. What can the audience in Singapore look forward to?

Phoenix: I love Singapore. I have spent quite a bit of time there over the years, and have passed through Singapore to get to where I will be performing, but have never performed there, so I am most certainly looking forward to this show. I have had Singaporean audience members in my show before, so I know how fun they can be. Singaporean audiences are warm and they tend to also love the humour I bring to these shows.

Vanilla Luxury: Why should people in Singapore come to watch you?

Phoenix: I am performing one single show only, so seats are limited. You can be the one to tell all your friends that you were at the ONLY performance of this show in Singapore. Be prepared to part with all logic and understanding of the human mind and what is possible. See if you are able to sit through watching me locked inside a water tank and attempting to escape. And if you want something to talk about for a long time to come, ensure you book early!

Event Details

Date: 26 January 2019, Saturday
Time: 6.30pm
Venue: Capitol Theatre
Address: 17 Stamford Rd, Singapore 178907

Tickets: SGD $140, $128, $108, $88, $78
Buy from: https://www.apactix.com/events/detail/psyche-2018

Use the code 'VL2019' at the checkout for a 20% discount!