Alex McAleer - Masterclass Live (Week 1)

Vanishing Inc Masterclass Live lecture by Alex McAleer (Week one)
 – vanishingincmagic.com

We're thrilled to welcome master mentalist Alex McAleer (also known as Alexander Marsh) to the Masterclass stage! You may know Alex from the AF ESP Deck, his work with The 1914, or his performances with the Champions of Magic Tour. But he makes his living with his solo touring mentalism shows, which have taken him across the UK and beyond, night after night, in front of real, paying audiences.

For his Vanishing Inc. Masterclass, he's doing something unprecedented: teaching his entire, current 90-minute show, start to finish. You’ll learn it all, from the opener to the closer, from how he selects routines to how he structures them together!

Masterclass 1: The First Half - September 6, 2026 (4pm ET | NYC Time)

Building a Show: As a touring performer, Alex writes a new show about once a year, so he's had a lot of practice getting it right, and a lot of practice figuring out what goes wrong. He shares his philosophy and approach to building a show from scratch: how he chooses an opener, how he paces a set so it never feels repetitive, and how he decides what stays in and what gets cut. If you've ever struggled to turn a stack of good tricks into an actual show, this is the class that ties it all together.

Two Envelope Test: To open the show, Alex performs a clean two-person mind-reading routine that sets the tone for everything that follows. You'll learn the method (it's much easier than you'd think), plus the thinking behind it.

People Watcher: Alex performs as a mind reader, which rules out classic mentalism effects like predictions; they're simply out of character for him. "People Watcher" is his workaround, a way to get all the impact of a prediction while staying completely in character. You'll get credit for a Confabulation-level effect, but the method couldn't be simpler.

Why You Should Never Play Cards with a Mindreader: Anyone who's ever said mentalism and playing cards don't mix hasn't seen this routine. Using straightforward, accessible methods, Alex delivers an incredible demonstration of memory and mindreading that requires almost no memorization at all. (No memdeck, we promise.) It plays huge, it resets easily, and it's the kind of routine that gets people talking about you the next day.