In 1982, Germany’s Thomas Pohle, a magic creator, builder, supplier, and retailer, began selling a trick he dubbed Futura Mental directly to customers via advertisements for his company/brand Zauberschmiede (German for Magic Forge). It was an effect that contained unusual attributes, broke some rules, was almost uncategorizable, and yet somehow perfect. How original was the trick? To date, there are still no others that are similar to it.
Pohle grew up without great riches with which to buy magic paraphernalia, so, by the age of 11, he was cobbling together his own magic tricks. This passion for the craft did not diminish. He would go on to create batches of magic for the historic Berlin magic shop Conradi-Horster and other retailers such as Kellerhof, Stolina, Bartl, as well as the Austrian dealer Tony Reisner. Pohle is most commonly associated with Eckhard Böttcher, who opened the dealership Zauber Butike in 1984. Pohle was Böttcher’s key craftsman on many projects.
By the late 1980s the magic dealer Hank Lee was purchasing Futura Mental from Pohle, renaming it Future Mental for sale in America. After a few years the company came to the conclusion that they could make more money by building the trick themselves and paying Pohle nothing. They started selling their copies of Future Mental without credit to Pohle. Louis Tannen also sold Future Mental without credit. Since then, the trick has been knocked off by various parties, a situation that continues to this day.
Mr. Pohle died on May 10, 2025.
So what is the plot of this trick that caused such a to-do?