“If you think of a magician as someone who’s gone through medical school, a mentalist is a plastic surgeon.” That’s how amateur magician Stevie Baskin describes the difference between a magician and a mentalist to Pablo Torre, host of the award-winning podcast Pablo Torre Finds Out.
Torre came across Baskin’s five-hour takedown of Pearlman on YouTube, and brought him on to his podcast. The episode Baskin is a guest on is called “Cheap Trick: Debunking the ‘Magic’ of Mentalist Oz Pearlman.” In it, Baskin, a lawyer by day, lays out a thesis that what Pearlman does is the same as fraud.
The hour-long podcast episode debunks the man who Torre calls “the modern-day Santa Claus.” In it, they examine Pearlman’s previous performances and discuss how he crosses ethical boundaries. One example the two shared as an instance where that line was crossed is when Pearlman revealed Joe Rogan’s and The View’s Sara Haines’ PIN codes on air (as reported in the December 2025 issue of THE EYE). Their shock, the episode explains, may have more to do with him saying he’d never use their real PIN code when he talked to them during pre-show, rather than the quality of the effect. As the previous sentence suggests, the two also reveal certain mentalism methods during their conversation.
Baskin also posits that since Pearlman sells his abilities as coming from “reading people” and sells a book on that subject, his publication amounts to fraud, since his methods don’t involve watching pupils dilate or eyebrows twitch.
No matter what your opinion on the topic, the episode is well worth a listen.