Mentalist Oz Pearlman Will Get Inside Trump’s Mind at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner

Typically, the White House Correspondents’ Dinner features a comedian for its star act. In years past, the journalists, executives, agents, and miscellaneous members of the DC establishment have gathered at the Washington Hilton to hear speeches from the head of the correspondents’ association and the president. Then a comedian gets up to properly skewer the egos that keep this town humming.

This year is different for a few reasons. President Donald Trump, who has skipped the dinner every previous year of his two tenures in office, is attending for the first time. And the performer isn’t a comedian, but Oz Pearlman, a mentalist who has made his fame bamboozling everyone from billionaires like Mark Cuban to podcasters like Joe Rogan with intricate mind games that defy explanation.

Vanity Fair called up Pearlman on Thursday for a chat about how he’s preparing for the big night next week and what he expects to find inside the power room. This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

How did you get into this line of work? It is, to say the least, an unusual occupation.

I started doing magic when I was 13. I saw a magician on a cruise ship and like a lot of people that are in this field, you see it and you catch the magic bug and I became quite obsessed. About a year later, I started working semi-professionally as a teenager.

[Then] I worked at restaurants for over 20 years, where I was a strolling magician and eventually a mentalist as well, which led to me getting gigs. I paid for college doing magic, amongst other businesses. This was kind of what I did always as a side hustle. From there, I went to work for Merrill Lynch. I worked on Wall Street for a few years. I just came up on 21 years since I quit my job in ’05.

It takes 10 years to be an overnight success. Maybe 20 years to become a household name, is what I’m targeting. A big thing for me was in 2015, I did America’s Got Talent. And that’s really the big pop. I got third place on that show and that really gave me a lot of heat, and I’m just trying to keep the momentum going ever since.

I’m sure you get asked this a lot: How do you do what you do? How do you respond when people ask you that?

It’s called a disclaimer. So there’s this set of ethics to what I do. I try to stay within a certain boundary. I’m telling people very clearly that I’m not psychic, that I’m not supernatural. I don’t claim to be. I can teach someone else to do what I do. It’s teachable, which means it’s a skill rooted in science.

Do I explain how I do it? Partially. And that’s why I’ve been so successful. Truly, because people are engaged and they’re seeing certain skills. Am I giving you a full, truthful answer for how I do it? Almost never. I’m giving you little pieces of the secret recipe. Coke has a secret recipe. Why are they so huge? Because no one knows it. You can recreate it your own way, but you never get the same flavor.

So the same thing applies to what I do. I’m giving you little pieces that entice you and hook you and say, “Oh my God, was it body language? Did he suggest this word? Has he researched them?” All of those things are fascinating, because you don’t know and they’re engaging and that is done on purpose so that you feel like you’re getting there and then the door closes.

Because magic—I love magic—but magic, you know there’s a trick. What I’m doing, you know there’s a trick also, but there’s no focal point to direct the trick on. So when you watch somebody cut a woman in half, you say to yourself, “Well, there’s something about that box. I don’t know how it works, but if I had that box, could I do that trick?” That’s the linear thought process.

With mine, there is nothing to look at. It’s a skill, because I show up with nothing and I can do this to some of the most intelligent, successful people in the world, and they’re blown away. So you’re watching this and you go, “Well, how’s he doing this? Because I don’t know how he’s doing it.” And that’s a lot of the fun.

Let’s talk about the White House Correspondents’ Dinner next week. What can you tell us about what to expect from your performance?

I’m all about creating very memorable moments that people talk about. If you distill what I try to do, it’s that. It’s not fooling you. It’s going to create moments that are long-lasting.

I believe that right now, Weijia Jiang, who picked me, and CBS, who made, I think, a very bold choice this year, somewhat unprecedented, just saw the landscape and said to themselves, “I think what we need right now is something which in a difficult time for our country in a lot of ways, brings us together, is going to unite us.”

Where humor people enjoy, but humor is very subjective. What’s funny to you might be very offensive to someone else, and vice-versa. Wonder and awe are universal. It’s like a core emotion in humans that’s the same way in sports. When the comeback happens, you score a goal, you go nuts. [It’s the same] when you do something that shatters someone’s worldview of how the world works. “How could you possibly have known that?”

There’s a different feeling in response to it. And I think that’s what they were looking for this year. I know my lane. I know what I was brought in to do. I’m going to create one moment that I hope will be career-defining, that will blow everyone away.

How do you prepare for a show like this? Is it the same as every other show, or are you treating it differently?

No! No, it’s not the same as every other show, because I’ve been studying Donald Trump for months. Instead of doing what I normally do, and focusing on all different people—I’m on TV probably two-to-five times a month, sometimes much more. I can’t really put that type of energy into one person, because I’m just going to be doing shows for thousands and thousands of people.

But this is different. This is arguably the most famous and most powerful person in the world. And I guarantee you, Donald Trump’s not going to fake anything for me or for anyone else for that matter, as far as I can tell. So if you see a real, genuine response, the world knows: “Oh my God, how did that just actually happen?” And that’s what I’m looking for.

You’ve been studying Trump for months. What have you learned about him?

I can’t tip that before. That’s too much. Think of it as a zero-day exploit. Once they know, they patch. Now I’m not saying Trump will patch, but once I’m aware of certain things, it’s like a “tell” at a poker table. It’s like the movie Rounders, when he opens the Oreos. Once you see that, if that person knows you’re seeing that, it goes away. So everything that I’ve noticed as to patterns that I can use to my advantage, that was the hard part to figure out.

Now, obviously there’s a political element to all of this. Are you open about your own politics?

Never been. Because I’m not selling politics. Vanity Fair in some ways is selling politics. Washington Post, we go to Politico, we go to Fox News, we have Newsmax. We can draw a line and see where do you fall, right to left and center. I’ve just realized that I sell dopamine hits. I am selling an escape from politics. I am selling an escape from anything that could divide us, because any opinion I put out instantly disqualifies a large amount of people that might feel otherwise.

I have opinions. In my personal life, I’m willing to go into that. In my public life, that’s not what I’m here for. I know people have a platform and that’s not what I do as a job. My job is really completely the opposite: to provide people a moment of wonder, amazement, bring you back to a childlike state, and I’m very keenly aware of that.

Did it give you pause when Trump said that he was going to participate in this?

I was trying to get Trump to go to this thing the whole time. When I was signed on, he had not been going. People told me he will very likely not come. And I said to them, “He will absolutely come.” I said that on the first call, I guarantee you.

So I believe there was a big element—I can’t speak to it—but the fact that I’m there is a very big reason why he’s there. Now, I’m not saying it’s causation-correlation, but I truly believe that if you had had a comedian this year, he would not have attended.

Do you think he’s a fan, or anyone in administration is a fan? Or it’s just because it’s not a comedian who’s going to be doing a roast?

Many people in his administration and inner circle are fans. I know it for a fact. As for him personally, I have no way to speak to that. I haven’t seen the president in years. I have performed for him prior to being president.

But then again, everyone in showbiz has met Donald Trump. I’ve done so many events at his properties over the last 25 years. I mean, there’s a lot of buildings with Trump’s name on them, and I’ve been in lots of them.

What’s the most challenging room you’ve ever played? Does this feel like this dinner will be a hard room to play or are there harder ones?

I’ve played way harder rooms. I’ve played rooms that are charity events where the bar’s open, where people are talking, where they don’t even know what’s going on. So you’re really competing.

Here, you’re also at a huge advantage, because it’s a room full of journalists. That helps me, because journalists are very discerning and skeptical at their core. It’s almost like dominoes. If you can tip the first domino, second domino, you get a domino effect, because what I do appeals to intelligent people.

Because your mind goes and races towards explanations, and that is exactly what I want, because I take advantage. I harness the thought of you trying to figure out where I’m going with this and guiding you in the wrong directions most of the time.

I want to talk about the Joe Rogan interview. It was amazing. You guessed his ATM pin code. He almost seemed a little pissed at you. What was your sense of what happened there?

I’m learning as I go. There are certain things which you don’t realize that will appeal to others, and unexpected emotions are very strong in terms of viral content.

When Joe Rogan was kind of weirdly mad, two things occurred. One, you know it wasn’t staged, because if he wasn’t surprised, why would he be mad? He had no idea that was going to happen. That’s really important to know. So right away, that implies this wasn’t set up. That creates authenticity.