Back in October 2012 I attended a Pickpocket Training Day with Professional Opportunist James Brown, and I blogged about it on this site here. It was a great session and many people have asked me about it, but not everyone has the time to travel, or may have logistical and financial constraints based on geographical location. Well now this isn’t a problem as James is now providing an online training course to teach the Secrets of PickPocketing.

I purchased access to this training upon its release back in October 2015 for a couple of reasons. Firstly it serves as a good refresher and future reference material, but I am also a fan of James work so like to check these things out if reasonably priced.

So in this post I am going to provide a brief review of the course and its material and what you can expect. I should start off by saying the presentation of James material is from an “entertainment” perspective, but this shouldn’t put you off as technique is technique. My interests in learning and understanding pickpocketing is two fold, one for awareness to reduce the risk of being a target, and also understand better the motivations, techniques and approaches that are used in criminal activities, so have this knowledge and skills in my repertoire for work, and its good fun to do with friends and people you meet with the right permissions!

The Secrets of Pickpocketing course is the first to cover both the technical skills of theatrical pickpocketing as well as the more important lessons on misdirection, attention management and mindset. This course takes you step by step through the necessary ‘soft’ skills before blending them with the technical steals to give you the best possible foundation.

With 6 hours of tuition, discussion and live performance (including commentary) this course is the perfect introduction to the Art of the Steal.

The training is broken down into five sections, and I will give some coverage of those below. If you dont want to read and just get on with learning / seeing something, click the image at the end of the post and get access to a FREE video to learn the “Easy Steel” pickpocket method.

Introduction – As you would guess from the title its an introduction into the course material thats going to be covered and the format. This helps set the scene for the many hours of footage you are about to digest.

Fundamentals – This section is extremely comprehensive and provides the base level thought process and mindset that should be used when approaching pickpocketing. Firstly it covers mental and physical relaxation, this is a key part in the art of pickpocketing, as it requires smooth and fluid actions, not tense and contorted muscles that are stiff like an iron bar. Then we cover misdirection, its probably no surprise that this is a also important, it defines how and why we would want to redirect the attention elsewhere and away from the area the steal is taking place. Then we look at proximity and approach, so how do you get close to someone and up in their personal space, how can you do that in a non challenging way (James draws on some of his past experiences as a medical professional). Lastly in this section he covers how you put all the fundamentals together, putting the skills and mindset together to create an environment to facilitate dipping / pickpocketing.

Action – Now onto the actual doing of things In the action section we start of looking at how we access what someone might have on their person, this could be from a visual and inspection perspective. Then we get started with some method, so we look at  2 approaches to steal from an outside jacket pocket. Then we take a brief stop to look at the ethical and moral concerns of who should you pickpocket, this is from a theatrical entertainment perspective remember, but useful and valuable information for anyone to consider. Next James discusses the situation where someone has nothing to steal and how you could handle this in the entertainment setting (ie give them or get someone else to give them something). Then we are back into method again, covering techniques on stealing from the front trouser pocket and back trouser pocket, then another little break to discuss how you handle the accusations of stealing. Next fear is discussed and how you can overcome it to attempt your first steals, so how to practice, and who to try out your developing talents on. Now back into a chunk of method again, covering steal techniques for the lapel pocket and 5 approaches for an inside pocket. Then another little break to discuss performance theory and the reason and motivation behind what you are doing and how you can present / communicate this to others. Then back into some method again, covering tie stealing, how to combine multiple steals and how to steal cufflinks. Then we have another interlude to discuss knowing and understanding what you are stealing before you go flashing it about (no one wants to be waving a sex toy around behind someones back to everyones embarrassment). Now we move into the closing sections, we kick things off with how to steal different types of watch and how to steal someones belt. Finally James talks about why you don’t need Ninja skills to be a proficient pick pocket and how you can practices these methods that have been taught throughout the section.

Going Forward – This section talks about the next steps, and how you may integrate this into magic, mentalism and hypnosis from a performer perspective. There is also some good examples and live performance which serve as great reference points, and then some conclusionary comments.

In the trenches – Finally we have various lessons learned in the trenches, providing real world examples of how things can turn out. I really like these sorts of sections, seeing and understanding how things work in the real world not just in a training setting. There are also a couple of outtake videos but thats just for shits and giggles.

So I hope you found the above a little informative and you get an idea of the type of concepts covered in the training if you decide to purchase the training for yourself. I really enjoyed the material and have gone back to some of the videos to fine tune some things. James covers this, but you can practice just with a jacket on the back of a chair, but ideally you need to rope friends and family into your training, and if you feel really invested get a shop dummy / mannequin to train with (I keep threatening to do this). At the time of writing the online training costs $147 USD / £104 GBP, and I think thats pretty reasonable, especially as they have already added some more videos based on customer feedback. My only gripe with the training is that its solely online, so if you don’t have an Internet connection your stuffed. I would prefer the ability to simply download the material and add to my media server and sync to my devices so I can sit and watch whenever, but there are of course ways around this.

If this is something of interest, you can find out more and also get access to the FREE video of the “Easy Steel” technique by clicking the image below. Thanks again for visiting the site, please share and subscribe!

2010 was my first and last visit to the Blackpool Magic Convention, I had a great time there but I really only went there to meet with some hypnosis people and dip my toe into the magic community. I meet some great people there, but it was a long trip and no surprise its heavily magic focused and as my interest was more in mentalism and aside from corridor conversation nothing really captured my attention.

Then last year I heard out about a convention called TheSession, this happened 30 minutes from where I live but I totally missed it, and was attended my the likes of Derren Brown, David Blaine and more. This year it moved to London to be more accessible to international guests, but a dedicated Mentalism day was introduced, so I thought I would check it out. I wasn’t disappointed

The day kicked off with a lecture from Marc Paul, he got things off to a really good start and spoke about giving the right performance dependant on the audience, ie you cant go doing something close up when there are 200 people in the room, as it wouldn’t fill the space. He did about half a dozen routines and went through the working, and there was some simple and great thinking, I wasn’t to familiar with Marc’s work prior to this but I am now a fan from what I saw (I bought his DVD after).

Next was Mr Luke Jermay, this I was really looking forward to as I am a big fan and either own or have read most of his work, he is a great thinker, both deep but also realistic and pragmatic and provides great perspective. He did a great question and answers type set which was very impressive with strong hits, then he spoke about his methods, his approaches and more. I was really interested in his use of Tarot Cards as a conceptual approach, this isn’t really my bag but I really appreciated the thinking behind it and how it could be used elsewhere (I bought his Tarot book and new DVD) :). I should also say that Luke played a huge part in making the EVENT happen, he was facilitating and co-ordinating all sorts on the day, and despite being rushed and perhaps somewhat harassed he still made time to spot and chat. We had a couple of chats throughout the day and I bought him a drink, but decided he wouldn’t appreciate a picture request

Then after lunch there was a round of Flash Talks, these were compared by Chris Cox with an interesting riddle puzzle exchange. I don’t think I can remember them all, but it kicked of with a mentalist from Austria and he spoke with some conviction about where entertainment should be focused, and the hit home from me was its about involving people and inviting others into your world, I really liked this. Then there was the double act Morgan and West, I really liked the mentalism coding they had to share (it was binary after all). Then Chris Rawlings talked about drawing duplications, and I liked his approach to this and his use of a white board, not really my thing but I liked it. Then Michael Webber also had drawing duplications, but this time using business cards more as the focus, I also liked this approach and something more in keeping with where my interests are in method, and he spoke about a new wallet he has developed (I checked it out and it is nice, but to pricey for someone who is more a researcher than performer).

After this I had abit of a wander about and spoke to a few people. Most notable was Katherine Mills, Chris Cox, Michael Webber, Colin Cloud, Luke Jermay and Max Maven. It was great to have informal discussions about their work, future plans and general chat. I really appreciated them taking the time more than anything, as everyone was busy with such a packed out schedule, but it was nice to mingle. I also briefly spoke to Ian Sharkey who some of you may know as being a screen writer with Derren Brown and I think he was also involved with Katherine Mills Mind Games show.

Next up I sat down to watch contact mind reading with Marco Fida. I was really looking forward to this as I had heard about his performance at MindVention in the past, and also liked it when Derren did this on one of his TV shows, and although having a little go at it many years ago hadn’t taken things very far. The session kicked off really well, an envelope had been hidden in the building buy a small group of people, Marco selected one and did his thing and promptly was able to move about the building holding the wrist of the individual and located the envelop, it was awesome. Then he came on stage and spoke about mentalism history which was interest, but then that was kind of it. I had hope given the audience he would have talked about about how the method was developed (he says he is self taught) and talks about the real and fake components that can be mixed. I was hoping for some more insight or where to look into this further, so I was a little disappointed of how that talked finished up.

By now I had met up with a fellow InfoSec chap by the name of Dave Hewson, its a small world and I hadn’t seen Dave since a BruCon many years ago, but we went for lunch and had a good catchup. I knew Dave was a fan of the arts, but didn’t know there was another oddity like me to go and attend such events when its not your day trade, so respect to Dave for that

After scoffing chicken tikka curry and a bread roll it was off to watch Max Maven in conversation with Luke Jermay. I really enjoyed this session, it was talking about Max and how he started, influences, experiences, his opinions and whats next. There were great questions from Luke and the audience and it was great to hear more about the legend of Max Maven as a person not the performer.

Then I popped along to my scheduled session with David Berglas at the table. David is another total legend in the magic circles, and is famous for many things. Despite being nearly 90 he performed two awesome any card at any number with decks randomly selected and shuffled from the audience, and then a magic rectangle (not square) routine which was enjoyable to watch. This was his third session of the day so was probably abit tired, but I was glad to see the man in action.

Finally was onto the scheduled surprise event, this was an unannounced guest and apparently previous years have been very impressive. Luke came on stage and announced Sheila Lyon, I have to say I had no idea who she was, but apparently she was a psychic entertainer. With that off she went into the crowd and began giving palm readings to random people (myself included). I have a slight interest in this as I did some research into physics and what social engineers can learn from it, so I was interested in the language used and the approach. It was interesting to hear her talk about her background and what she does, it was also helpful for Luke to join her on stage and talk about his fascination with her approach and how he has been able to utilise the approach and gave some great examples of using it in a non mystical approach. I have to say as much as I enjoyed it, I was expecting a “well known” person for the surprise event but overall it was good.

In the evening I took to the bar area, and share drinks with Dave where we discussed abit of InfoSec, but then had a really great and lengthy discussion with Sheila and it was insightful and clarified a few things for me. In addition to this I had fun with a little “which hand” routine and even got some clarification from its creator Mark Elsdon when I was getting some odd results, but it was a combination of technique and subject having beer influence, but it was great fun with great results. Then before I knew it 1am had come and gone and it was time to get some shut eye

I really enjoyed the EVENT, big thanks to Luke Jermay, Joshua Jay, Andi Gladwin and everyone involved for creating something amazing. I liked how open everything was, it was a product pushing event, sure you could buy stuff but it wasnt hard pushed or anything. I didnt stay on for all the magic focused stuff as mentalism was my main focus, but I am sure the bits I missed was also awesome and my only regret was not being around to see Richard Wiseman talk as I am a fan of his thinking also, and of course his mind reading T-Shirt.
If you are interested in magic and mentalism I think this is an event worth attending, assuming the approach stays the same I plan to attend again.