For impromptu mentalism demonstrations, you could simply use verbal methods. Nothing need be carried. In these spontaneous settings you only need do a couple of things, not a whole show. So if that is the purpose, keep it simple. Look into Turner and Parker for inspiration.

I keep going increasingly minimalist. My everyday wallet is a metal Slim Clip with cash on one side, credit cards on the other. So not much room to carry things.
Sometimes I carry business cards or blank cards. You can do a lot with a small stack of cards, printed or blank.

4 playing cards to perform Bryan Reynolds 7.

My ultimate pos neg routine.

My thought association variation on a piece of paper.

All carried in my parawallet,and most know what that means.

Mostly propless but I do carry Travel in mind and Stegosaurus with me.
Todd

I am increasingly shifting from "magic" to mentalism; but there are a few things I do actually carry almost all the time: a big brass key for doing the Haunted Key as telekinesis or as an exercise in imagination, or even as a "haunted" demonstration, in conjunction with a vintage photo of the original owner (key moves when it passes over the photo).

Also, it's good to know some propless things like Invisible Gemstone (Enrique Enriquez), and the old "Pick a number between 1 and 4" mind reading stunt (I'll give you *three* guesses which number they usually think of first).

Finally, I wear 2-6 #19 size rubber bands on my wrist almost always for doing "Crazy Man's Handcuffs," which can be performed as a "mind over matter"/dissolving rubber demonstration; basically, "if you stare intently at the rubber bands after stretching them several ways, you'll notice it's hard to tell whether they have remained solid, or succumbed to the heat of friction, the moisture of your breath and the force of your intently focused will..."

I always have these three things in my wallet what are Pocket space plus,powerballs 60 and some loops so I am always ready to preform

I just got Lexicon 2 - I have been having great success with it. Really good.

Thanks for the heads up on that!

* Some 3rd-party business cards for use with AN or a CT
* 4 playing cards for Heirloom Redux (by Mark Elsdon)

The rest of my spur-of-the-moment tricks are either memory/math (e.g., rapid mental calculation of 5th root, day for any date), BA's, or iPhone apps.

Richard

I carry Kioku, normal 3-Card Monte and gimmicked 3-Card Monte.

With the SAW I have a business card peek, a billet index and cash cabaret routine all in my everyday wallet.

If I carry anything on me, it would be B'Wave and a pack of billets. I also have Michael Murray's "Between the Lines" if the moment is just right.

...and I almost forgot, my wallet is set for Kolossal Killer at all times, just in case.

This isn't a smart a&& answer...but most of the time I don't have anything in my wallet that will help me perform mentalism. Sometimes I have a few billets...and once in a while I have my pendulum. But most often? Nada.

That's not to say that I don't do impromptu things. In the first place, it's a splendid way to court clients you didn't know would be there...and in the second place it's just a lot of fun.

When asked I will usually perform my version of 50:50 Fantasia -- which is always great fun to do. Second, I am most likely to do a CT. I will use paper that happens to be there or a billet if I have one. And I will then go directly into an impromptu reading.

I used to carry several things on my person and then I started wondering IF I truly were psychic, would I need this stuff? So I started leaving it at home. Don't perceive what I've just written as a commentary on what any other performers may choose to do. It's not. It's just the way I deal with the issue.

Hope this is helpful.

David

When I perform it's most of the time informal/casual and for fun. I do have a Stealth Assassin for daily use but don't use it that often, which I think is a big plus. I always keep some billets in it, just so I can write some things down and carry a version from Bob Cassidy's Five Star Prediction in it (again which I don't use a lot). Most of the things I do are of a psychological nature. When I miss, I still have the wallet, Five Star Predicition and different peek methods to hit on other things as backup. When there are cards that I can borrow, I can do some mental stuff with that.

4 cards for my own version of KK, business cards i****ed for Looch's routine, "The Influencer", Mental Yarn, Thought Association Card, 10 of Paul Carnazzo's ultra-thin ESP cards, a prediction effect using a $5, a $10 and a $20 bill for a routine from "The Unexpected" DVD, Will To Read by Steve Dela and the shopping list from "Organic Choice". And two blank business cards.

I have phyfher built in my wallet and Hugo's sixth scene and few biz. cards for a tear peak or switch or my favorite is my handling of sneak thief and a m**ked st****ed deck to do Luke jermays color blind and looch's card trick from the black project

I always carry b'wave and my own bussiness card which I use to perform some mind reading using a peek

I use an Heirloom wallet with the 4 photos from Heirloom Redux. In my backpack I sometimes carry an aluminum wallet with Cassidy's 5-Star Prediction, Colombini's Double Cross, and Trost's 8-Card Brainwave.

Sam

So, depending on whether you define readings as mentalism or not, this may or may not apply. (I currently identify myself as a fortune teller.) I recently printed up some palmistry tic sheets the size of double business cards. I now keep a few in my wallet. They allow a reading of 2-5 minutes, which avoids the deep dark secrets and sticks to the novelty of palmistry without boring the merely curious. Anyone who wants a longer reading can pay for one, but my mini readings have all been for tips so far.

That's it.

I've played around with numerology tic sheets, too. Not been satisfied yet, but I am thinking of trying Doug Dyment's Natal Square some time soon. For now, people like getting the palmistry cards and I get positive feedback (and tips) from them, so they do what I want them to.

Anneman said that we should ask ourselves what a real mindreader would do if we want to look like one. That principle informs a lot of what I think makes good mentalism believable. I'm not so sure that a real mindreader would carry anything in his wallet, except possibly billets and business cards. However, as a real fortune teller, I can say that carrying what I described above is exactly what a real fortune teller would do, so I am being consistent.

-Patrick