01 / CHOOSE
Think of a city.
Hand over the Top City Destinations card and ask the spectator to freely select any destination from 1–14.
Official Instructions
DEPARTURES
Imagine standing in an airport departure hall, scanning the boards for your flight.
Now imagine someone merely thinking of a destination… and you instantly know where they’re going. Departures is a clever mentalism effect disguised as a set of realistic airport displays.
No fishing. No guessing. Clean, direct mind reading.
The Effect
Destination unknown.
A spectator silently selects a city from the boards. They simply return the boards their destination does not appear on, and within seconds you reveal the exact location they are thinking of.
02 / RETURN
Remove the misses.
Give them the four departure boards. They return only the boards that do not feature their chosen destination.
03 / REVEAL
Know where they’re going.
Add the gate values on the returned boards. The total maps directly to the chosen city on the key card.
What You Receive
The departure boards.
The four boards are designed to look like genuine airport displays. Each one carries a different hidden value, but to the spectator they are simply four ordinary destination boards.
Start Here
The Top City Destinations card
Hand this card to the spectator first. They freely think of any one of the 14 listed destinations and keep it completely private. You never need to know their number at this stage — the number becomes your final key after the departure boards are returned.
✦
The Secret
Four boards.
Four hidden values.
Each departure board secretly represents a number. You only add the values of the boards the spectator returns — the ones where their city does not appear.
Card 11
Card 22
Card 34
Card 48
Performance Flow
Four simple steps.
The handling is designed to feel completely natural. The spectator does the choosing and sorting while you focus on presentation.
1
Choose
Invite the spectator to select any city from the numbered Top City Destinations card and keep it private.
2
Check
Hand them the four departure boards and ask them to look for their destination on each one.
3
Return
They hand back only the boards that do not include their chosen destination.
4
Reveal
Add the top gate numbers on the returned boards. Match the total to the city key and reveal their thought.
Quick Reference
The full key.
Once you know the four board values and the city numbering, the effect becomes almost instant to perform.
Board Values
Add returned boards only| Board | Value |
|---|---|
| Card 1 | 1 |
| Card 2 | 2 |
| Card 3 | 4 |
| Card 4 | 8 |
City Key
Top City DestinationsParis01
Amsterdam02
Berlin03
Madrid04
Rome05
Vienna06
Prague07
Athens08
Istanbul09
Dubai10
New York11
Toronto12
Chicago13
Boston14
Advanced Handling
Read the value from the back.
Once you are familiar with Departures, you never need to look at the face of a returned board. The backs are subtly marked, allowing you to identify the board value at a glance while keeping every destination hidden from view.
The marking is built into the word DEPARTURES. On each card, one letter is subtly rounded. The position of that rounded letter tells you the card's value.
DEPARTURES
1DEPARTURES
2DEPARTURES
4DEPARTURES
8Performance tip: collect the returned boards face down. As you square them, casually glance at the marked letter on each back and total the values mentally. This keeps the method completely concealed and removes the need to ever inspect the destination side yourself.
Worked Example
They think of Rome.
The spectator returns Card 1 and Card 3 because Rome does not appear on those boards. Add the corresponding gate values:
1
+
4
=
5
On the Top City Destinations card, number 5 is Rome. You can now reveal the exact city they are thinking of.
Keep It Natural
You only care about the returned boards.
Do not scan every board looking for the chosen city. Let the spectator do all of that work. Your only job is to collect the boards they hand back, total their hidden values, and use that total on the Top City Destinations card.
Bonus Cards
Build the reveal.
Your set also includes a few illustrated bonus cards for three of the most-picked cities. Use them as an optional final reveal, prediction, tabled out, wallet reveal or however best fits your presentation.
The core method works without the bonus cards — they are simply an extra presentation option.
Keep a copy handy
Download the PDF.
Prefer the original printable instructions? Download the official Departures instruction sheet and keep it with your set.