- Mentalist Ash Magic successfully guessed personal details about Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson during a mind-bending performance at the 2025 Venice Film Festival.
- Johnson’s first girlfriend’s name, Gretchen, was revealed by Ash Magic, despite Johnson’s belief that no one could possibly know about her.
- The performance by Ash Magic showcases the art of mentalism, with viewers debating the methods used to achieve such mind-blowing results.
Ash Magic (@ashmagic) is a mentalist with millions of online followers, which he has built largely by performing mind-bending bits on famous people. His latest was Dwayne Johnson.
The bit was framed around wayfinding, a nod to Johnson’s role in Moana. Ash had him tap a random point in the air, pick a set of coordinates, and hold the digits in his head. Then Ash said them out loud: 87127.
Johnson called for tequila.
A mind-bender
Next, Ash asked him to picture a character from the Moana world. Johnson settled on Te Kā, the lava demon, and spelled it out mentally. Ash named it.
“Man, I need a drink,” Johnson said.
For the last one, Ash asked for a person from Johnson’s past, someone nobody else could possibly know about. Johnson picked, and then made clear how confident he was. There was, he said, “100 percent zero way” anyone could get this. He had never said the name publicly and hadn’t thought about her in years.
Ash asked him to run the first letter through his head. Then the name.
Johnson confirmed it. Gretchen was his first girlfriend, from when he was around 13.
Is mentalism real?
Mentalism is a performance art rather than a psychic one, and Ash bills himself accordingly. The methods are the trade secret and the point, which is why the comment sections on these videos turn into forensic exercises. One viewer went back through the footage and thought they caught something on the first trick. “His head slightly nodded when u said 8 haha, but how did you pick that up?”
Johnson, for his part, didn’t seem interested in working it out. He posted the video to his Instagram page with a two-word review.
