Say My: A Game

Interestingly, mentalist performers often hone their skills with a nearly identical sort of game, and use elements of it in their routines. You've probably seen a mentalist have their spectator think up a word, and it happens to be written on a billet sitting face down on the table in front of them all along. There are several methods for doing this, but the most impromptu "prop free" method is all about verbal tricks.

If you want to look into it, the term you want is "verbal force" or "psychological force" which just means forcing a word or idea through verbal and psychological means. Kinda like that "elephant in Denmark" trick, but more organic and conversational. Derren Brown and Peter Turner are two of the best for this technique, and Derren being (by far) the more famous one.

Source: Mentalism is a pet hobby of mine.