The life of Fabien Olicard, mentalist magician

Summary

Known for his mentalist performances, Fabien Olicard's journey is not the result of a magic trick. He was born in La Rochelle in the early 80s. At the age of 8, he discovered the world of magic in a book. After graduating from high school, he embarked on this discipline and specialized in the 2000s to become a mentalist. He then gave his first show in 2012, and continued to perform from venue to venue. His success grew over time, and in parallel, he launched a YouTube channel in 2016, which now has over 2 million subscribers. He wrote his first book in 2017, gave conferences, created games, and participated in television shows. In short, a true jack-of-all-trades who succeeds in everything he undertakes.

The journey of France's favorite mentalist

Fabien Olicard was born on November 22, 1982, in La Rochelle. He discovered magic at a very young age through Robert Veno's book Cours Magica, which he bought at a flea market. He continued his studies until he obtained a scientific baccalaureate before fully dedicating himself to his passion for magic. He learned his art primarily as an autodidact and subsequently performed on stage in his region and on cruise ships. In the 2000s, Fabien Olicard decided to specialize and focus his performances on mentalism, memory, and brain-related experiments.

In 2012, he presented his first one-man show, entitled Mots de tête, which he performed at the Comédie des 3 bornes. Blending humor and magic, the audience enthusiastically received this show, which he performed for 2 years. This show was a success and encouraged him to continue on this path, still relatively unexplored in France, of mentalism mixed with humor, one-man shows, and scientific popularization based around memory and the brain.

Five shows already for the enjoyment of the general public

Regarding shows, it was on the eve of his thirties in 2011 that he settled in Paris. The following year, he presented his first public show "Mots de tête" at the Comédie des 3 bornes.

Then came his second show, Fabien Olicard vous mentalise. This show allowed him to fill larger venues, such as the Théâtre du Point-Virgule, followed by the Grand Point-Virgule.

In 2017, he toured France for more than 100 dates with his third one-man show, Mental roadage. The audience is invited to participate in his tricks and even learns some mentalism techniques. Everything is staged with the recipe that is beginning to make Fabien Olicard's success: a text mixing humor and mentalism experiments.

In 2018, he presented his new show Singularité. He performed his show to sold-out audiences at the Olympia and even at the Zénith de Paris. His acts always mix science and humor, and the show even won a gold ticket, an award given for selling more than 50,000 tickets during his tour, which included 103 performances.

In October 2022, he began a new show, Archétype. In 2 years, he managed to present it to over 110,000 spectators and received the platinum ticket for this achievement. At the end of February 2025, the tour concluded in Chartres.

A YouTube channel with over 2 million subscribers

His success is not only based on his shows but also on his online presence. In 2016, he started a YouTube channel and took on a crazy challenge: to post a video every day for a year. This idea quickly helped him gain popularity and reach 200,000 subscribers in his first year. The videos on YouTube worked very well, and since then, the channel has gained even more visibility and currently has over 2.2 million subscribers with more than 740 videos online.

On this channel, he has grouped certain videos into playlists: documentaries, memory, puzzles, role-playing games... The channel's videos vary greatly in length and are posted regularly. The oldest videos are very short, usually less than 10 minutes. Recent videos, however, are longer. They average around 20 minutes, but some exceed 50 minutes. These are mainly interviews or behavioral analyses of people from today, but also from the past. The biggest videos exceed one million views, including several on the verbal and non-verbal analysis of the President of the Republic. He has also recently focused on producing various complete documentaries, such as one on the history of Robert-Houdin, or on the enigma of the Golden Owl.

A second channel exists, Fabien Olicard la deuxième chaîne. It has over 220,000 subscribers and 200 videos. The publication rhythm is around one video per month. The YouTuber presents vlogs from his team as well as puzzles that he films himself solving.

But also books, podcasts, conferences, and games

As if that weren't enough, Fabien Olicard is also the author of several successful books. In 2017, he released Votre cerveau est extraordinaire, which was well received, and then he published a new book every year. To date, he has written 9 books, translated into more than 10 countries and sold over 900,000 copies. Here is the list:

• Votre cerveau est extraordinaire: 50 astuces de mentaliste qui vont vous changer la vie, First, 2017.
• Votre cerveau est définitivement extraordinaire!: 50 nouvelles astuces de mentaliste qui vont vous changer la vie, First, 2018.
• Votre temps est infini: Et si votre journée était plus longue que vous ne le pensiez?, First, 2019.
• Le bonheur est caché dans un coin de votre cerveau, First, 2020.
• L’antiguide de la manipulation: Devenez un manipulateur bienveillant et déjouez les manipulateurs toxiques!, First, 2021.
• Mémoire: vous avez le pouvoir!: Tout comprendre pour s’entraîner et développer son potentiel, First et Solar, 2022.
• Votre idée va devenir une réalité: Les méthodes d’un procrastinateur abstinent pour mener à bien ses projets, First, 2023.
• Votre attention est votre superpouvoir: Des outils efficaces pour aider votre cerveau à se focaliser et rester concentré, First, 2024.
• La harpe des quatre saisons – Décidez de votre destin, First, 2024.

Fabien Olicard can also be found in podcasts, the latest of which, Interview à la table, began in 2023.

The artist is also known for his appearances on French television. His first participation as a columnist was in 2021 on the show Antidote on France 2. More recently, he co-hosted the game show Tout le monde joue avec la mémoire in prime time on France 2. He can also be requested for conferences on various topics: non-verbal language, time management, the journey of an innovative entrepreneur, the brain, or memory.

As for games, he designed the memory box and L'arnaque, bluff et diamant.