This is more of a social engineering thing, but I thought it might be helpful to discuss how we can find out a person's name before a trick. A few tricks on TA require it, and perhaps we could discuss covert and not-so-covert ways to find out a person's name far in enough advance where you could prep for the effect.

That's why I prefer Anything Deck. You are prepared fr any name on the spot.

You can either hear someone mention it, ask another person what an individuals name, you can even walk up and say "what is your name?" and they'll tell you and forget they told you a short while later.

Lucky for me, quite a few of the events I've performed at there were name tags for all attendees

Just have a friend go up to a lady and say, "Man, Susan I haven't seen you since high school..." Wait for her to say, "My name isn't Susan..."...then have your buddy say, "Are you sure, what's your name?"...then have him apologize and walk away...

Nathan

Wasn't that the method in the movie Groundhog Day?

I second the "hang around and listen" approach. To illustrate why, here's something that happened to me just last night: I was at a crowded event, talking to a guy. We were approached by a woman who I had met once before, but whose name I couldn't remember. The guy I was talking to said, "Hi Judy!" Or at least, I was pretty sure that was what he said, though it could have been "Hi Julie." They talked for a moment, then he had to go do something else, at which point Judy/Julie turned to me. I said, "Hi... Judy, is it?" Meaning, did I hear correctly when the guy said your name just then? But she thought I was remembering her name from the time we had met last year, and she smiled and said "Yes, wow, good memory!" She had completely forgotten that the guy standing right next to me had loudly said her name about a minute earlier.

Moral of the story: being called by your first name is a non-event that completely fails to stick in anyone's memory.

I have two methods that have worked fairly well. Most of the bars I hang out at, I know the bartender so I'll just ask them the person's name and in most cases they know. If you're working a restaurant you can get the waiter or waitress in on it by having them check the name on the credit card when they go to charge it.

Of course, eavesdropping works well too.

I'm a little confused on why this is a topic in the reviews section. If somebody wants to open this thread in Secret Sessions, I'll share:

1.) Why I think Mario's approach is a bad idea in restaurant settings
2.) What I think is the best approach in a restaurant setting

Otherwise, PM me, the review section here is too cluttered as it is.

Lem

Sleep with her before you do the effect.

Smith83, pm me, I'll give you a solution I use from my book...

Then I'd be even less likely to have her name.