April 14, 2006, Newsletter Issue #63: Specializing in Mentalism

Tip of the Week

Mentalism - "Magic of the mind." That is, precognition, telekinesis, telepathy, psychometry, ESP and pyrokinesis among other mind-related effects. It´s one thing to pull four aces from a deck but it´s something all together to divine how much money a stranger has in his pocket or what the headlines for the New York Times will be the following day.

My specialty in magic is mentalism. I find it to be the most intriguing of the branches of magic. Pulling a coin out of someone’s ear is a great trick but there will always be someone in the crowd who thinks they know how the trick is done. When you can read someone’s mind or otherwise reveal personal information about that person that is an outstanding and seemingly impossible feat. The gasps I receive after performing a mentalism effect far outshines any surprise I can extract from someone after doing a card trick.

There is another advantage to performing mentalism. It utilizes very little if any equipment so one generally packs small for a mentalism show.

Many tricks can be made to appear as mentalism effects including many card and card tricks. You’ll need the to explore each one to determine which can be reworked to fit a mentalism milieu. Generally, mentalists, as magicians who solely present themselves as practitioners of metal magic call themselves, present their art as not being magic at all. That would suggest that their was some kin of illusion or sleight-of-hand in use. Mentalists wish to present themselves as being able to perform their tricks without the aid of “tricks.” I personally don’t approve of magicians who claim supernatural or psychic powers Building everyone has to forge their own way their careers. But please avoid ascribing special powers to yourself. It serves neither your audience, yourself nor the magic community in general.

Excellent mentalism tricks that can be purchased at any well-equipped magic store are the Thought Projector by John Cornelius, the Swami Gimmick and the ESP Board.

Books on mentalism will have instructions for such classic feats of mentalism as the Center Tear, Psychological Forces and Billet tricks.

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