I was recently re-watching the David Blaine Real or Magic special that aired several years ago, and I noticed that David seemed to be using mentalism forces that I have never seen. To be honest, I am not big into mentalism effects, but I do know some of the basics. Where can I learn these techniques that were used in the Emmy Rossum name trick (Matty), the Jaden Smith cell phone trick (3 of Spades), and the color reveal on the wall (Indigo)? I understand the performance of the tricks, but I do not understand how he got/forced each prediction.
Blaine's Mentalism
- Thread starter Joe Reel
- Start date
I make no claim to completely know how he did any of these because there is no way to know for sure what methods were being used. That one thing I will say is: PRE-SHOW.
I was going to say about the same thing. This style of TV magic is about creating magic for the viewer, which means usually the experience that you have watching it is different from the experience of the people you are watching. This does not necessarily mean camera tricks and paid actors.
What all that means is that you almost definitely wouldn't be able to perform that effect for real life spectators and have it look exactly like that, yes you could perform the same effect, but it wont look the same. Fortunately to the average spectator this mostly makes no difference. When you're behind a camera many more possibilities of methods are opened up, and people can be just as creative with those methods as they are with any other more 'normal' live effects.
What all that means is that you almost definitely wouldn't be able to perform that effect for real life spectators and have it look exactly like that, yes you could perform the same effect, but it wont look the same. Fortunately to the average spectator this mostly makes no difference. When you're behind a camera many more possibilities of methods are opened up, and people can be just as creative with those methods as they are with any other more 'normal' live effects.
The revelation as I understand is a version of Mathieu Bich's Watermark, which you may find here on Theory11. While I don't know Blaine's actual methods and I don't wish to know them there are some fun psychological forces out there for playing cards as well as equivoque which gives a similar feel.
While I'm not convinced that all of these are tried and true, you might check out Daniel Madison's various psychological forces available in his first few sets of lecture notes or his book Anthology.
While I'm not convinced that all of these are tried and true, you might check out Daniel Madison's various psychological forces available in his first few sets of lecture notes or his book Anthology.
Never underestimate the power of pre-show work combined with dual reality (where the spectator sees one effect and the audience sees a more impressive effect).
For "street" or "impromptu" magic for a small group, it would have to look different. For stage or parlor, it could look exactly the same.
I don't have Watermark, but the Emmy Rossum trick and the Indigo trick looked like some old slate principles (see Annemann's Practical Mental Magic) using a Frixon Pen and similar paint.
Banecheck's Psychological Subtleties has a number of psychological forces, but most of those don't seem practical for performance due to the risk of error (unless you have a solid out... which Banacheck explains). Equivoque doesn't give the same feel to me except in a couple of cases where it is well done -- and that is the exception.
True, there could be some pre-show/scene variables that lead to those choices for cards/names. However, I was curious as to wether or not there was a method to telling someone to think of a card/name and be able to predict it without it being said or written down. I also do not have watermark although I think the gimmick is very obvious, still it is a very beautiful effect. I will check out those books you mentioned, thanks!
Ben Seward's COG will allow you to get the information of a thought of card without writing it down or saying it, however, you wouldn't be able to predict it, but you you could most definitely make it LOOK like a prediction.