Good books for mentalism

Feb 20, 2018
25
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Hi, I am looking for mentalism books that are kind of medium level.
I wanted to buy Prism by Max Maven but it is sold out, I have also looked for a couple of books by Derren Brown and found the same result.
Anyone have any suggestions?
 
13 steps to mentalism is kind of the "essential", Banachek has his PSY series, volumes 1,2 and 3. The mind and magic of David Berglas, but it's expensive and out of print. That's really as far as I got before I decided it wasn't for me. Good luck!
 

RealityOne

Elite Member
Nov 1, 2009
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New Jersey
Hi, I am looking for mentalism books that are kind of medium level.
I wanted to buy Prism by Max Maven but it is sold out, I have also looked for a couple of books by Derren Brown and found the same result.

Start with :

Anneman's Practical Mental Magic
has a lot of great routines in it, but was written in the 1940s so it's language is a bit dated but the methods are the classics. It is around $13.

Fulves's Self Working Mental Magic - Don't be fooled by the title, this has a lot of good stuff. It is around $13.

If you want to continue, read Craig Browning's Introduction to Mentalism which is a FREE e-book a lybrary.com or lulu.com. You also might want to check out Bob Cassidy's 39 Steps to Mentalism (click on the link) which lists 39 books to read.

Then get Bob Cassidy's FundaMentals. You can get it at lybrary.com.

Other sources:

Mark Wilson's Complete Course - It has everything (cards, coins, bills, rope, sponge balls), including a section on mental magic. The four-way test is professional quality material and the Tic Tac Toe routine is great. It is around $15.

Anneman's The Jinx - Worth having an electronic copy. It is for sale at lybrary.com and I think you can get access to it if you register with Ask Alexander at the Conjuring Research Center. There is enough material (mentalism and other magic) to last anyone a lifetime.

I'm also going to make an off the wall recommendation -- a subscription to Genii Magazine. You get internet access to all the back issues and there is a lot of good material from there. Max Maven has a column with a lot of good routines in it.

If you are looking for mental magic card tricks, Bannon's Mentalissimo is a good book.

13 steps to mentalism is kind of the "essential", Banachek has his PSY series, volumes 1,2 and 3.

Thirteen Steps is more advanced and not the first book I'd recommend. Think of that more as something to read once you've covered the basics. Banachek's Psychological Subtleties are just that - subtleties to use in improving your performance and is most useful after you've been performing a while.
 
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Feb 20, 2018
25
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I read 13 steps to mentalism.
I also have read 4 books out of peter turners mentalusm masterclass (great books by the way)
I also have (but didn't read yet) Mind reader by Lior Shuchard
 

WitchDocIsIn

Elite Member
Sep 13, 2008
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You're all over the place - but no real foundation.

David's suggestions above are solid. Go back over those.

13 Steps is more of a reference book. Learning from that is like trying to learn English by reading the Dictionary. It isn't a good way to go.

Bob Cassidy's Fundamentals, Annemann's Practical Mental Magic, Self-Working Mental Miracles - these are all excellent places to build fundamental skills. I would also put in there Switchcraft by Elliot Bresler - best value in mentalism today, probably.

The thing is - don't think of mentalism like magic. You're not doing tricks. You have to learn the systems and learn how to use them effectively in a theatrical manner.
 
Sep 26, 2007
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Fulves's Self Working Mental Magic - Don't be fooled by the title, this has a lot of good stuff. It is around $13.


Thanks for the recommendation on this one in particular.

Will look into it myself as I am interested as well on "medium level" mentalism.
 
Feb 20, 2018
25
4
Thanks for the help, I already downloaded one of those books.
Do you know any other books to read, maybe about performance or theory?
 

WitchDocIsIn

Elite Member
Sep 13, 2008
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There's been a couple threads about that just recently if you just scroll back through the forums.
 

RealityOne

Elite Member
Nov 1, 2009
3,744
4,076
New Jersey
@ChristopherT - I had forgot to list Switchcraft. Great resource.

@tomer132 - Cassidy’s Fundamentals does give guidance on presentation in the context of mentalism.

@Nick Verna - Fulves is a great start to learn some methods and ideas.

The thing is - don't think of mentalism like magic. You're not doing tricks. You have to learn the systems and learn how to use them effectively in a theatrical manner.

I think that we may have different approaches to mentalism. I view most mentalism as methods with an overlay of subtleties wrapped in theatrical manners. Maybe we are saying the same thing. That would be something interesting to explore in a separate thread.

:) I never got that far into it before I realized mentalism doesn't suit me at all. I'm just too... happy. lol

I think that mentalism can be presented in different ways. There is a Max Maven routine about horse racing, a Steinmeyer routine about dining out, a book test using the book Whoogles, Wayne Dobson’s Tossed Out Deck routine (which is hilarious), a TA Waters effect where you give the audience a humorous lie detector test and even Mark Wilson’s Tic Tac Toe routine. Really, you could design a whole show around the concept of “did you ever think about how much fun you could have if you could read minds?”
 
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