Greetings,
I stumbled onto this site while searching for any magic forums that are active. I was a member of Ellusionist for a long time, and their forums were very active in the early 2000's, but started to become less and less lively, eventually shutting down altogether and becoming archived.
I am a mentalist and magician (probably in that order), but see no conflict at all between the two, even within the same act as the case may be. I am aware a lot of performers do not share this opinion, but at the end of the day, it is my experience that people just want to be entertained. I began doing magic and mentalism in highschool, stopped doing it for a while, and picked it up again after a long period of dormancy. Then, going through tricks I had done over a decade ago, I looked upon them with new eyes seeing all sorts of things I never noticed before, particularly in the way effects are presented. My main influences are Max Maven for mentalism, and Shoot Ogawa for magic, the latter of which suits my close up performance style, where in mentalism I am more comfortable in close up, parlor, or stage.
My question is one of how to choose a suitable stage name if your real name is not suited to the task (see Banachek's story on how and why he chose his name). My real name is Ben Sackenheim, but I have decided to go with the name "Ocelotl", which is a Nahuatl name meaning "jaguar." I wanted something that sounds odd enough to most ears for people to remember, but also not too long like my actual name. I'll be posting here and look forward to getting some great advice from fellow mentalists and magicians, who will help me bridge that gap between a hobbyist and a professional. Thank you all.
-Ocelotl
I stumbled onto this site while searching for any magic forums that are active. I was a member of Ellusionist for a long time, and their forums were very active in the early 2000's, but started to become less and less lively, eventually shutting down altogether and becoming archived.
I am a mentalist and magician (probably in that order), but see no conflict at all between the two, even within the same act as the case may be. I am aware a lot of performers do not share this opinion, but at the end of the day, it is my experience that people just want to be entertained. I began doing magic and mentalism in highschool, stopped doing it for a while, and picked it up again after a long period of dormancy. Then, going through tricks I had done over a decade ago, I looked upon them with new eyes seeing all sorts of things I never noticed before, particularly in the way effects are presented. My main influences are Max Maven for mentalism, and Shoot Ogawa for magic, the latter of which suits my close up performance style, where in mentalism I am more comfortable in close up, parlor, or stage.
My question is one of how to choose a suitable stage name if your real name is not suited to the task (see Banachek's story on how and why he chose his name). My real name is Ben Sackenheim, but I have decided to go with the name "Ocelotl", which is a Nahuatl name meaning "jaguar." I wanted something that sounds odd enough to most ears for people to remember, but also not too long like my actual name. I'll be posting here and look forward to getting some great advice from fellow mentalists and magicians, who will help me bridge that gap between a hobbyist and a professional. Thank you all.
-Ocelotl