Great Realization!!

Luis Vega

Elite Member
Mar 19, 2008
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Leon, Guanajuato Mexico
luisvega.com.mx
So...I am preparing a Mentalism show...pure mentalism and I am doing some research I decided to watch a LOT of mentalists in action in youtube...and I had to come a great realization...almost an epiphany...

Mentalism is not perfect....

I know, I know...maybe some of you see that as obvious...maybe some of you think that´s not true...but let me tell you something...I saw Bob Cassidy doing some mind reading and when he is saying statements he says "that person is your mother?" and the spectator says "No.." and then he asks other questions and the spectator says again and again "NO"

But I could clearly see that he dismisses the wrongs like they never happened...and when he gets something right...he makes it big...also when he show the predictions...it´s like all the wrong questions never existed...and people never remembers that he asked a lot of questions and said a lot of statements wrong...

I think that is a main difference between magic and mentalism...getting all the sleights good, avoid flashes, good presentation...and here presentation and naturalness (hope that word exist") is way more important...
 
Apr 1, 2009
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California
Amen. Thank you for saying something as important as this. While it is amazing to have sleights down perfectly. And to strive for a graceful performance. It is also important not to be afraid to fail.
 
Dec 18, 2007
1,610
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Northampton, MA - USA
What Bob did is classic, I'd suggest you find a copy of Brad Henderson's THE DANCE (it's bloody expensive these days, so be warned). Brad looks at the art of doing a Reading as a "dance" between the Reader & the Patron, revealing how we "dance around" negative replies and ultimately transform the negatives into positives, etc. There are other materials that cover this type of process as well.

Mentalism CAN'T be "perfect" if it is to be "believable"; this is a very important point that eludes so many.

Real World Psychics aren't perfect, they don't hit at even a 90% level in most cases, so in order for us to seem credible, a level of failure is to our benefit. It's only Magicians that get things 100% or seemingly so. When you are too perfect you create a reason for folks to doubt you and more so, doubt that your claims are on the up and up even though there are some special exceptions such as when you are claiming to use genuine science, mathematics, etc. as part of your work vs. themes like Intuition or stating that you really are Psychic or some other such approach.

Our goal isn't to create deliberate fails in a show but rather, accept the ones the will happen be it during a Q&A such as in the Cassidy example, or when a Psychological Force goes astray (which Banachek warns folks about in the first book). We can use deliberate fails here and there but how we use them must be kept limited or it looses its value. Long before everyone was doing the Bending Glass I had it in my Vegas show and every once in a while the glass would begin to bend and suddenly shatter. . . literally exploding "because I lost control". This was a deliberate bit of business and no, I didn't have some kind of protective dome over the glass or put it in bag. . . that would destroy the purpose behind the break, which was to give folks something to talk about and thus generate interest in my show via word of mouth and the curiosity such things generate; like car racings, folks want to attend in order to see the accident, it's that simple.

Carefully staging this kind of stunt/fail can take you places but again, it's the sort of thing that can't happen too often or you destroy its value. I remember Glen Frankenstein telling me about certain Mentalists never doing a big To-do styled Headline Prediction suing the locked chests, etc. except when they could gain optimum advantage doing so. Some only did a New Year's (January 1) revelation while others focused on the World Series or the Indy 500, etc. Others even waited, doing just one big prediction per decade. . . yet, they would invest thousands of dollars into the devices used for such predictions. Even with all of this, certain things within those predictions would always be wrong or inaccurate in some manner so as to create that weired psychological advantage we so ardently strive to know.

So, are you a magician that gets things right 98.999% of the time or are you the Mind Reader/Intuitive/Clairvoyant who is only 85-89% on the mark?
 
Mar 6, 2008
1,483
3
A Land Down Under
I can only echo Craig's advice here although Brad Henderson's The Dance is About 30-40 dollars as it was reprinted 5 years ago.

Personally I don't throw intentional misses into my effects, however I throw out things that maybe hits to heighten the overall effect.
 
Hey wuts up Luis!!!


In mentalism, there are a few things that count: Presentation, Your Gimmick, and You having fun!


If you take care of that, the audience will be blown away and have fun. I talk to guys such as peter turner and morgan strebler quite a bit, both guys do mentalsim and do them well but in their own unique way. Morgan is so much different from Peter. Peter is so much different from Morgan. They both have different personalities. Thats pretty much what seperate all mentalists.


In mentalism, there's a lot of room for error in terms of presentation. You can cold read and get every cue wrong but if you have a surefire way to get the final answer your audience will be amazed. Derren Brown has been doing that for years. I've seen him cold read and get every hit right. I've seen him cold read get almost every cue wrong. Still to come up with their thought is perfect. Just be yourself and find out what kinds of mentalism you love doing the best. Frame your gimmick. There is nothing wrong with that at all.

Some guys rely more on pk, some rely more on hypnosis, other rely more on mind reading. All of that mental cueing stuff is part of the presentation. Get some of your best most suitable mentalism performances and dress it up like a Thanksgiving Turkey till people think you are the originator of it. Well maybe not that dressed up, but you get the idea...
 
Dec 18, 2007
1,610
14
64
Northampton, MA - USA
I can only echo Craig's advice here although Brad Henderson's The Dance is About 30-40 dollars as it was reprinted 5 years ago.

Personally I don't throw intentional misses into my effects, however I throw out things that maybe hits to heighten the overall effect.

When "The Dance" was first released it was done so on a very limited basis and I believe the price was a bit more than you've stated, I'd have to double check that. Just recently I saw a legal copy of it for sale with a price exceeding $500.00.

Yes, there are some knock-offs in circulation that can be had for little to nothing in that few are aware of the rarity of the actual book just as they are with other pieces like Obsidian Oblique and The Cezanne Code.
 
Mar 6, 2008
1,483
3
A Land Down Under
When "The Dance" was first released it was done so on a very limited basis and I believe the price was a bit more than you've stated, I'd have to double check that. Just recently I saw a legal copy of it for sale with a price exceeding $500.00.

Yes, there are some knock-offs in circulation that can be had for little to nothing in that few are aware of the rarity of the actual book just as they are with other pieces like Obsidian Oblique and The Cezanne Code.

This is the copy I got http://www.penguinmagic.com/p/S9830 basically it is a second edition, but I assume all the material is exactly the same in it.
 

Luis Vega

Elite Member
Mar 19, 2008
1,838
278
38
Leon, Guanajuato Mexico
luisvega.com.mx
I have been doing mentalism in my restaurant more than ever...in order to familiarize myself to this...

Anyway...the other day I worked on psychological forces..and I failed a lot this past time...mmmm...anyway I did a peek and I receive an answer that made me realize that I am going in the right pad...I did a revelation and she said "how the hell did you knew that? are you born with this kind of powers?"...NICE!!!

Brad Henderson used to be a member here... I loved his advice and sadly I was too young in the art of magic to fully appreciate it.... guess I´ll try to fin his book...

I think I will keep practicing...anyway, I´ve realized that mentalism is the purest form of magic... but I don´t intend to stop doing magic since I also love it!!

anyway I have the final set list for my mentalism show...I´ll post it later...but I intend to maximize the spectator involvement since the main concept is that a lot of people are born with this kind of "power" like enhanced intuition, empathy and mimic....so I intend to do a lot of mind reading and how other people that are more inclined to this kind of things can also read minds...
 
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