Guessing the Amount of Money in someone's Pocket

[jakubr]

Hi guys!

I thought, maybe you could comment on this performance of mine, which is about the guessing of the amount of money that someone has in his pocket (there are also two other tricks). If you could tell me what went well, and what should I improve on, it would be great

[video=youtube;DrihF2UJpfo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrihF2UJpfo[/video]

 

[Craig Browning]

For starters, you're not supposed to be "guessing" the sum but rather "telling" them how much they have and when done right, you will seemingly be off by a dime, only for that dime to be found in the opposite pocket, a back pocket, etc.

Secondly, why are you telling folks that it's just tricks? Not only does this demean what Mentalists do (and hurts your fellow performer) it robs you of the optimum strengths the craft hosts. It's ok to claim Psychological Influence if you must be trendy, but don't refer to it as "trickery" the more you do this the more folks will see you as a magician vs. someone "special" be it one studied in Psychology, Body Reading or born with unique gifts... our job as Mentalists is to validate the claim and make it believable, not do play trained pooch and jump through hoops on demand.

I promise you, if you change how you observe and present such things in your mind -- distancing yourself from magic and being a magician -- you will see a stronger sense of bewilderment in your audiences and even in how trained or schooled people within Mentalism see your work. It's subtle but it is akin to how we treat our PARTICIPANTS in a routine vs. seeing them as SPECTATORS; we work with them differently and make them an ally rather than treating them in the 3rd person. Linguistics and how we use words & terms affect us and our actions just as they do those observing or participating in our demonstrations.

 

[formula]

Secondly, why are you telling folks that it's just tricks? Not only does this demean what Mentalists do (and hurts your fellow performer)...

Penn & Teller seem to be doing fine and they are completely honest about magic just being tricks.

 

[Craig Browning]

Magic is tricks but it's NOT Mentalism . . . and I remember P&T being boycotted at one point because they were exposing how certain bits they thought to be old and out-dated. . . like the Linking Rings.

So long as people choose to see what a Mentalist does as "tricks" they will not be able to present it effectively; this has been a known fact for generations. Problem is, magicians tend to confuse people reacting to a trick as they would any trick done well vs. the level of response the Mentalist will elicit -- something that is frequently composed of gasps and silence not applause so much.

The biggest thing that defines Mentalists from Magicians is that we tend to work as originally and non-commercial as we possibly can while Magicians have no problem stealing routines and material they see a Mentalist perform. . . Smash & Stab type bits are an excellent example of this and the long list of Book Tests that have been pooped out over the past decade holds fair testament to this fact as well. But hey, Greg Arce made mention of this truth long ago, as did Max Maven before him and Dunninger before that. . . etc, etc.

 

[formula]

And so long as people choose to see magic as mere tricks, magicians can't present most effectively either. I don't think there is as much difference between magic and mentalism as you make out Craig. At the end of the day, people are fools if they genuinely believe either of them are real.

Anyway, I liked your video jakubr. I don't do any mentalism so I can't really give any criticism. The only thing I would say is that there was too many questions when guessing the change in the guys wallet, ask less questions or make the questions better, whether that be more invasive, funnier, thought provoking etc...Also, I have very limited knowledge on mentalism but personally I didn't find guessing the money impressive. It seems a bit pointless to me unless you get the number exactly right.

 

[jakubr]

Thanks for your thoughts Craig. As for the effect and guessing/telling and how much I'm off - this is how I wanted to present this effect and how I wanted it to look like. There are many ways to present the same thing. But I understand that it's your opinion how this should be presented and I respect it.

I see your point about disclaimer. I know that most of the big names of mentalism avoid it and suggest it should be avoided. On the other hand, there are people who use them, and still are very successful and I don't think they are perceived by people as 'tricksters'. I honestly thought about it quiet a lot, before starting with those videos: whether I should put it or not. In the end I thought this way should be better. But I see your point, and I'm still considering it. Maybe in the future I'll drop it.

formula, thanks so much for your opinion. I agree with you on those questions, I think I didn't but enough work on putting some more funny and provoking stuff. I'll try to update that.