Impromptu Mentalism

Apr 7, 2009
1
0
I've been out of the magic for a while, but I recently checked out more videos of Derren Brown - who is absolutely amazing - and I was awed. He's inspired me to try that field of magic, and I was wondering if any of you guys could help me to start off. I'm interested in prop-free (completely) mentalism where it's just about you and the spectator/volunteer. Any books or DVDs that you guys can recommend would be greatly appreciated. I've used the search feature and I've gone "forum-hunting" for magic like this, and all I've come to is Corinda's Steps and DVDs that are not what I'm looking for. Don't get me wrong, I agree that Corinda's Steps is a very imformative and useful book, but I'm looking for something more in depth, that concentrates solely on psychological magic. Things that don't involve peeks, switches, or any other sleight of hand/gimmick, but rather with the brain and psychological techniques.

Thanks,
Royce
 
Nov 8, 2008
80
0
U.S.
I know you don't want props, but Ben Earl has some very interesting psychological principals that may lead to prop-less ideas.
 
Jan 9, 2008
226
0
Sacramento
benjamin earl has some good stuff. Keep in mind that not all Derren's material is completely impromptu, or purely psychological. Sometimes he disguises magic as psychology and sometimes he disguises suggestion as magic. He uses many different techniques, such as muscle reading, people reading, suggestion, etc. I suggest you pick up his book Tricks of the Mind, and maybe his lecture video. Ormond Mcgill's Encyclopedia of Stage hypnotism will give you a good start learning about suggestion, and muscle reading can be learned from... well, check out this thread: http://forums.theory11.com/showthread.php?t=17582&highlight=muscle+reading.

What makes Derren a genius isn't his techniques (although they are incredible) but his presentation.

kevin
 
Sep 1, 2007
3,786
15
Things that don't involve peeks, switches, or any other sleight of hand/gimmick, but rather with the brain and psychological techniques.

Get used to disappointment because there's less of that than you might think. Derren actually uses sleight of hand a lot. He just dresses it up in so many layers of deception that you don't believe there is any.

The best place to start with mentalism is Bob Cassidy's Fundamentals available at Lybrary dot com. It's a practical and effective no-bull**** introduction to mentalism.
 
Nov 20, 2007
4,410
6
Sydney, Australia
Get used to disappointment because there's less of that than you might think. Derren actually uses sleight of hand a lot. He just dresses it up in so many layers of deception that you don't believe there is any.

The best place to start with mentalism is Bob Cassidy's Fundamentals available at Lybrary dot com. It's a practical and effective no-bull**** introduction to mentalism.

Pretty much what he said >.>

Magicians find Derren just as interesting as laymen do, but for misunderstood reasons. Honestly, I sometimes think he chucks in a few things just for magicians as well. Either way, the deception that he uses always leads magicians to look for things that aren't there - suggestion, "NLP", etc., are very very small aspects of what he practices, they're mostly there to simply dress up his performances with a simple impression device or something similar. It feels like he does a lot more than he does.
 
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