I always find myself coming back to Bob Cassidy’s amazing Fundamentals book, and in it he says that you should focus on having one single ability as a mentalist. However, in one of his cornerstone effects, the name and place routine, two abilities are exhibited: clairvoyance (he figures out which paper was eliminated which is unknown info) and telepathy (mindreading the name and the place). How is this confining it to one ability? How would you present it as straight telepathy, for example?
The Name and Place Routine
- Thread starter ShenkermanDavid
- Start date
I will always use this routine, with changes form me, additions, handling, etc
I think the "display one talent" is really just mentalist speak, and another way for someone to "sell" their "theory" and "rules" to people... and that is coming from someone who has talked with Bob and has a respect for a lot of his routines and some of his theory
most of the time you will find people contradict their own theory
if you asked an audience member what power they thought was being displayed there is probably a large majority who will just say "psychic" or "mind-reading"
this is all based on a fact that some people think if people had real powers we would only be born with one, or develop one, what if you were born/developed every "power" ability... or maybe it is really an "X-men" factor where you would have one hyper-developed ability and maybe some lesser developed other ones...
since no one knows for sure, you can do whatever you want, how 'you' want to do it.
now we could always discuss putting too much into a routine and overloading "abilities" to the point nothing is highlighted, but we tend to always think like a performer and how "we" think of these situations... what does the audience think? are they versed in Psychic abilities and each one's specifics? are they going to point out you displayed two psychic abilities and not one so it is less believable?
are you saying "I" only have one ability before you start, or is it a display of "psychic-abilities"
if you wanted it to only be a "mind-reading" skill, you could re-order it so instead of predicting it, you just have that person think of their information and you 'read it' from them
I think the "display one talent" is really just mentalist speak, and another way for someone to "sell" their "theory" and "rules" to people... and that is coming from someone who has talked with Bob and has a respect for a lot of his routines and some of his theory
most of the time you will find people contradict their own theory
if you asked an audience member what power they thought was being displayed there is probably a large majority who will just say "psychic" or "mind-reading"
this is all based on a fact that some people think if people had real powers we would only be born with one, or develop one, what if you were born/developed every "power" ability... or maybe it is really an "X-men" factor where you would have one hyper-developed ability and maybe some lesser developed other ones...
since no one knows for sure, you can do whatever you want, how 'you' want to do it.
now we could always discuss putting too much into a routine and overloading "abilities" to the point nothing is highlighted, but we tend to always think like a performer and how "we" think of these situations... what does the audience think? are they versed in Psychic abilities and each one's specifics? are they going to point out you displayed two psychic abilities and not one so it is less believable?
are you saying "I" only have one ability before you start, or is it a display of "psychic-abilities"
if you wanted it to only be a "mind-reading" skill, you could re-order it so instead of predicting it, you just have that person think of their information and you 'read it' from them