Think about it... What would you do?

[gerald]

I had been thinking about opening this discussion up for a while. So here it is.

Many of us have probably thought long and hard about what we would wish for if we could have a few wishes granted. Fantasy of course. Since we are magicians, i'm sure many of you would wish to really have the ability to levitate objects, telekenesis, etc.

Well think about it. If you really did have the ability to do this, and you were discovered or showed the right Vegas CEO and they gave you a show,.....How long before people were bored with your act? The exciting thing about magic, is that most people know its a trick, however they still say, "Man, I know there's a trick to it, but HOW DID HE DO THAT?!?" BUT, if you really did have that ability, it wouldn't be too long before people just said. "Oh yeah, that's Gerald, he really does have the ability to move objects. I've already seen it many times."

So my question is, Would you have the ability to Control this ability, if by some strange reason, you were granted a few wishes? How would you present it, what would you do, etc.

For all you Mentalists out there, let's just say you were really given the ability to read peoples minds (not predict future events) just read minds, What would you do? What kind of routines would you do? You couldn't just bring person after person on stage and read their minds one after another. If you did that, people would then get bored with you.

These questions would bring up the ultimate creativity challenge. You would have to create effects that were not only amazing, but kept the audience wanting more without eventually boring them.

Thanks for listening guys. By the way, all this came from a show of TRUEBLOOD I was watching on HBO. If any of you have not seen it. One of the main characters can actually hear what people are thinking. It doesn't seem to bother anyone and all the town already knows what she can do. So i thought, "Wow, what an amazing Gift, but no one is impressed anymore."

 

[DLeerium]

I want the ability to control time and space...
So I can catch up really really far on my homework, so the kids at school will like me.

 

[D ICE R]

Being a mentalist this is a question (in a way) that I ask myself everyday. If I were to have the powers that I claim I did my show would not look all that much different to what it does now. A few pieces would be cut a lot would be slightly altered and some new ones would be added. After reading a lot of books on mentalism there is that one reoccurring question that is constantly brought up; "what would a real psychic do?" Mentalism just as many, if not more of its techniques from the psychics and mediums than from magician's. Billet work started from the mediums when family members wrote questions to their dead loved ones and the medium would give them answers, without ever knowing what was on the billet. The mediums would even call them billets.

This goes onto a related topic and a question most mentalists get asked all the time. "Why did you make me write it down?" and "Why did you tear it up the paper?" Whilst I am not going to go into answers for either of these questions here, no doubt everyone who has tried the techniques will know how valuable answers to them can be. This where the thinking of magicians and mentalist usually differ; a magician will usually think up something clever to hide the logic for doing the move. Whereas a mentalist will keep all the attention away whilst he is doing it and if asked the answer that he gives will more often than not be something that is overly bold and in a coy way explaining exactly what he is hoping to achieve. This is why a lot of magicians who start doing mentalism have so much trouble with billet work. Most of them can achieve coin and card sleights far more difficult than a simple billet switch or centre tear, yet because of their nerves the audience can see all the "work" that is going on. You have to be so natural when working with billets and pay very little attention to them. For a parallel idea I would recommend reading Aaron Fisher's blog about "How to NOT do the classic pass." Finally look into Gregory Wilson's Back Stage Pass and see how incredibly bold yet amazingly deceptivie it is.

Ok after going on quite a tangent I will try to answer your question again. If my show was a one on one type effect it would look just like a list of psychological forces with me writing the answers down. For a stage type show I would be using a lot of pieces that played a lot like technique. The reason being is that when when you reveal the thought you can have the spectator turn the paper around so they can reveal their thoughts. Essentially my act would be a lot cleaner from a magician / mentalist point of view but should appear to be identical to a layman audience.

I hear the opinion that mentalism is easier to do than magic but harder to make believable. I believe that there could not be anything further from the truth. Audiences are fairly savvy now days the may not understand the mechanics of a pass but they have the idea that that is how an ACR is done. Even if your ACR does not require any passes the audience will still perceive that it does in some way shape or form. I see that mentalism can reach a level of believability that magic very often struggles to. Yes the techniques of a mentalism piece will often be more easily obtainable than that of a magic trick however it becomes instantly more real when you do something as simple as forcing a card and revealing it.

The real weakness in mentalism is not its believability but its entertainment factor to the audience as a whole. The effects are usally amazing to the spectator who is assisting however seem to play very flat to the rest of the audience. This is why so many mentalist try to make the spectator more of the focus point than themselves. Also why the dual reality concept is so powerful as it flips the whole traditional presentations around.

 

[frezzing aces]

wow d ice r that was intense. best post of the month.

wow

 

[gerald]

That was a great Post.

Thank you for the responses guys.

Gerald

 

[blahblah]

nice post

what I would do, if I had the real power to read minds I would do a normal trick, lets say center tear.

I would do the normal routine, then after wards I would do the same routine, but I would do it so that I dont touch the paper, then do it so im blind folded, then do it so that I cant hear anything, then make a challenge - anyone who can discover how I do it gets a million pounds - and people WOULD watch, because I would have a great big pile of money (people love money), and all of that.

I would make it into a stunt.

also d ice r said how mentalists struggle with coming up with an exuse for writing it down.

heres an "excuse", okay so lets say we got a person on stage or wherever and heres what i would do

"okay I want you to think of a number, any number, doesnt matter which one..."
(they think of one)
"okay now think of it so its really strong in your mind, so you dont forget, okay actually, right it down on this pad of papar, I need everyone to see it"
(do some sound reading or whatever)
"okay great so everyone knows what the number is?"
"so now take this lighter, and burn that peice of paper"
"good. now I want you to stand up straight and imagine that the number is coming from your head to my head, like in big words, okay now when it gets their I want you to close your eyes"
"so think of that, that big bright 7659"

the end.

 

[D ICE R]

That past was a little bit of a rant of little things that were running through my mind esplically since I have been working almost entirly with a pad of post it notes and a pen for the best part of a month. I have never really had anyone question me about requesting that the spectator to write anything down. That can easily be answered with a simple "so you dont change your mind to try to make me look bad".

The whole point of my post was not to answer your question directly but to suggest that we should continually try to achieve the real thing.

 

[revelation77]

If I had real powers, I would not present myself as a magician; I would say I'm real. This would get me on TV, I'd win James Randi's money, I'd get interviews and live of them for the rest of my life...I might do a bit of magic too.

 

[CaseyC]

I would say I'm real. This would get me on TV, I'd win James Randi's money, I'd get interviews and live of them for the rest of my life...I might do a bit of magic too.

Sounds great!

 

[mini magician]

If I had real powers, I would not present myself as a magician; I would say I'm real. This would get me on TV, I'd win James Randi's money, I'd get interviews and live of them for the rest of my life...I might do a bit of magic too.

But then dont you think they would expect you to be able to do that?
Like if i said i can move objects with my mind and manipulate things without touching them. then if i went and showed them say the snap change people would expect you to already be able to do that?

But if you said you were a magician people wanna try catch you out people go into that state of astonishment because they dont know how you did that do you have powers? they dont know that but its up to them if they want to believe


thats my 2 cents.

Tom

 

[Smagic94]

i actualy do have powers and the trick is not to tell them u realy do so they are still looking for the secret even though there isnt one and they keep wanted to see over and over again even though they can never figure it out so i just say im a magician and perform to them and to change it up every once in a while sometimes a lot sometimes a little so they dont get bored and you keep meeting and running into knew spectaters who dont know you yet so you can show them old things as well as new.