Trying Out Mentalism

[RediSpades]

Hey all,

I am trying to get into Mentalism and I am wondering what things that you all have to advise to get... I have 13 Steps, but I have heard that this could be a bit advanced. Any other tips????

 

[supernaturalone]

Here comes my usual response:




I am a professional mentalist and people often contact me for advice on getting started in mentalism. Here's a great way to start...

You know there's a book called Corinda's 13 Steps To Mentalism. Buy a copy. And then don't buy anything else. In fact, take all the money that you were thinking of spending on other books and tricks and tapes and props over the next year. Put it all back in your bank account except for 10%, and send that 10% to me for this advice I am giving. This advice is worth it. I've just saved you lots and lots and lots of money.

Study Corinda. Using just that book, get yourself to the stage where, if you want to, you can entertain people for 10 minutes at a party.

That's all. That's the target. To be able to do 10 minutes at a party, among friends or strangers, anytime you want - with confidence, and so that you enjoy it and they enjoy it and you all have a good time. This is not easy. It's an ambitious target, and it will take time. But it's a wonderful feeling when you get there!

IF you can get that far, using just Corinda, then you can start spreading your wings, buying other stuff, learning some other material. By then, you'll have developed enough good judgement to know what's worth buying and what isn't.

IF you can not get that far, then may I suggest you just give up. Go and do something else. There's no point buying and reading other stuff, because none of it will do you any good. You'll never get anywhere. At least not in mentalism.



P.S. - COULD WE PLEASE START USING THE SEARCH FUNCTION!!!

P.S.S. - I'm aware you already have 13 Steps. I just wanted to post the usual.

 

[visualartist]

Get Fundamentals by Bob Cassidy (?)

 

[RediSpades]

But isn't 13 Steps more advanced??? I mean, I have flipped through it, and it just blows my mind. I am almost done with the first section, and to say that I have only read it once would be a lie...

Maybe my problem isn't really with the book, but with myself... =P

PS Who wants to use the search function??? >=D

 

[DLeerium]

Good starting out books.

-13 Steps to mentalism by Corinda (Good start but is fairly outdated)

-Bob Cassidy's Fundaments (Covers the same steps as Corinda's but is difficult to get your hands on, if you can.. start here)

-Practical Mental Magic by Theodore Annemann (I like this better than Corinda's)

I'll be honest here. Learning mentalism can be very boring compared to learning sleight of hand, due to the lack of the visual appeal of magic compared to mentalism (excluding PK of course)

Also have a read of Gunnsight's begginers guide to mentalism
http://gunnsight.blogspot.com/2004/08/gunns-beginners-guide-to-mentalism.html

 

[Chicken]

Here's a tip I rarely see given... watch as many good mentalists perform as you can. It doesn't even have to be live, even on TV. Youtube is your friend, just watch them perform, perform, and perform. It helps.

 

[Randy]

Fundamental's: If you plan on doing stage mentalism.

13 steps to Mentalism: If you plan on doing any type of Mentalism.

Practical Mental Effect's/Magic: If you want to learn some really old school stuff.

Switchcraft: Most Mentalist will tell you that you NEED to learn Billet work. Which this book has done. It's also pretty cheap.


Above all else. HAVE FUN. Enjoy yourself and just enjoy what you are doing.

 

[Mr.MadMan]

Here comes my usual response:




I am a professional mentalist and people often contact me for advice on getting started in mentalism. Here's a great way to start...

You know there's a book called Corinda's 13 Steps To Mentalism. Buy a copy. And then don't buy anything else. In fact, take all the money that you were thinking of spending on other books and tricks and tapes and props over the next year. Put it all back in your bank account except for 10%, and send that 10% to me for this advice I am giving. This advice is worth it. I've just saved you lots and lots and lots of money.

Study Corinda. Using just that book, get yourself to the stage where, if you want to, you can entertain people for 10 minutes at a party.

That's all. That's the target. To be able to do 10 minutes at a party, among friends or strangers, anytime you want - with confidence, and so that you enjoy it and they enjoy it and you all have a good time. This is not easy. It's an ambitious target, and it will take time. But it's a wonderful feeling when you get there!

IF you can get that far, using just Corinda, then you can start spreading your wings, buying other stuff, learning some other material. By then, you'll have developed enough good judgement to know what's worth buying and what isn't.

IF you can not get that far, then may I suggest you just give up. Go and do something else. There's no point buying and reading other stuff, because none of it will do you any good. You'll never get anywhere. At least not in mentalism.



P.S. - COULD WE PLEASE START USING THE SEARCH FUNCTION!!!

P.S.S. - I'm aware you already have 13 Steps. I just wanted to post the usual.

Hahaha .
This made my day, at 9.am!

I s´tarted reading it and suddenly noticed that it was kinda familiar .
Good advice there though!

Mikk

 

[Sherlock]

Corinda is the second thing you need to read. I received it first a while back and I have recently gotten Bob Cassidy's fundamentals and it is so good. It starts you off with what you need to know about performing as a mentalist and tips and hints on things to enhance yourself.

Corinda is more about what is out there, techniques, and gimmicks to use with mentalism. Doesn't do you any damn good if you have twenty techniques on how to do mentalism when you don't know where to start to use them. There are many other items out there that can help you actually perform instead of just techniques.

Some products I will recommend later on down the road in no specific order
+ Emotional Intelligence- Simple and direct
+ Super Sharpie- Basically the ultimate swami gimmick
+ Looch Your thoughts are mine- Some of the better mentalism
+ ESPerfect video- Second best gimmick I have bought

There are several other products I could recommend but these aren't directed for a stage show it's similar to walkaround mentalism if you choose. Please only purchase any one of these once you really get your handling on what mentalism is. I direct this at no one in particular but some performances I have seen on mentalism are quite horrible and could recieve reactions ten times better if they had more practice into it.

If you are interested in stage show then I can direct you towards many many other products seeing as many books are related more towards stage show mentalism. Banachek, Kenton Knepper, Richard Osterlind, Bob Cassidy, lee earle, Dee Christoper, and many others have great products that are worth looking into later down the road.

I will put this last part as a side note, if you are interested in Derren Brown type of stuff then I suggest you take a long hard look at a road that never ends. I got into mentalism because of it and I have little chance at performing that stuff correctly. Stick with Corinda material and then work your way up to Kentons, Browns, and Luke Jermays advanced material.

Once you hit this peak then start with Anate by Dee C. and go onto 7 Deceptions or Skullduggery whichever is in stock.

Best of Luck

 

[Sherlock]

Here's a tip I rarely see given... watch as many good mentalists perform as you can. It doesn't even have to be live, even on TV. Youtube is your friend, just watch them perform, perform, and perform. It helps.

This is hard to act upon since I literally just saw a horrible mentalist performance on youtube by Wayne Hoffman. He was on the Ellen Degeneres Show and just gave her instructions and had his prediction. Basically no substance just a simple effect with a little gimmick every mentalist should own.

This is how not to do mentalism

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBdpg-Rf11o

 

[D ICE R]

WOW that performance was flat.

Most people who perform mentalism give it some form of process. Either psychological (Derren Brown) or something more mystic (Bob Cassidy or Max Maven). Even claiming genuine psychic abilities like Uri Gellar. Actually Uri has one of the best 'processes' in all of mentalism. He believes in what he is doing, and makes everyone who is assisting create some process in the exact way that he wants it to be done. One of the best examples of this is he gets everyone to yell bend at the spoons as he is bending his.

In that example Wayne could have done one of many things. However he did not do anything. There are 100 processes he could have used, everything from the simple I had a dream last night, to some weird flash that he received when he touched the darts. If he wanted a more psychological procedure well I will keep that to myself because it is too indepth to really talk about here. (Actually I just could not be bothered to write it as I do something similar in my show.)

 

[supernaturalone]

For those of you who think that 13 Steps is outdated...

Take a look at Osterlind's Easy To Master Mental Miracles. He performs a lot of stuff out of 13 Steps and Annemann's Practical Mental Magic. Good evidence that they are not outdated and still get great reactions if performed well.

P.S. Osterlind has a SIX dvd set coming out on 13 Steps. Check it out over at www.llpub.com

 

[RediSpades]

Thanks everyone for your advise =)

 

[Sherlock]

WOW that performance was flat.

Most people who perform mentalism give it some form of process. Either psychological (Derren Brown) or something more mystic (Bob Cassidy or Max Maven). Even claiming genuine psychic abilities like Uri Gellar. Actually Uri has one of the best 'processes' in all of mentalism. He believes in what he is doing, and makes everyone who is assisting create some process in the exact way that he wants it to be done. One of the best examples of this is he gets everyone to yell bend at the spoons as he is bending his.

In that example Wayne could have done one of many things. However he did not do anything. There are 100 processes he could have used, everything from the simple I had a dream last night, to some weird flash that he received when he touched the darts. If he wanted a more psychological procedure well I will keep that to myself because it is too indepth to really talk about here. (Actually I just could not be bothered to write it as I do something similar in my show.)

What type of approach do you base your performance on?

Telepathy
Body Language
Human Lie Detector
Remote Viewer
Clairvoyance
Spiritualist
Psychokinetic
Hypnotist

I base my stuff on Body language with a mix of subtle hypnosis. PM me if you'd like about any mentalist stuff.