If you are performing Mentalism professionally every time you pull out a prop your price goes down. Becuase if we could actually read minds, then we could have someone just think of a number, and tell them what it was. People associate performers with playing cards as someone who is going to have them choose a card, then find it. Not someone who is going to have them select a playing card and tell them what it is "Through mind reading". When was the last time you had someone hear you can read minds and go "What card I'm I thinking of?". Cards have no meaning to people outside of a gambling context. The only reason someone would care about cards is if you are doing a gambling demonstration or showing them their pre-concieved notion of what a card effect is. If you could really read minds or predict the future, why on Earth would you use playing cards? Why not make it more personal and have them think of a loved one, a special date to them, something they actually care about.I think the amount of props does not really affect your mentalism, as long as what your audience sees is not your paraphernalia, but your MENTALISM.
If I was the spec, I wouldn't want to see you take out a notepad, treat it like something special, make me write on it, then wait while you read the impression I made on the notepad. What I want to see is you reading my mind, plain as that.
If your audience only sees props you want them to see, then that is the amount of props that you will want to use. If they see more than necessary, screw your props...or rethink the amount of stuff you bring to a show. As D ICE R said, he IS his favorite mentalism piece, because mentalists are Mentalists, not guys with props.
I would say that mentalists who manage props well can mitigate this. As long as the props are innocent looking and examinable, I don't see why this is an insurmountable problem.If you are performing Mentalism professionally every time you pull out a prop your price goes down.
The invisible deck/brainwave deck as well as a number of Max Maven's creations are mentalist effects with cards, and they do look like "real" mind reading. Your audience might initially think this is just another card trick, but an experienced mentalist can slay them with these classics.People associate performers with playing cards as someone who is going to have them choose a card, then find it. Not someone who is going to have them select a playing card and tell them what it is "Through mind reading".
If you could really read minds or predict the future, why on Earth would you use playing cards? Why not make it more personal and have them think of a loved one, a special date to them, something they actually care about.
-My thoughts
Something I do that uses cards and is strong is to have someone think of any card, and then to have another begin dealing down cards and then to stop at some point when it feels right to them... the card they stop on is the card that the other is thinking of.
That is a very brief description but when done using two friends or a couple, and to have it be about the connection between the two of them, this plays incredibly well.
The effect happens completely out of your hands and the thought of card is only known to the person thinking of it.
This has always gotten a fantastic response.
You mean the effect Derren teaches in DPB?
M.