Where do i start in mentalism?

13 Steps to Mentalism by Tony Corinda and Practical Mental Magic by Theodore Annemann are solid, must have books on mentalism.

Other books like Psychological Subtleties by Banachek, The Artful Mentalism of Bob Cassidy, Pure Effect by Derren Brown and Mind, Myth & Magick by T.A Waters are also good additions.

 

The question is how do you perform mentalism? Are you doing it alongside magic or are you doing it separately. There are a lot of great resources for both. @DL360 suggested some great books.

I would pick up Anneman's Practical Mental Magic, Karl Fulves Self Working Mental Magic and Max Maven's Prism next.

Then The Artful Mentalism of Bob Cassidy.

Then 13 Steps.

Then Psychological Subtleties

Then Pure Effect and Mind, Myth and Magick (if you can find it).

 

David's post is spot on.

Also note - in the back of Fundamentals, there should be a list of 39 books that Cassidy recommends every mentalist read.

The most important thing you need to learn about mentalism is that it is not magic. If you perform mentalism as if it were magic, you will not get the results you are after. The result of well performed mentalism will often be more like stunned silence than shouting and running around.

 

These guys have given you tons of great resources. One thing I may add is that you may want to sprinkle a mentalism effect into your strolling sets. I have 3 different sets of 3 and each one has 1 mentalism effect. I prefer to use this approach rather than mentalism, mentalism, over and over. It can get repetitive or boring for some audiences if the magician does not know how to engage them properly and create that emotional "hook" if you will.

 

This seems to be the path most mentalists take. The Derren Brown's and Paul Draper's of the world have very strong foundations in magic, they then transitioned into mentalism over a period of time.

 

Because magicians don't know how to perform mentalism.

 

For additional resources search for previous threads on this topic, but I'm sure what is given above will get you well on your way.

 

13 steps to mentailism

 

Bob Cassidy
Richard Osterlind
Guy Bavli
Banachek
Theodore Annemann
Tony Corinda
Ormond McGill
Kenton Knepper ( a bit advanced but teaches some of the stuff you are definitely looking for)

 

I just saw this... I think you forgot the word "most" between "Because" and "magicians."

 

Also he should have said do as opposed to don't.