Just a few days ago, I was perusing one of my favorite mentalism message boards (The Mentalist Sanctum), and I came across a post that gave me some food for thought. In this post, the author mentioned that he is going to leave mentalism. By this, he meant that he is going to stop performing, stop visiting the message boards and stop actively participating in the field altogether.
Is anyone else as awestruck as I am? I didn’t know that this was even possible. I didn’t know that we could just leave. Since when was this allowed? I didn’t get the memo.
Seriously, for me to do that would be like cutting off an arm. This art is something that I have been absolutely consumed by since I started out as a 7 year old prestidigitation extraordinaire. Not an hour goes by when I don’t think on some aspect of this art. Whether I am thinking of a new line to put into my show or a new way to earn money from my passion, I am constantly consumed by it. I constantly find myself lurking in some magic or mentalism forum whenever I get a free moment. I break out into hives at the thought of not being able to perform on a consistent basis. Sometimes I swear I might perform for free if my clients couldn’t pay.
Think about this:
- No more lurking around the message boards (God knows we love the “Green Place”).
- No more frothing at the mouth at the latest offerings from the dealers
- No more grumpy cat fights about the latest from the “Penguin Boys”
- No more e-books
- No more fancy clothes for performances (where else am I gonna wear my bowler hat?)
- No more gasps of astonishment
- No more involuntary dirty language from amazed spectators
- No more use of the word “spectators”
- No more trying to amaze the wife
- No more thumbtips (that’s just crazy)
- And bunches of other stuff that I can’t begin to relate…
What the hell else would I do?
