Posts Tagged: Mentalism Theory

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8
Dec 09

I Love Mind Reading & Mentalism

I dunno what it is lately but I have been deep into the mentalism thing.  You can do millions of magic tricks for an audience and they’ll just politely clap, but as soon as you bust out some mind reading stuff, BOOOOM, you have broken down the polite applause and ventured out into the wild world of astonished gasps.

In my show I mix the magic with mentalism.  Yes I know, I am offending some unwritten rule that many purists would crucify me for, but as long as I’m getting paid, they can kiss my ass.

I work 6 nights a week in a comedy club, so I would never be able to come out and perform straight mentalism.  I begin with some comedy magic and slowly lead them down the garden path thinking this is just going to be a mindless experience until I switch over to mentalism.  They love it.  It’s almost a one two punch.  The first surprise comes when they realize that the routine they just witnessed was amazing, but now they are surprised on an even deeper level that the show is switching directions and this won’t be an average magic show.

Recently I have been looked down upon by other magi because I am pursuing this branch of our art, but I think it’s absolutely amazing and have had nothing but great experiences with it.  To anybody else standing at the edge of the abyss, take the leap!

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7
Dec 09

13 Steps to Mentalism

The 13 Steps to Mentalism has been in my library since before I even got started incorporating mentalism into my act.  In fact, at the time I received it, I was still in my card tricks phase.  However, throughout the years, this magnificent tomb of material that Corinda blessed us  with has continuously provided me with some of the greatest inspirations and sparked ideas that I would have otherwise not have had.

Recently, Richard Osterlind has released a 6 DVD set that has every mentalist in the English speaking world salivating at the mouth to get their hands on a copy of it.  With the announcement of this DVD series, I went back to my shelf and dusted off my copy of this incredible volume and was again struck by the magnitude of usable material contained within its pages.  In fact, it provided me with the solution to a routine I had been working on.

As Osterlind has proven, each mentalist and magician has their own take on the material in Corinda’s masterpiece.  Can you imagine if there were a forum or message board geared strictly toward the material within the 13 Steps to Mentalism?  How many full blown acts could be developed by such an in depth study?  How many careers would be made?  How many acts would be improved just from the study of this text?  Such an endeavor would most certainly be worth its weight in gold.  As Richard Osterlind has done, I would love to see other full time professional mentalists takes on the material within the 13 Steps.

As for me, I can’t wait for Christmas to arrive so that I can get my hands on a copy of Richards sure to be amazing DVD set.

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30
Jul 09

A Very Strange Concept For Mentalists

This is the very reason I created this blog.  Who knows how many ideas and concepts I’ve come up with in the past that are forever lost on hard-drives of computers past.  Here is a very odd concept that I wrote about 3 years ago and just stumbled across today as I was cleaning up my computer.  It was inspired by several different sources but the two main sources are Bob Cassidy (Riding the Web from Artful Mentalism) and Docc Hilford (Mountains of Madness):

What if I were to tell you that your thoughts are not private?  Would that shock you?  Disturb you?  Make you lie awake at night?  Nature abhors a vacuum.  Every thought you make, every dream you have, every image you imagine, is not ensnared in your mind but is part of a vast unseen network of thoughts that all intertwine with one another.  If one was so trained, they could tap into this network.  However, without extreme mental abilities, it would take eons for a person to single out just one thought and from whence it came.

Ah, yes, from whence it came.  The existence of the thoughts in this network are not limited by the here and now.  Once a conscious thought is made, it will forever exist, endlessly riding throughout this vast network for all eternity.

Even more disquieting is the fact that not all of the thoughts come from this world.  Alternate worlds (or dimensions if you wish) exist in parallel with our own.  While the worlds exist separately from one another, this vast network of thought does not.  Imprints of all thoughts from the beginning of time from each one of these worlds exist upon the network.  It may surprise one to find out that quite a bit (if not all) of what we perceive as fictional literature is indeed not fictional at all.  It is merely the works of a sensitive individual who has been subconsciously influenced by the network.  It is perhaps nature’s way of allowing individuals who have been through tremendous circumstances to leave an impression of their lives after they pass; even if it is not in the world that they knew.

This opens up a tremendous new avenue of thought.  Imagine your favorite fictional worlds and characters actually existing…

Admittedly, this is an unpolished and unfinished concept, but damn is it cool!