Posts Tagged: mentalism

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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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25
Jul 09

It was intense!

Went to lunch yesterday with some friends.  They were having a business meeting and I was asked to stop by and perform some magic for their acquaintances.  So I went to lunch with them and performed my regular close-up set.  They were suitably impressed with what I had done and were a very captive audience, so I decided perform one more routine.  Something new, something a bit different.

I performed Docc Hilford’s amazing Living or Dead routine with the pendulum.  It was something that I’ve been playing with for a while and decided to finally try it out.  HOLY CRAP!  The reaction was amazing.

If you are not familiar with the effect, it’s essentially a living and dead test that utilizes a pendulum to determine which of several business cards has the name of a deceased friend written on the back of it.  As a kicker, without ever apparently looking at the other side of the business card, you then reveal the name of the deceased.

Trust me, this is powerful.  However, Docc’s routine and patter turn this into a pure miracle.  It’s definately something quite different than just a mere card trick.  In fact, before I began this routine, I led into this with a powerful mentalism routine just to set the mood.

This is strong stuff.  While they may never remember how that magician made that card jump to the top of the deck repeatedly, they will always remember this.