russellmagic wrote:ok! is the stuff in this anything like the skull duggery stuff cause i found that bloody hardi mean he explains how its doneand i just can't do it
what am i doing wrong. i have brought the building blocks book and understood some of it but guess i need another read as was puzzled by a bit of it. is there any other books that can help in this mentalism area. i have corindas book. lovley!!!
Firstly Russelmagic, and please don't think I'm being an ass in saying this, but just in how your words are used in this post tells me that you have problems with language and when it comes to some of Luke or Kenton's material, even Banachek's, you must be able to COMMUNICATE effectively and quite deliberately. If you are a lazy speaker that does not pronounce or use words properly, you will fail... this is a lesson David Blaine has learnt the hard way. I'm ever so happy that he's woken up, stopped trying to be the stoned out hippy type, and become a bit more a "professional"... living up to his acclaim vs. holding on to the ghetto, street kid thing.
Secondly, if you haven't made it through Corinda, Annemann, Karl Faulves, etc. you probably aren't ready for some of what Luke, Banachek and the likes have produced. It all goes back to what I've said in the previous posts; Mentalism is NOT the same thing as Magic and for that reason most people find themselves lost, disappointed and eventually either leave magic altogether or simply gravitate over to one of the "simpler" less psychologically challenging arenas of magic (and for the rest of you, don't take offense to what I'm saying... I do not mean that traditional magic is "less" than mentalism, only that the challenge is different and aptitude wise, some folks are better suited for the one than the other... that's just a simple fact of life.)
I have owned and performed most of the more famous illusions in the history of magic... I'm not talking about buying a Sawing in Half cabinet from Abbott's and doing it, I mean I worked the actual THURSTON Sawing Cabinet as well as numerous variations thereof over the years... again, don't take what I'm saying wrong, I'm not boasting... the point I'm trying to make is that I invest over two decades of my life doing all that big stuff and virtually having Carte Blanche when it came to system access. BUT... even at the hight of my career as an Illusionist, most of my teachers, coaches and friends were telling me to get out of the big illusions and do Mentalism because, "It is more of your (my) nature..."
I experimented of and on through my 20's and it scared the hell out of me... I wasn't experienced in life enough to handle it and I've found that very, very few young people are. But, I also discovered my strengths and deficits during those years of trial & error, so that when fate came into the picture and more or less forced me out of the big illusion world, I was ready.
Please pardon the heavy feel of this and understand that I don't mean to be insulting to you, I only want you to see that you may need to shift gears in one direction or another; either improve your educational and intellectual persona, or step away from the psychic side of things for a while until you're a bit more prepared mentally and experientially i.e. based on your accumulated experiences performing traditional magic and building your confidence and communication skills.
I hope you can understand where I'm coming from and I hope it helps.
