talkmagic.co.uk

I am in the process of creating my business card and I can't for the life of me think of a good "label" for what I am. I don't want to put magician, because I am much more the mentalist... though I am not quite a purist. So, to that extent I don't want to put mentalist. Also, most people don't have a great grasp of what that is unless they are into the magic community. (which, really... is OK.)

I do a lot of suggestion work, I am a hypnotist (though I hate the word(s) hypnosis/hypnotist). I thought about putting "Psychological Illusionist" but that feels to pretentious and I feel I may as well just put mentalist in that case.

So. My question. Any suggestions?

How about:

Parapsychological Entertainment
Parapsychological Entertainer
Prestidecisionator
Entertainment for Discerning Minds
Suggestive Entertainment

or stuff along these lines....

PS>I really like your Quantum Turnover

What about Mind Reading Magician because that way it shows you read minds but it also shows you are a magician so you have a bit of both in there.

Why not ask a few of your regular audience members to define you. I don't know if it'll be useful, but it might give you some extra input.

I quite like the title 'mind magician'.

Nothing wrong with that at all. I've even used that in the past to describe myself, until I realised that I was useless at most things

Mind magician seems to fit the bill I think!

well. i doubt you could ever go wrong with just magician because verybody knows what one of them is. lol

as above... i think...something entertainment....like a magical word-entertainment. how about Other Relm Entertainment with your name.

i c*** (not the best) when it comes to this stuff lol.

Personally I like "Psychological Illusionist" actually. It's not pretentious, and it's a definition that every person relate to in a different manner (for the ones that see in all of this just magic, you do magic with the mind, for the ones that believe this is based on deep psychological theory, they read this as a master of mind manipulation through psychology), I also like "mind magician" for the same reason.

Here in Israel people don't know the word "mentalism" ,and big fancy English words like "psychology" or "Parapsychology" tend to put people off, so mentalists usually call themselves "artists of the senses" (which sound a lot better in Hebrew BTW), so you can play with this idea of presenting metalism as senses manipulation (which goes also for the "6th sense", again depended on who reads the name and the way he interprets it).

Mentalism is still a very controversial type of entertainment, even though most people do refer to it as type of magic. When a lay person looks at magic he knows that either it's slight of hand, or an illusion, and both notions tend to merge, because lay people have no reason to see difference between a 4 ace routine and cutting a lady in half, except for how much the effect amazes them, and maybe sometimes how much skill they think in needed to pull off the effect.
When it comes to mentalism each and every one makes their own judgment, some look at it as a trick, and think that it is no different then a cutting a lady in half or a 4 ace routine (A notion becoming popular in people lately because of exposure and because of people that mix mentalism and mental magic with regular magic, like DB and CA), some think the effects are done by deep psychological understanding of the human mind, and using it to read mind or control them. And some believe this is done by some sort of a "gift" the mentalist has to read minds and influence people, even though most mentalists go a long way to make sure everyone knows this is not the case.
Now how does this all relate to a name?
You need to understand that what you do is seen by different people by many different ways, and your name should represent that, by making it "vague" enough so each and every person will understand from it what he wants to understand from it, while still knowing the basic idea: that you are a mentalist (and a magician) and you are going to entertain them in an unbelievable way, and that's why they should hire you for this and that.

DrTodd wrote:
Prestidecisionator

I like that one the best.

How about... Mental-tainer ?

Wait. That kinda sounds/looks like mental trainer.

How about "Brain teaser"

A//

I have Mind Reader

I use "Phenomenalist" It generates the question, whast do you do.

My answer, I deal in "phenomena"

It allows you to pick an effect that works in the situation you find yourself in at the time. I might do a PK effect, like Psycokinetic time or a memory demo like a magic square.

For me the challenge was to create a title that made them ask for more info. (Better selling opportunity) Your advertising blurb should not tell them what you do, but rather , what you can do for them....

Busines cards for me don't allow for that much blurb so by going the other way, they feel the need to ask what is a phenomenalist?