talkmagic.co.uk

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Annemann

Now this great man, who has contributed so much - but is often favoured over Corinda, spans the never ending argument of cards and mentalism...

However, i dont wish to start a mixing cards with mentalism debate as such...

He was both a respected cardman, as well as mentalist, which it seems it quite often the case. Alot of us start with cards, and then, "progress" onto mentalism.

What i do find strange though, is the labelling in the first place. The word mentalism has been around for quite some time. From my understanding, the word was originally coined to express positive thinking and almost a self-help kind of way of dealing with general mental-activities.

see here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mentalism-Mind- ... 88&sr=1-13

And his mentalism book, is called Practical Mental Magic (PMM)...whereas mental magic is seen as a bridge between magic and mentalism...hmmmm...most confusing to my amateur brain...

What i've found with PMM is when i first read through it, i'd dismiss alot of it as too obscure or "obvious", and then....with each further reading, and actually performing it, you accept more and more of it, adapting some, and then cackling to yourself like a foul little demon as you end up loving more and more of it...

Considering that both PMM and 13 step by Corinda will set you back a little over £30 for the two - is a lifetime's work...its just that because the majority of us have greedy eyes, (myself included) we dart from one gleaming gem to another...only to re-read one of these books, to find it there staring and laughing at us, saying "haha more fool you...pay more attention..."

And then you have the whole re-invention process, buying effects for ten quid a shot, only to find that its in PMM in some form or other...it's surprising how much is contained in a book so cheap...you could make a complete career out the one book...which is stunning when you stop and think about it...

now, before anyone says anything, i'll make my point clear...

no, i dont think you can jump from sponge balls to mind reading, nor should you perform massive flurries of flourishes and then hand round envelopes...

BUT! there is a bridge that crosses the divide...

i do believe that these gentlemen put card effects into their books, not so that it'll sell more, but because there is a place for them...symbolically as well as physical "objects"...

objects that can be identified across the world...i do believe they used them...all it takes is some imagination to change a simple card peek into a mind-experiment...even the sleights cross over too...

perhaps thats why, underneath it all, in alot of mentalism books by the modern day greats, cassidy, becker, brown, nyman, knepper...all use them? they've learnt from the two masters...tony corinda, and the marvellously moustache'od teddy annemann...

that's turned into a bit of a ramble, sorry...so, in turn...please feel free to flash your tuppence worth for all to see...how do you feel about PMM?

EDIT: completely forgot to say that i feel his card books are also exceptional, and are often over-looked these days...again, a complete bargain...

DOUBLE EDIT: and! what's your favourite effects by him? i tried to update Krazy Kode to a text message...that kinda works...but might suit a fake spam e-mail better...

I've read a couple of Annemanns books and have always found them brilliant and such great value for money. 220 Methods of Forcing for example is just amazing, so many different forces and many of them so simple and yet so deceptive. That one book on it's own really helped my card magic along leaps and bounds.

My favourite effect by him, that's got to be his 14-15 book test. I've used that many times and it always gets brilliant reactions.

202 methods of forcing is genius isnt it...and ridiculously cheap too..

I saw a brilliant Al Koran effect performed this week called Double Thought, which was a wonderful card-based mental effect very much in line with Annemmann's thinking. A deck is completely shuffled by the spectator, who then choose one card. The performer then chooses a card. Both are lost in the deck. The performer removes one card, the spectator is asked toremove another. Both are revealed to be correct!

It seems the Trickshop (www.trickshop.com) re-releases most of his stuff in nicely re-packaged e-books. PMM is a veritable treasure trove of material.

The word mental simply refers to the mind. This is reference is well used in every day language, mental arithmetic refers to calculations made in the mind, rather than on paper or a calculator. Mental illness refers to an illness of the mind, rather than a physical illness. A person's mental powers are considered to be his powers of thought, his problem-solving skills, use of logic and reason, ability to calculate and so on. This is constrast to physical powers of strength and endurance. This being so, mental magic is magic performed by the magician's mind.

If a magician restores a torn card or cut rope, this is a physical change supposedly occuring through a kind of 'magical strength'. With cups and balls, the magician magically makes balls disappear from one location and appear in another. Sawing a lady in half, disappearing silks, making matchsticks dance, etc. etc. are all physical acts of magic. Any magic where the magician can be said to have used his mind, rather than magic from his hands, or a magic props, is mental magic.

And so, a performer can happily mix mental magic and regular magic in the same performance. If you have 'magic hands' why wouldn't you also have a 'magic mind'.

Mentalism could feature the same effects used in mental magic but with a different emphasis. However, there are some effects used by mentalists that can not be translated into mental-magic.

As with all systems of classifications borderlines are blurred and some people/effects can not be adequately categorised.

A very simple distinction between a magician and a mental-magician can be seen in the way they use a deck of cards. A magician uses an everyday object, a deck of cards, to demonstrate his ablity to magically manipulate a physical object and thus makes cards disappear, reappear, move about and so on. A mental-magician uses a deck of cards, simply because it a cheap and cheerful way of having 52 simple designs in handy card form. These designs can be used in various ways to demonstrate the magical power of the magician's mind. I.E a spectator concentrates on one randomly selected design and the magician can read her thoughts.

abraxus wrote:
And his mentalism book, is called Practical Mental Magic (PMM)...whereas mental magic is seen as a bridge between magic and mentalism...hmmmm...most confusing to my amateur brain...

Just to put the record straight -

firstly, the book was originally called "Annemann's Practical Mental Effects" - the word "Magic" in the title only appears in the Dover reprint

secondly, Annemann didn't write the book - it's an edited compilation published after his death.

It's an indispensable book - just don't read it as a book of tricks. You can mix and match techniques from several effects to come up with something original.

Barry

I have never understood the daft argument that a mentalist shouldn't use playing cards. If psychics use them for readings and divinatory purposes then it should be good enough for mentalists too. Every great mentalist I have ever heard of has used playing cards and Chan Canast used nothing but.

As for the daft notion which has only caught on in the last 20 years or so that somehow "Mental Magic" and Mentalism are two different things it is the biggest load of codswallop I have ever heard in my life. Mentalism is bloody mentalism and has been for the last couple of hundred years or so before the Psychic Entertainers Association decided to call it something else. It was probably the work of that old monster Ford Kross.

No. There are only different ways of presenting mentalism. If you wish to present it as if you have real powers it is mentalism. If you wish to present it as just another magic trick you are still presenting mentalism. If you wish to say it is body language and NLP it is still mentalism. If you wish to sit on the fence and not say it is one thing or the other you are STILL presenting mentalism. ANY trick with a mindreading theme is MENTALISM. I don't mind if you call it mental magic as long as you realise that this term simply means MENTALISM.

How you present the stuff is up to you. But please don't mess about with the English language.

One of my favorite Annemann effects using cards is his Instantaneous Card Memory routine. I'm not sure if it's it PMM, but you can find it for free at a certain website.

Incredibly open and fair looking, with so many different possibilities as far as revelations go. You can start by rattling off cards like a DB Plerophoria style effect, you can play it with a card at any number style routine. It's a really powerful effect. Highly recommended.

There is a obvious difference between mental magic and mentalism when we see two performers at the extreme ends. What they are performing on stage uses the same fundamental methods but has a noticibly different effects. If there were ever a need to label their act, the labels 'mental magic' and 'mentalism' would do the job nicely.

Suggesting that mental magic = mentalism is exactly the same thing as saying mentalism = mental magic. If that were the case then there would be no way of telling the difference between the two. However, since there are often cases where there is a noticible difference - mental magic can not be the same thing as mentalism.

Ultimately, the finer differences between the two are of little importance.