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Ok, I have done alot of magic cabaret acts but now I would like to concentrate on putting a 20 - 30 min mentalism show together.
I have a few ideas for effects but I feel there is too many prediction routines or routines that are alike. Can someone please advise me about how one should structure a show together. I don't want to fuse magic with the mentalism.
Thanks in advance.

Andy

Buy Anneman's One Man Mental and Psychic Routine from Trickshop. Whilst you don't have to perform anything from it exactly, it gives a great idea on structure and a variety of different effects and ideas.

One of the most powerful and entertaining mentalism acts ever conceived. Ted Annemann's Complete One Man Mental and Psychic Routine has stood the test of time. More than 70 years after its first publication by Max Holden in January 1935, the routine with only minor modifications is as strong and practical today as when it was first performed by Annemann. It is also just as relevant. At a time, when many mentalists are trying to move away from the use of suspicious props, Annemann's routine remains a lesson in what can be achieved with some paper, a few markers, a swami gimmick, a borrowed phone book and a couple decks of cards. No pre-show work. No cumbersome apparatus. No assistants or confederates. Just 20 to 30 minutes of pure entertainment you can carry in a briefcase.

Effects include:

Uncanny thought reading
Design duplication
A book test
An add a number effect
and much more!
A must-have resource for anyone who does mentalism. We cannot recommend this publication highly enough. This new, quality, print-on-demand edition from Trickshop.com features new typesetting and even includes tips on how to update the routine for contemporary performances. For another one-man mentalism act you can carry in a briefcase, see the JINX Mental Club Act.

http://www.trickshop.com/annemann_act.html

thanks very much my friend. I think I have got that somewhere as it goes!!

LPP

Jack Kent Tiller's Trio has got a couple of 20 minute shows in that might be worth a look.

just looked up that book lady of M. Looks good.

I've always fancied (openly) performing Anneman's One Man show as written (or close enough) just to see how it goes down with a modern audience.
I think it's fantastic...

kartoffelngeist wrote:I've always fancied (openly) performing Anneman's One Man show as written (or close enough) just to see how it goes down with a modern audience.
I think it's fantastic...

Stuart Cumberland does it successfully to paying audiences, so I'm sure it would still work well today. There are some nice pieces in there.

Is the nile divination in there or was that from 202 methods?

There's literally DOZENS of one and two-person acts out there, just LOOK FOR THEM...

Mind, Myth & Magic has at least one. . . I think two of them outlined. If you have some actual savvy about yourself and good people skills grab up Telepathy in Action (but it's not for the squeamish). Actually learn how to do Muscle Reading. . . the jan Hannussen book IS a complete act as it is outlined & taught. . .master the Q&A Jerome Finely is well known for doing an hour-two hour show doing NOTHING BUT the Q&A and without using clip-boards, billets, etc.

Anyone that has literally practiced and performed Magic can build up such an act so long as they are interested in being a MENTALIST vs. some clown doing a bunch of tricks that kindof mimic Psychic (pardon. . . NLP or one of the other current trendy "scientific" terms). There's a huge difference in that Mentalism actually requires a degree of decorum and actual talent as a showman vs. someone that is versed in the same corny canned lines that magicians have used for generations.

UNDERSTAND I'm only being half-crass here in that I would love to see you create a BELIEVABLE demonstration as a Mental performer. I've just become exception wary of those that "just got the magic act(s) together and now want to build a Mentalism act. . . for those that have been around a while it sounds more like a person that has absolutely little to no real experience out in the big world of show biz where just having a single act that works and works regularly is usually all you need for at least 5-10 years at a time. . .many a folk have done the same acts for 25+ years and retired quite wealthy as the end result.

In other words, you don't have to (nor can you be) EVERYTHING... focus! Find one thing and be good . . . BE THE BEST as that one thing rather than mediocre at a lot of things.

Though there will be a bunch of opinions shared now, many of which will support you in your pie-in-sky dream chasing, I really hope you'll understand both, the harshness of my tone (taking it for what it is meant to be. . . some genuine advance that will help more than it hurts. . .but likewise understand why I'm encouraging you to FOCUS. . . look at how many other professions in which the professionals do one thing and one thing only. . . I believe you'll find this is a proven route that has allowed humanity to progress and individuals to succeed on many levels, in many arenas for many a long, long century.

Ok. One of the stuff that should always appear is audience involvement, and I try to let more people onto stage in a being time. This just makes the show more fun for people.

If you are not a known figure in your local area, and people dunno what a mentalist is, you can open up with a short up to the point demonstration ( yes, if doesn't have to be an effect ) where the whole audience is involved. You can do a psychological force as a start, although I personally don't like it.

You might wanna start the show with an effect where the audience can see through the method. Lol, don't get me wrong. What I mean is, if you do a "which hand" or a "bank nite" type of effect, the audience can see through the psychological aspects that the assume you are using.

However, if you wanna bang hard, you can start off with murderous prediction effects that they have no explanations to. Like a simple number in envelope prediction where you randomly choose a spectator and let him call out a number. However, if you want the effect to play bigger ( remember audience involvement ? ) , you might wanna consider Haim Goldenberg's Add a number take on this effect, where random audience members call out random numbers and a spectator writes them on a board.

If you are doing a drawing duplication, you can also have the audience involved again by telling them to catch onto the image the spectator is drawing. Let them raise their hands, those who got the image she was thinking of, and use them later on for another effect where you can say that it works best with them, and people will buy it.

After the first or second effect, you can start hitting hard. Bob Cassidy's Name/Place routine is definitely a killer.

You also might want to add details into your 20 minute performance. For example, you can tell the name of a person with the dunninger ploy. Play this along with knowing if the spectator is left or right handed, and people will tend to believe you.

When you have broken their guard of "that could be a trick", you can start doing hard hits.

That's one approach of course, and there are other approaches you can use. Its kind of related to the presentation and what effects you perform, how the host introduces you....

........ Now I dunno if you will be able to give meaning to your 20 minute show, but right now I'm planning a whole show, and there is a lovely premise going on throughout the whole show.

Now regarding the prediction routines you stated: Again, you might wanna show the process of the prediction going on. For example if you tell them to think of a number, stare in their soul for a moment and tell them to change it for a new number, or add to that number 50, and use this process for the rest of the candidates. Then, your Add a no. effect would be so much believable.

You need to get people up on stage and participate. Your effects should not be all the same thing, and you should give them a meaning.

For example, the number in envelope prediction. Instead of saying that you had a number inside, tell them that this is a receipt of a flower you bought, or the amount the taxi charged you, or I dunno, anything you might wanna come up with. It makes sense that its a taxi receipt since you can follow your patter up by saying stuff about you coming to the show with the taxi, and you are a mind reader, "and YOU folks, are going to know the amount I paid for the taxi !!"

Then you get a spectator up on stage and have him read the number on the receipt.

This is totally different from " I wrote a number, and you will know it " ... Very totally different. The method is the same, but its 2 different presentations and entertainment effects.

You can follow this up by a sneak thief effect, and REALLY sell it as a psychological effect rather than a trick. You got people involved and hooked by now.

Instead of having effects where the outcome is always gonna work, and instead of using a spectator in between the audience, let them call a person from home ( check stage mic's that they don't interfere and all that stuff with the mobile signals ) and do the effect with him.

They all could sound like the same effect, but the presentation is very very different.

Use effects where you bet on money with people in the audience. All those details differ your show.

I had an idea for an opener that would go down a treat and also do some good.

If you have a routine that involves knowing which hand a spec has the pound in, before you choose someone to join you on stage, do the following....

I would like everyone to take out a pound and hold it in either hand.
Most of you will choose left as you as an audience should be around 95% right handed and will try to throw me off so all who have it in their left hand, please donate the pound in the bin that is being walked around.

If you kept along those lines you could generate a nice little sum for a local charity while also involving everyone in the audience.

Someone will probably pipe in that some form of red tape means you can't do it.

Either way, I think it's a nice way to open a show.