Beardy wrote:Oh no.....
Tame the beast before he arrives!
The Beast has given up. . . at least when it comes to arguing with magicians that want their cake & eat it too. . . and of course, the pious that believe it wrong & immoral to perform Mentalism the way it's been performed even before it got this name we use.
To the Original Poster. . . MENTALISM is a "cousin" to Magic because it does involve some of the techniques and even gimmicks associated with traditional magic. Understand however, magician's have never met a trick or method they didn't steal and much of what you find in "Mentalism" today is based on techniques & approaches they "borrowed" from the Psychic Entertainment Community. . . as one particular gent suggests,
You will never find a Mentalist trying to figure out how to put a Coins Across or Ambitious Card routine in their act but when a Magician sees the Mentalist execute a clean & cool Book Test that they like, you will see hell turned over in their drive to find the method and put it into their act.
I have personally had more than a few magic buddies do exactly this after seeing me work and catching the public's reaction. In one instance the jerk called me up asking me to help him in his presentation. . .
I'm not saying that you "can't" have a magic act and a separate mental type program, many have and done well by it. BUT, they kept the two separate and not meshed together. The reason for this is the psychology between the two and how they are opposites to one another; magic offers a kind of escape and cooperation between mage & patron in which it is understood up front that IT'S ALL A TRICK and that's ok.
Mentalism relies on BELIEF the public's willingness to suspend disbelief and become vested in the claims made by the performer whether they are some kind of New Age/Witchypoo persona or an NLP Expert (and there's a hell of a lot of supposed NLPers out there who've probably need read more than maybe a single book on the topic. . . magician's leaning on the LIE that you only need to know the cliff-notes in order to present something. A MENTALIST isn't as known for half-measures; they seek to substantiate their claim/role by KNOWING what they are and the field in question).
The real difference between Mentalism and Magic centers on the person choosing the title. The majority of people that jumped on the Mentalism Bandwagon since the late 1990s did so as the result of what they've seen on TV. . . Criss Angel and David Blaine leading the pack on this side of the pond and Derren Brown over there. While I give Brown far more kudos for at least being more of what a Mentalist is, I have personal issues with what I consider a "betrayal" to the craft -- equating Mentalism as being the exact same thing as one would find at a kiddie birthday party... CHEAP TRICKS!
Regardless, all three of these guys are guilty of a cruel mode of "exposure" you could say -- diminishing the power of Mentalism by insisting that it's the "same as" magic and magic tricks. It has cost the craft significantly and blurred the lines so much that many newbies actually believe David Copperfield and Doug Henning were "Mentalists" In other words, people confuse traditional magic and grand illusion with this aspect -- this distant relative of Magic.
Do yourself a favor and study the older books on the topic and not all the current top ten and over-hyped stuff. Get your hands on the works of Burling Hull, Stephan Minch, Robert Nelson and Richard Webster and even Ormond McGill (William Larsen if you can find it). While you will still get a glimpse at the "Dunninger Mold" approach, you will likewise see a tremendous amount of how the old-timers did it; the Back of Room Readings after the show and even Mail Order and by appointment opportunities, pitch-book sales, home psychic parties, the whole bit... a large amount of which today's enthusiast negate and devalue as well as ignore . . . "because it is too close to charlatanism"
NEWS FLASH!
Mentalism was started by charlatans. As Stephan Minch pointed out,
the true mentalist walks with one foot in the world of the thespian and the other firmly planted in the ways of charlatanism. . . Screw all the "Politically Correct" rhetoric!
If you want to do magic tricks, go for it. But the current meshing and blurring of things is exactly why the P.E.A. was formed and though it has been poisoned to some degree, it is starting to remember its roots and once again seeking to defend Mentalism, protecting our secrets from the greed and hunger of today's hungry mage. I wish them luck!
I wish you luck in wading through the much louder, persistent voices and most especially the moans, groans and rhetoric you will see posted following this. . .
