kevmundo wrote:
I agree with everything you've said. However, part of me thinks that the inelegance (is that even a word) of the move is what attracts me to it. Using your leg to support a shuffle does look scrappy and unprofessional. But on some level doesn't that add to the fact that as a mentalist you want the audience to treat anything you do with the cards as inconsequential? I think that's the real difficulty with cards in mentalism - you have to be an expert but not handle the cards in an expert way. I think this places serious limitations on the 'moves' that can be convincingly done, and maintain the illusion. I've watched Osterlinds shuffle over and over again. Now I'm no expert but I understand the rudimentaries of card magic, and I still can't see what he's doing.
It's an interesting quandary. For example, I've always resisted learning how to fan the cards (even though I know that this has enormous practicalities in performance situations) just because, like flourishes, it looks like you're an expert with cards. I'd rather drop a few cards and complain about how butter-fingered I am than show a wonderful flourish, since, I'm supposed to be reading minds, not doing tricks. With that in mind I'm always on the lookout for sleights that look 'sloppy,' for want of a better expression. If I can't perform a sleight without it looking like I'm doing a move then I pass it over. Maybe I'm approaching this in totally the wrong way and I'd certainly welcome any thoughts from those more experienced than me. I just think mentalists and magicians do, and should approach card sleights in different ways.
Kevmundo
I'm not 100% sure about mentalists trying to look sloppy with cards. When you perform anything, surely you'd like to appear to the audience that you know what you're doing; if you present yourself to be a mind reader, you want people to think you're an expert or at least highly competent mind reader. Now, if part of your act, involves the use of cards, surely you'd want to appear that you've taken some time to learn how to handle them in a professional manner. You don't need to be able to do any fancy flourishes or shuffles with them, but I really think that having to use your knee during an as apparently benign act as mixing up the cards will make you look sloppy and amatuerish. You wouldn't match a £1,000 suit with cheap shoes so why would you detract from your uncanny ability to read minds by looking like a dunce when you pull out a prop that you supposedly use all the time? Even the worst football players know how to lace up their boots properly.
I understand that the aim is to distance the effect your presenting from the perceived explanation that it's just a card trick but I personally wouldn't want to look like someone who can do something so impressive as steal peoples thoughts but at the same time is so inept and clumsy that he cant hold a pack of cards withouit dropping them- something that pretty much every non-mind-reading person achieves with very little to no formal training. You should at least try to appear that you've got the same level of ability as someone who plays bridge or poker a couple of times a year- but I still think that if you're trying to convince someone that you can use cards to read minds on a regular basis, you should present yourself as someone who is familar with a pack and at least knows a decent looking overhand shuffle- nothing fancy, just competent. At the very least, you won't be selling yourself short- you don't want to run the risk of people walking away thinking 'wow, he read my mind, shame he was so c*** (not the best) with those cards' because they're still thinking about the cards and your uselessness with them rather than your amazing mentalist ability.
One could argue of course that the best way to avoid looking like you're doing a card trick is to not do any tricks that involve cards!
