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Greetings,
I'm very glad to join you all -- this is my first post and I hope I can get some help w/ Finding quility on the spot Mentailism/Mindreading effects.

After the Holidays w/ my family I found a few times where I was catch w/ out my ESP Cards or Super Sharpi or Thought Transmitter. The one or two impromtu effects I did know I was a little nervous to try because some of the people there had already seen them {Thought they would catch on as to how it was done}
So, since then I've been on a never ending search for On the Spot Mentalism routines that can be done w/ little or nothing. I've found some good stuff so far. Derren Brown's Mental Force, Jay Leslie's Musical Chairs, Banacheck's Ring of Truth. But I'm still looking for more routines. Is there anyone here that can point me in the right direction?

Thank you all for taking the time to read this!
~R.R.

I'm so sorry this is your first post

(Please understand that I only bark loudly, I rarely bite... )

Your question tells me that you know next to nothing about what mentalism is or the foundations around it e.g. you need to start here... http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/ftopic11429.php

Your post also reveals that you are looking at things as "tricks"... like a "Magician" rather than seeing their real potential and how to go beyond presenting a puzzle or stunt... what I call "magical masturbations" in that most of us present things this way for our own ego's sake vs. mesmerizing our patrons.

Now if you want to become a real Mentalist and have that improvisational edge there are a handful of things to study and perfect; Reading Techniques (and don't confuse that with Cold Reading... though related, it's not the same); Billet Work and all aspects of Ideomotor application (pendulum work, muscle reading, etc.) To become reasonably proficient at this list of simple things will take about 3-5 years of serious application and study but, by the time you're done you can easily do a solid 45-60 minute show that's basically prop free and essentially improvisational.

Yes, there are other things you can and will discover that fit this genera such as working with Psychological Force techniques (Banachek) as well as the various forms of Anagram techniques. What's wonderful though is that once you dedicate yourself to developing a "hands free" arsenal for yourself, you'll discover just how horrid life can be when you are codependent on props...

Don't get me wrong, I'm the pack rat from hell and love my gimmicks... I just don't use very many, even in the bigger shows.

So, the moral of this story is very simple; stop looking at Mentalism as being a bunch of tricks. If you want to do tricks, be a magician.

Secondly, envision the kind of "Mentalist" you want to be. For an example, I tend to present things in a manner that alludes to be a bit more "real" compared to someone like Banachek who presents a more analytical perspective or Joel Bauer who does the Human Lie Detector theme. Finding out the kind of Mentalist you want to be and the kind of image that fits you helps you focus on the kind of effects and techniques you need to learn and develop for yourself. For me the list of things I've outlined for you is perfect because I am an "Intuitionist"... everything I do fits the idea or theme of intuition e.g. I don't torture perfectly innocent eating utensils or tempt fate in avoiding a rusty knife blade hidden beneath a paper cup. The things I do "flow" and hold to that theme and my image. You'll find that in creating an image and them for yourself gives your presentation some "body" and too, makes things easier for you to set up when it comes to the psychology used on your audience.

Sorry for the lecture but I'm a stickler on the old idea of "if you're going to do something, do it right..."

First, thank you, Craig. I was starting to think no one was going to reply.

I think you would be quite surprised to find that I have actually thought a lot about what my charactar is when performing. Please don't get me wrong, though. I AM A AMATUAR. But just because I talked about Swami Gimmicks and ESP Cards doesn't mean I was looking for new gimmicks and tricks. Quite the opposite. I'm looking for new priciple and interesting ways of using Language really. I want to get away from using props. If you trully are a "MIndreader" then I just think it'd be funny to take out something you brought yourself in your mysterious magic bag to prove it. I want ideas and skills that can be done w/ nothing. Do you see what I am getting at?

Muscle Reading IS something I do. Yes, but not very well. {By the by I read your reply to someone else on that subject} I find that half the time I do it people flip out -- the other half they start to guess some kind of movement in their arm {or whatever}. Someday I hope to get very good at doing the Non-contact Muscle reading effect where you have someone think of something like a number from 1-5. And when you call out that number they are to think of a "Stop" sign. I still haven't gotten it right yet. So, in the mean time I would like to know all the impromtu mentalism I can get -- the kind of stuff I could use w/ almost a 100% chance of it work should the Mental Forces or Muscle Reading fail.

I hope this makes it more clear.

Thanx!
~R.R.

E.C. Valdimar wrote:First, thank you, Craig. I was starting to think no one was going to reply.

I think you would be quite surprised to find that I have actually thought a lot about what my charactar is when performing. Please don't get me wrong, though. I AM A AMATUAR. But just because I talked about Swami Gimmicks and ESP Cards doesn't mean I was looking for new gimmicks and tricks. Quite the opposite. I'm looking for new priciple and interesting ways of using Language really. I want to get away from using props. If you trully are a "MIndreader" then I just think it'd be funny to take out something you brought yourself in your mysterious magic bag to prove it. I want ideas and skills that can be done w/ nothing. Do you see what I am getting at?

I know exactly what you mean. You're looking for method-free stuff. In that case, it looks very much like you're after "Psychological Subtleties" by Banachek. It's out of print in most places right now, but it's being reprinted for re-release later this year. It mostly uses no props at all other than the spectator's own mind.

Or, if you have a pack of cards to hand, you could always use my own "Poker Faced" routine. It's 100% guaranteed. (click my sig, below for details).

As a strat in this field I don't think you can go wrong with Karl Fulves Self Working Mental Magic.

I assume by impromptu you don't mean without props of any kind? There are plenty of good more or less impromptu effects in this book which only require a minimum of props. If you have a handkerchief and any pack of cards within reach the Blindfolded Deck is a cracker

Tomo wrote:I know exactly what you mean. You're looking for method-free stuff. In that case, it looks very much like you're after "Psychological Subtleties" by Banachek. It's out of print in most places right now, but it's being reprinted for re-release later this year. It mostly uses no props at all other than the spectator's own mind.

You had to remind me didn't you?

Ordered this a bit over 3 months ago and was told it would take 3 weeks to arrive in an e-mail, waited 2 months, called and they said another 3 weeks, three weeks later called they said next week and just called today and they said they would only get it in in another few months .

I cannot help you with mentalism as much as Craig can (don't take his "barking",as he put it, as a sign of evil, he is very helpful and very knowledgeable, you just have to understand the amount of leachers, spammers, and on occasions bots that we have to put up with) but I will try my best to help.

I'll outline 2 basic ways of achieving your goals in mentalism, one very long, and one very short.

Long:

Purchase 13 Steps to Mentalism (you can find a review right here on this site). Skim through the book once, making notes of the different chapters and topics, noting the amount of diagrams it contains, amount of pages, text, text size and the works. Decide then how much of it can you read a day without reading more than 1 chapter or topic a day, but also read enough that you will be able to digest everything said throughout the day. Spend as much time as possible reading every chapter or topic and try to understand everything that Corinda has written. Then throughout the day digest everything that you have just read and think about it through Corinda's eyes, and then through your eyes (hope that made at least a little bit of sense). Do not spend time performing/practicing the tricks detailed inside of the book the first go through it, instead disect the trick and then move onto the next. Once you have finished the book, think about it for a week or two and then re-read it, this time actually practicing and performing the tricks which are detailed inside.

This way has many benifits because you will actually be able to understand deeply what you are actually doing when performing, and understand different way of accomplishing different feats and effects that you never realized could be accomplished through the art of magic.

Short way:

Purchase Annemann's Complete One Man Mental and Psychic Routine and learn as much as you can from it, although I do not own it, I know that Annemman describes a complete mentalism routine within it and it would be a "quick fix" to your problem. I do not however know if it is exactly what you are looking for because I do not know if everything in it is completely impromptu (infact, I am going to go out on a limb here and assume that everything is in fact not impromptu, please correct me if I am wrong).

Please, for the love of all of mentalism, please follow the path of the first outline and not the second. It will benefit you in more ways than you can even imagine.

~David R.