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Recently, I have been performing magic, with a psychological twist. Yeah I do a few psycho forces of playing cards (7 of diamonds...3 of clubs) and numbers e.t.c, and get great reactions, but have also begun to perform "standard slight of hand" magic, telling people that it is all psychology. A very basic idea would be me saying about how I have been weighing them up, and been implanting suggestions e.t.c before using an ID.

Personally, I really enjoy this kind of performing...a mixture of both sleight of hand and psychology, but saying it is 100% suggestions and psychology based rather than sleight of hand.

Basically, I'm just wondering if any of you perform one thing, while saying it is another. Not due to "magic forces" e.t.c, but more "believeable" ways, so to speak.

cheers guys!

Calling Mr Brown!!!

But yeah, I see where you're coming from, it's like being a mentalist without the fuss of... you know... being a mentalist!

Fake mentalism, I like! However, I have been told that all mentalism is fake by a couple of people, but I wouldn't know as I haven't studied it

Key card I get them to say red, black, diamonds, hearts, high, low then I pull out their card.

It's kind of mentalism, but I go along the lines of "I play poker in my spare time, and a key skill of being a good poker player is being able to read your opponent"

You guys might find this interesting: http://www.online-visions.com/other/0705mentalism.html

very snazzy article there, got me thinking.

Though what do you believe when you use a mixture? Fpr example, in the same sitting, I would use both psycho techniques, and sleight of hand techniques?

Blapsing_Beard wrote:very snazzy article there, got me thinking.

Though what do you believe when you use a mixture? Fpr example, in the same sitting, I would use both psycho techniques, and sleight of hand techniques?

I think a lot of people would say you're doing mental magic, but as there's no formal definition of mentalism as a magic discipline, and as mentalism is mostly about the presentation layer wrapped around strictly mechanical methods rather than psychological ones...

...mentalism?

I do this LOADS, but I use it a lot more to cover set ups for tricks.

For example, when I set up for the 3 card monte (cant reveal anything about the setup - but if you know the trick, you will understand) or even doing a get ready for a d/l I begin to say things about how easy it is to psycologically influence people (or whatever pater falls in with the certain trick) - eg, ID, NEVER state anything about the deck, or magical moves - all to do with influencing / subliminal messages - then be REALLY blunt, eg 'imagine you are the KING of the world, think of a card close TWO your HEART' etc, always gets a laugh, then you can say how you used the false messages to influence them to do a certain thing (again, in line with the given trick). Now you can do the trick, and as long as you kept eye contact, you could doing anything with your hands, and they wont have noticed (this was mentioned in an earlier thread by seige I think, mentioning about the importance of misdirection).
You can use this time to prepare your gimmick / any prop arrangements or setups that you may need, without anyone seeing

Hope this helps, its kinda reminded me that I need to write myself some new 'influential' patter for my newly learned tricks - simple card sleights from ellusionist (Dont hate me...they are cheap... )

Dan

I agree Beard!!

Lately I've been using this approach to some of my magic. A few of my mates have been catching on to the principles of sleight of hand (with the help of exposure sites ) So I began using self working mental magic from Karl Fulves and The secrets of Alkazar.

Also thats a nice article Tomo, I have even bought your book to further my studies on this. I hoping to push the boundaries a bit further to dimiss all explanation.

By the way- not in a one manupship kind of way.

Wills wrote:IAlso thats a nice article Tomo, I have even bought your book to further my studies on this. I hoping to push the boundaries a bit further to dimiss all explanation.

Cheers. I like that phrase, "dismiss all explanation". Why do we have to have to define ourselves at all when people ask us what we do? What about simply showing them and letting them decide.

I do this with most of my magic, If a trick seems too unbelievable i will tend to dress it down so to speak, so they can start imagining how it works reflecting on our conversations prior etc how did I get in thier mind? I use the ID in the same way, and getting lucky the odd time really helps, I was on Brighton pebble beach last week and I picked up a stone with a flat edge and another chalky stone and drew a 7 on it, I then asked a friend to think of a number between one and ten, she said 7 I gave her the stone.

Yes, I use the technique sometimes (although I'm far too vain to ever 'talk my work down'!)

I particularly use it in my watch-stopping routine, where (intentionally) the spectators are never sure whether the watch actually stops, or if they imagine it, or if there's some hypnosis. It really takes the heat of any search for a mechanical explanation. My favourite time doing this was to a group of mechanical engineers, (both lecturers and students) all of whom were talking about hypnosis, instead of any mechanics - what a thrill!

Best,

Lee

I don't think I thoroughly understand your thinking... Please explain how sleight of hand can be used as a psychological tool?

Michael Kras wrote:I don't think I thoroughly understand your thinking... Please explain how sleight of hand can be used as a psychological tool?

I'm confused. I thought you were a magician with 7 years experience.

wonder if he understood 13 steps?

Steady on chaps, please......