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Blapsing_Beard wrote:indeed...I have another show next week, and am gonna try some things I havent even practiced on family or friends or...well...anyone
nothing like being thrown in at the deep end, eh?
doug segal wrote:Blapsing_Beard wrote:indeed...I have another show next week, and am gonna try some things I havent even practiced on family or friends or...well...anyone
nothing like being thrown in at the deep end, eh?
Please don't.
Please practise.
Besides anything else it's not right to charge people to watch you rehearse is it? (Not to mention what it may do for the reputation of mentalism)
It's not the effect you need to practise (other than any mechanicals slights you may have to do) it's the presentation.
Mentalism is just about presentation.
It's about presenting yourself as a character.
You may well be the oldest looking 17 year old in the world (photo please) but even if you can pass yourself off as 24 (are you sure you aren't fooling yourself here?) it's still not credible that you have become a Jedi like master of all those things in a three year degree course and 2 years work experience is it?
You can only go down the psychological route if you are actually believable.
Where is your show? Is it close up or stage? Who are your audience? Do they know who you are and what you purport to be? How did your last show go? What material are you doing?.
I've not much time atm but I'll try to dig you out of the hole it sounds like you are about to fall into if I can.
Re: Mentalism for friends and family.
No you will struggle. If mentalism is about playing a character then the people who know you are not that character wont believe it will they?
Unless you fake being hit by lightning (or whatever) and your near death experience has left you with strange voices in your head.......telling you things.....things you shouldn't know........
Craig Browning wrote:doug segal wrote:Blapsing_Beard wrote:indeed...I have another show next week, and am gonna try some things I havent even practiced on family or friends or...well...anyone
nothing like being thrown in at the deep end, eh?
Please don't.
Please practise.
Besides anything else it's not right to charge people to watch you rehearse is it? (Not to mention what it may do for the reputation of mentalism)
It's not the effect you need to practise (other than any mechanicals slights you may have to do) it's the presentation.
Mentalism is just about presentation.
It's about presenting yourself as a character.
You may well be the oldest looking 17 year old in the world (photo please) but even if you can pass yourself off as 24 (are you sure you aren't fooling yourself here?) it's still not credible that you have become a Jedi like master of all those things in a three year degree course and 2 years work experience is it?
You can only go down the psychological route if you are actually believable.
Where is your show? Is it close up or stage? Who are your audience? Do they know who you are and what you purport to be? How did your last show go? What material are you doing?.
I've not much time atm but I'll try to dig you out of the hole it sounds like you are about to fall into if I can.
Re: Mentalism for friends and family.
No you will struggle. If mentalism is about playing a character then the people who know you are not that character wont believe it will they?
Unless you fake being hit by lightning (or whatever) and your near death experience has left you with strange voices in your head.......telling you things.....things you shouldn't know........
Doug... a belated welcome... I've been studying much of what you share and am glad to see someone with some obvious experience trying to help out... sadly, we do have many a youngster in these parts that simply aren't going to hear the gospel of experience. Thus must go out and get beat up a bit by reality before they wake up...if at all.
YOUTH is the biggest enemy of doing Mentalism; you are inexperienced with life, overly eager to "show off" vs. understanding how to create the more suspenseful and miraculous and in short, have not yet learned how to respect what it is you claim you do so as to be able to accomplish it in a way that will allow you to meet your goals and dreams. Those few (very, very few) younger people that do meet with success and acclaim have had mentors and guides THAT THEY LISTENED TO... there's at least a dozen folks on this board right now that have sent me PM notes both thanking me and apologizing to me for thinking I was an egocentric jackass on things that they had sense discovered to be valuable and true... it is as I said, some must let reality teach them before waking up but it is not a course carved in stone for anyone but the belligerent.
IF you honestly want to become a mentalist learn the art of enchantment... Kenton Knepper wrote a great treatise on this very topic some years back that I highly recommend. It matters not if you are reading minds or presenting a Billiard Ball act, when you can elicit true enchantment in the minds of your patrons you will have touched upon the brink of being a genuine wizard... when you can accomplish this state of mind in each and every performance you do, you are in deed a true Magician or "Master" as it were, of you side of the craft. This is the goal (or should be) thus, we need to put our ego to the side so it is not distracting us from creating that essence of expression through our craft.
Takes a Tenner off dat8962 come in..I'm joining this thread someway in so here goes....
Blapsing_Beard wrote:
You can see a 20 year old magician who is better than a 35 year old magician - mainly because perhaps the 20 year old started at 16, whereas the 35 year old started at 34 - it is experience that matters, not age.
I know that the audience shall not see this when I am 17 - or even 24!
But either way, I am going to have to swim in the deep end eventually - why not when I am young and can adapt? Rather than when I am older, and half my limbs are missing, making it a lot harder for me to tread water, let alone swim...
As a rule of thumb youth is not your friend when doing Mentalism
I can say that your age and your attitude offer we old dogs a fairly good view from which to weigh things.
I've not much time atm but I'll try to dig you out of the hole it sounds like you are about to fall into if I can
Unless you fake being hit by lightning (or whatever) and your near death experience has left you with strange voices in your head.......telling you things.....things you shouldn't know........
Maybe, if I work hard, I may actually have talent?
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