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I've not performed anything for a while now. For the past year I've been reading about mentalism and things of the mind reading sort but this has meant I have performed nothing, and I'm rather lost with it all. While I can comfortably perform a card trick I am reluctant to perform any mind reading as I don't feel I can pull it off or I just don't like the style of the material I have learnt. I feel like I don't have a solid character, motive and vibe. While I love the premise I am scared I cannot perform it well enough to please myself. It is easy within magic (for me anyway) to do ambitious card and act in a very sort of natural manner, but I feel a bit bored with card tricks now. I am reluctant to perform in a casual setting anymore, like "down the pub", and especially I don't feel there is the right environment to do mentalism and I can't give it enough "space" to make it effective.

Really I can't get my head around all the material I've learnt and all the rest floating around. Maybe I should give it a rest, I don't know. If anyone understands what I am talking about then any advice would be welcome.

Thanks

While that's not happened to me, I understand exactly what you mean.

There's one obvious question. If you don't feel comfortable with mentalism, why did you spend all this time learning it?

That's not supposed to be a flippant, or aggressive, question. I am genuinely unsure why you've tried to move away from something you are good at, and happy with performing, to something you think you have no venue to perform in, with no real feel for the material, or how you would present it.

If you can explain that, I will have a better idea of what to suggest. In short, however, it might simply be that mentalism really isn't for you. There's no shame in giving up a lost cause, and doing what you are good at.

On the other hand, it might just be that you need a bit of direction, and I'm sure lots of us would help you out with that.

Hey Andy - come back to cards, all is forgiven

I think if you've taken a break from "magic tricks", and haven't performed for up to a year, this is an ideal time to do some mentalism. Can't you wait until someone mentions magic, and then say something like "actually guys, remember I used to loads of magic tricks? I've given that a rest for a bit and concentrated on studying the type of stuff that Derren Brown does... you know, repeated coincidences, methods of subconscious suggestion, reading body language..."

You could present a few simply demonstrations, professing to be a student, rather than a master... get a few wrong, come across earnestly... perhaps?

I say this in the hope you might find it helpful... if it was me I'd go and buy some nice new spongeballs

mahoney...relax mate...

what do you love about mentalism?
what do you love about cards?
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name your top 3 mentalists, and why...
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you seem like a fairly quiet modest guy on here, but with a keen interest and active mind...so why not use "you" as the centre focus point?

"i have a keen interest in how our minds work...through my studies, and talking with people, i've discovered various strange and unusual skills and abilities..and i'd like to share this with you..."

have a think about what you feel comfy as your overall explanation - psychic/psuedo science/psychology/ and let that run as your "theme"...

then something simple, I'm taking it you've studied annemann, so a simple bit of billet work for a design duplication. as the duplication is based on the visual abilities, talk about that...

mix it in with who you are, and how you might want to frame the effect, and just do it when you're with friends in a pub...keep it light hearted...

or even OOTW with two people...

relax mate, try and enjoy it...everyone's in it for entertainment and fun...

Often the trouble with mentalism is that it can be difficult, if not impossible, to perform for friends and family who have known you for a heck of a long time. Certainly long enough to burst into fits of laughter if one day you suddenly announce that you're a psychic grandmaster or archduke of nlp, and would anybody like their mind reading?

The best thing would be to introduce it gradually. One week mention that you're getting interested in psychology.

Next week say you read about an interesting experiment to do with the human mind. Anybody want to have a go?

Then finally stride in wearing a cloak and brandishing a walking cane...

Seriously, start small and just build it up over a number of weeks. Alternatively just perform for strangers. They're a lot easier to fool.

abraxus wrote:mahoney...relax mate...

Listen to this bloke.

What the seance doing bloke said. The main reason I took up mentalism is because I have no selight of hand skills and I still wanted do "magic" A year is a long time to read about something and not perform it, you probably have more book knowldge then me, but maybe I more performace knowldge.

Take Abraxus idea take 3 effects, Just 3 that you like and get out there and perform them. There is a certian rush I get from mentalism then magic.

themagicwand wrote:Often the trouble with mentalism is that it can be difficult, if not impossible, to perform for friends and family who have known you for a heck of a long time. Certainly long enough to burst into fits of laughter if one day you suddenly announce that you're a psychic grandmaster or archduke of nlp, and would anybody like their mind reading?

I wonder what you'd get if you tried to do a prop-based mental act, along the lines of: "I have a magic hat which transmits the thoughts of nearby people straight into my brain provided I'm wearing it."

Probably even more fits of laughter.

Mahoney wrote:...but I feel a bit bored with card tricks now. I am reluctant to perform in a casual setting anymore, like "down the pub", and especially I don't feel there is the right environment to do mentalism and I can't give it enough "space" to make it effective.

I'm thinking that you might want to start where you are and lead gently and progressively down the mentalism road.
If you are fairly accomplished with cards, then there are plenty of mentalism routines that use playing cards. Then from playing cards it isn't that big a leap to ESP cards, Tarot etc.

You've probably heard the patter along the lines of how playing cards are synchronous with a calender, 52 weeks in a year, 52 cards in a deck, day and night, black and red cards, four suits, four seasons... just using this kind of patter slips you neatly into a more mentalism vibe?

Gud Luck with your progressions

Thanks for all the advice guys.

I think I'll just start gradually performing a bit more to get back into the mood then start introducing a few of the new things i've learnt.

Thanks for the support!

I also am into preforming mentalism. I found that Magic and Showmanship by henning nelmshttp:
//www.amazon.co.uk/Magic-Showmanship-Conjurers-Henning-Nelms/dp/0486410870/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=gateway&qid=1201034384&sr=8-1
help me on my prefomance and has ideas on creating a character and motive which I have applied to my presentation. However i am only an ameture so this may not be the best advice.

Could you not pick one or two card effects to start off with but which can then lead you into the mentalism and psychology route?

Perhaps something along the lines of OOTW but with lots of psychological patter etc? It may give you an 'in' and allow you the opportunity to develp more of what you've read by putting it into practice a little at a time.

I can understand where you're coming from, it's a hard gap to bridge for the first time.

A lot of it is down to confidence. Use some tricks that can't fail, or even better, try some genuine mentalism stuff that has got some sort of out to it (my ID is almost solely used for this kind of thing, and tricks like Derren Brown's Double Think are very good for it).

Also, let's be honest, to be a decent mentalist you need to be able to act. And I don't just mean being able to present yourself well or knowing what the script for your tricks is (although both those things are of course important). If you don't take yourself seriously, the audience never will. This is why you can't perform for family or friends, because they KNOW you can't do what you tell your spectators you can. That's the line between trickery and real magic, your audience needs to believe in what it's seeing, and for that to happen you need to believe in it.

As you get more into the mentalism, look at the old effects you know and think "Could I present this as some sort of mentalism trick?" Chances are there's something there you could use, it's all about how you dress it up (and that's the beauty of mentalism, most of the time it's ALL dressing).

That's my two pennies worth anyway. Just remember that if you're not comfortable with performing mentalism as yourself, perform it as someone else. The "me" that my friends know is not the same one my audiences see They will put a lot more faith in Rob the Magician rather than Rob the Chemistry Student...

Here is my advice and I hope it helps. You mentioned that some of the tricks you learned just don't seem to fit you; The thing with that is that you can change the trickt o fit you . In fact you should not do a trick strictly by the book, you SHOULD make it fit you and go along with you because if you don't your routine will not flow together. Sometimes all you need to make a trick your own is some different patter. Make the trick consistent with how you would like to perform.

You also mentioned that you don't thik you can preform it well enough to please yoursef. And although it is necessary to practice till you have the trick down well alot of it comes through exerience. One of the most important things my mentor taught me is that YOU WILL FAIL and you must fail, but it is not a failure if you learn from it. Obviously you do not want to fail but if you accept you will be much more comfortable with perfoming.