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I so enjoy Craigs posts. pees me off because he makes me think but thats why I like them. Now I have no idea what a mentalist is.
Do you know Lon Mandrake, son of Leon and Velvet? If so would you consider him a mentalist? I consider him a good friend and he is an excellent magician and science teacher and he bills himself as a mentalist. His show is in my opinion is a mentalism show and unfortunatly I can't bring myself to sit through an entire show. Yet he leaves his audiences convinced he is the real deal. I know because I listen.

I wanted to create my own religion so I looked to people like Max Maven, found his show boring and his attitude repulsive. I liked larry Becker but again had trouble not falling asleep throught the actual performance. But is that mentalism? The whole thing with his guns? The poker thing? I didn't like it but folks follow him like its a religion. I saw a female British mentalist who I found interesting but again boring. I forget her name sorry. Too much trying to prove themselves, and I'm always sitting there thinking, "oh just get on with it" I do however love Kenton Knepper.

So I turned to Bizzare magic again not what I thought it was.
I want to raise the dead. I looked towards Docc Eason. Sorry found him just performing what I consider mentalism. Although he has the look of a good bizzarist. So I turned to Tony Shiels okay that man is a religion unto himself. Learned a lot from his readings but not dark enough for me, but then that was not what he was going for. I was shocked as I could not find anybody to raise the dead!
Turned to the big man himself, of course my mind is swiss cheese now so I can't remember his name, probably because he had two. but he started the whole weekend of the weird. Again interesting, out of his mind. Probably too smart for everyone else to grasp. I enjoyed his effect where he would summon demons out of a tray of sand. He could never get it to work, I got it to work, I just have nowhere to perform it and once I summond the demons they never behaved, but that is what I was looking for, but those were far and few between.

But now I am totally off topic. My question was really to figure out if you had seen Lon Mandrake so I would have a point of reference because I agree with you (Craig's) assesment of mentalism.

bmat wrote:Turned to the big man himself, of course my mind is swiss cheese now so I can't remember his name, probably because he had two.

Tony Andruzzi/Tom Palmer?

As regular readers will know, I largely agree with Craig (in substance, if not always in style - and he sure does have style). However, sometimes you have an inkling that the other person isn't going to listen!

The Jay Sankey DVD is a lot of fun. I have successfully used a couple of the effects from it (one of which I gave a couple of twists to). The Boris Pocus one is even better, largely because of the character Jay plays. Some of the effects, if not most of them, are more mental magic, but that doesn't bother me. Use them to the best of your ability.

Yes, the Sankey products are more on the side of "mental magic", but that's only because that's where Jay wants them. He's not interested in walking a hard line, and his performance style suits a more comical, less "serious" take on it.

The reason many people dismiss the work on these is because they fail to interpret the information and suit it to themselves. If you perform these effects the way Jay does - you'll be doing mental magic (badly - as VERY FEW people are capable of a performing like Jay and still being entertaining). However, there are solid, outside-the-box concepts at work in each and every effect on 22 Blows and Boris Pocus, which can serve you well on either side of the magic/mentalism world.

So, while many people have (rightly) called these materials mental magic, please don't rush to cast it aside. Give it the look it deserves. I guarantee you will find quite a number of things that you can use.

Andruzi

I've heard a good deal about Lon but never met or seen him work.

I have difficulty in explaining my personal points in that they have two sides to them (at minimum)... most of us are recovering magicians and thus, our "Mentalism" programs will always have the feel or stench of being a Magic Show and for good reason -- (this is so going to * off some folks) MAGIC IS ENTERTAINING! Mentalism tends to be very dull and boring... especially when it is being presented "properly" as it's said.

Now allow me to dig this hole a bit deeper...

When I create a night club program I strive to accomplish two things with what I place into the act; intrigue and total enchantment as well as amusement. For this reason I will deliberately blend hard hitting "clean" mentalism material with routines that are more than obviously there for the sake of amusement. I think the lack of this latter element is what hurts most of the more hard-core performers but similarly, some performers have far too much of the "corny" and "sure fire" stuff and not enough of the "impossible" and "etheric"... and trust me, you realist types can have the impossible & etheric there just as readily as someone like me, who leans towards the possibility of things being "real" (psychic).

But, this is all commercial packaging and is very different from what I look at as being "real mentalism"... the deeper and spookier (more personable) modes of performance that, as far as anyone is concerned, is real! I'm not saying that your out running cons to dupe the public but you are running cons when it comes to cultivating an image and establishing a regional reputation. These are actions that, in my opinion, support us at the PR level, but at the same time, have little to do with the show biz element. It includes the tradition of doing Readings as a Day Job, something many (arguably most) in today's world not only don't do but refuse to do... but for the wrong reasons, as far as I'm concerned. Especially when you consider that Reading work has been one of the primary marketing tools used by Mentalists for well over a century now, when it comes to the bigger shows, lectures, etc. Being a Reader opens doors and lends to the performer a sense of legitimacy within the mind of the public, that those who are strictly commercial performers loose out on.

As Richard Webster and others have pointed out over the years, if you insist on being seen strictly as an "entertainer" you cut yourself out on the entire home Psi Party market and numerous other marketing angles that have been used in our world since at least the 1920s if not before. I go into greater depth on this perspective in an article series I just did for the British Society of Mystery Entertainers on Old vs. New School thinking on Mentalism, my hope being to shine some light on things that will allow us all to stand on the same page when it comes to this kind of discussion.

Understand, there are countless ways of exploiting these older concepts but it's really up to you to do some footwork and use your imagination a bit so as to reconcile your personal opinion with craft related practice. You don't have to have a Victorian parlor, pet spiders & snakes and a crystal ball... it's just more fun that way...


I happen to love Bizarre Magick and in truth, it has been a greater constant in my life than any other theme one could find... even when I did grand illusions my prime show format was pure macabre ala Richiardi. Today however, I've simplified the ideas significantly; my personal evolution moving backwards... away from the grand and huge and towards the smaller and more intimate, the latter being far more satisfying, practical and profit bearing if you really want to get brutal about it.

Anywho... it's been a great thread guys... refreshing!