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I have been studying a number of mentalism effects (the derren brown style) and have been looking to increase my knowledge of the subject by searching for books or manuscripts. THe only ones i can find are ebooks on ebay. Can anyone shed any light onto whether they are worth buying, or just rip offs that i suspect. Are there any books anyone has that they recommend? I already have '13 steps to mentalism', but want a more up to date one.
The other name I have come accross is Kenton Knepper.
Any ideas anyone?

"Mind, Myth and Magick" by T.A. Waters is the obvious reply.
It's HUGE and is considered essential for serious mentalists.

Priced between £40 and £50.

13 steps is a really good book. I'd re-read it if I were you. Some of Derren's effects are in there
The other books I have are Self Working Mental Magic - Fulves, Practical Mental Effects - Anneman, Psychological Subtelties - Banachek, The full facts of Cold Reading - Ian Rowland. I'd recommend all of them.
A couple of books about psychology, understanding people won't hurt - I'd recommend "Passages" - Gail Sheehy.

There are some excellent dvd's available: I have "Mind Mysteries" - 4 dvd's by Richard Osterland - EXCELLENT
And the PSI series by Banachek - also really good.

Kenton Knepper is great - but read lot's of reviews first. Some people love him, some people hate him. I don't have any of his stuff, but some of it is on my to-get list. If you want to get a feel for his writing - go to http://www.online-visions.com. He writes articles there quite regularly. I must admit I'm growing to like what he says - he takes a bit of getting used to.

Hope that helps..

A few points:

1. Things are up to date because people update them. While there are sometimes brand new ideas for doing things, a lot of the time a new routine is just something old being given a new context, a twist, an updated story, new props, or a new look.

As such, just because Corinda's books been around a few decades, don't dismiss it. After all, people are still using stuff Anneman wrote about and that's even older material. Richard Osterlind's latest DVD series features modern interpretations of Anneman effects.

2. If you don't want to try to update stuff yourself (and I can't really blame you for this), then the books taneous suggested are good, but note that a couple aren't that new.

I don't think there's been a new definitive book on mentalism in ages. I feel I should offer a warning about 'Mind, Myth and Magick', which is that a lot of the material in it is believed to be impractical or unworkable. However, it's a huge book and there's lots of good stuff there.

Have a think about getting 'Building Blocks' by Luke Jermay. There's not a huge number of effects in it, but some very interesting ideas.

'The Artful Mentalism of Bob Cassidy' has just come out and is very good. It might well end up being that new important book. It's actually a collection of Bob's written works since the mid 1980s.

A lot of good mentalism stuff can be found in DVDs. Richard OSterlind has two four volume sets, Banachek and Marc Spelmann have also got four volume sets, while Max Maven's has three, each devoted to a different type of mentalism (close up, parlour and stage). Bob Cassidy and Luke Jermay also have DVDs, as does Andy Nyman. Larry Becker has done two DVDs, but these won't be what you are after, if you like Derren's style.

3. That's really what it boils down to; what's your style? Yes, you like Derren's material, but is it really you?

The answer to that question will give you an idea of where to go to next.


By the way, I forgot Kenton! He's written loads of stuff and it's rather difficult to point you to any one in particular. He is an acquired taste (although I like a lot of his stuff). I wouldn't go there right now.

If Mentalism is your main thing then I would whole heartedly suggest that you check out the Basil Horwitz "The Mental Magic of..." books

There are 4 of them (soon to be 5 I believe)

Cheers guys.
Have been checking out some of the suggestions, and still can't make my mind up. gonna have to give it a bit of thought (or sell a kidney and get them all!)

ps - Is there a review of the Basil Horwitz books on here anywhere? I've looked but had no joy.

I found this review yesterday:
http://www.martinbreese.com/bkhorwitz5.htm
It's only for volume 5 - but based on that I'm setting out on a quest to get the whole lot

Damn
Now i need to get all five!
Cheers dude

I know that feeling..