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After some months of studying mentalism, I'll be putting up a show for people aged between 21-45.

Here is the shortlist of effects that I may be performing. But I have no idea how to routine them. I want to provide a varying form of entertainment - happiness, sadness, joy, fear etc etc ... So I have chosen effects accordingly. I agree there is a lot of magic too, but hey, I never said it's a pure mentalism show !!

- Swami prediction with a puppet (Mel Mellers)
- Flash Deck Production (David Stone)
- 19th Card Mystery (Mendoza)
- Card To Mouth ( as a 'break' from mentalism.. A funny presentation )
- Thought of Cards Across ( John Carey )
- Six Card Repeat ( using Snap Deal )
- Magic vs. Mindreading (Anneman)
- Double Reverse ( Walter Gibson )
- Tossed Out Deck
- Dr. Daley's Last Trick
- One for The Money (Bill Goldman) - it's my favorite ACAAN !
- Koran's Medallion
- Bank Night (Osterlind)
- Energy Bill (Andrew Gerard)
- Cap through Bottle
- The Five Gifts of Life ( Robert Neale and Jeff Mc Bride )
- Newspaper Clip Line (Osterlind)
- Deep Red Prediction (Nyman)
- linking Laces (Paul Harris)
- Chair Prediction (Gary Kurtz)
- Russian Roulette Effect
- Radio Sum Total (Osterlind)
- Sucker Ribbon Prediction (Pavel)
- Triple Pin Coincidence (Pavel)
- Contact Reading Demonstration

Can anyone provide any ideas on routining these effects ? I would appreciate any ideas and advice..

faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar too many!

get a notepad, write out what the spectator sees for each, what happens, what the outcome is...

then see if there's any commonality between each, or does one suggest something that appears in the next...

and before all that - just think about "who" you are, and how you're presenting everything...

and please! dont do the flash deck production if you're going to do all mentalism...

If i had to, i'd do it (personally) in this order...

- Koran's Medallion

- Magic vs. Mindreading (Anneman)

- Contact Reading Demonstration

- Tossed Out Deck

- Bank Night (Osterlind)

- Chair Prediction (Gary Kurtz)

how long is your show?

and... you don't have an opening effect on that list.

@IAIN : Thanks for the shortlist. But I plan to do at least 10 effects lasting about total of 2 hours (@Dale Shrimpton)

And i plan to use Swami Prediction followed by Bank Night.. Is that ok ?

koran's medallion i'd class as an opener...al koran himself used to use it as that too occassionally...even on the carson show...

Yes I was battling between Swami and the Medallion.

So Iain, which would be the 10 you would use from the above .. Of course the ones which would suit you.. Just curious to know ..

i dont do stage, so i can't recommend anything really...the six i picked were just the ones i'd use if doing my normal close up/party/parlour kinda thing...

so i definately wouldnt do ten at any point...its too many...

i'd talk more, giving an interesting premise behind everything i did instead...

you could mix pendulum work in, just before the contact mind reading if you wanted a seventh...and you'll see who was best to work with too...

and just put in a very simple 3 digit prediction thing with a swami as the quickest of openers to take it to eight effects if i had too...

but then that would mean dropping the medallion, and i have such a soft spot for that...i'd be tempted to put in a word/book test as the middle effect, before the tossed out deck...

the biggest thing to work on though, as your first post says, is the whole routining/flow of the thing...i can't do that for you, as a) it would take to long b) its better for you to do it c) it all depends on your character and displayable skill set...

hardik988 wrote:Yes I was battling between Swami and the Medallion.

So Iain, which would be the 10 you would use from the above .. Of course the ones which would suit you.. Just curious to know ..

Iain is definately the mentalist to listen to.

One. he is tottaly mental

two. he performed a trick for me in the pub and OMFG is all i can type....absolutely blew me away...If done without patter it would have taken 1-2 mins.......it took about 5-6 mins and not once did i loose interest.

MagicalSmithy wrote:Iain is definately the mentalist to listen to.

One. he is tottaly mental

two. he performed a trick for me in the pub and OMFG is all i can type....absolutely blew me away...If done without patter it would have taken 1-2 mins.......it took about 5-6 mins and not once did i loose interest.

Well, all I can say is I wish I was there.

Thanks everyone for your advice..

Regards,

IAIN wrote:i dont do stage, so i can't recommend anything really..

I, on the other hand do. And i don't think that you should open with a strong item such as the medallion.

start light and build up.

don't do 2 hours, because a lay audience wont sit and watch for that long.

45 mins first half max,15 mins interval. 45 mins second half. preferably shorter.

daleshrimpton wrote:I, on the other hand do. And i don't think that you should open with a strong item such as the medallion.

start light and build up.

don't do 2 hours, because a lay audience wont sit and watch for that long.

45 mins first half max,15 mins interval. 45 mins second half. preferably shorter.

Thanks .. That's a great idea. Give'em an interval in between
Yes I think I've finalized 8 effects.. 4+4..
Although the 'laymen' in question here, are my good friends and extended family, dying to see what I've been upto since so long, so I'm trying to give maximum importance to presentation..

Mentalism - whats your take on it? Real psychic? Psychological expert? Intuitive? That depends onw hat you perform also

My show is 50 minutes first half, 20 minute interval, 45 inutes second half - you don't really want any longer

And agreed with Iain - wayyyy too many effects. Mine has 5 in the first half, and 2 plus finale in the second. You really want to re-think - less is, as the saying goes, more. Work on the presentation, and you can make a small ok effect a detailed and amazing miricle to be talked about for years to come

Don't forget that as a mentalist you have license to talk a lot more than a regular magician, you will have stories to impart, experiences to share. Tell them about your journey, what happened in your life that led you to be standing up in front of them tonight.

Don't think like a magician - you don't need to do one effect after another bang, bang, bang! You could get away with two "effects" per 45 minute session easily. Get the audience involved, what are their experiences? If you need volunteers, find out a little about them on stage. Are they intuitive? Do weird things happen to them? Have they ever had a psychic experience? Make them the star of the show. Be genuinely interested in them, their beliefs etc.

Watch people like Uri Geller on YouTube. See how one simple effect can easily produce 30 minutes of pure entertainment with the right stage craft.

If I had to fill 2 x 45 minutes, I'd be thinking 4 effects max and one of those might not even be a "trick" but some kind of regular psychic experiment that would get the whole audience involved.

Good luck! Let us know how you get on.

Thanks Beard,

I just shortlisted those effects and was not going to perform them all !! Sorry for not being clear but that was just the first shortlist.. Then I made a second and then a third. Now I'm left with 8 effects and the task of routining them..

Thanks for your input