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What skills do you feel that a mentalist should posses, i have a few listed below, but was curious to see what others thought about the whole concept.

Presence
Ability to quickly build rapport
Enhanced Memory
Cold Reading
Muscle Reading
Hypnosis/Suggestion - Grey area
Wide knowledge
More elegance than traditional magicians

Believability
Believability
Believability

Certainly there's a need for presence. As a mentalist you're claiming to do things mere mortals cannot -- either because you have supernormal powers, or because you've trained yourself to a superhuman pitch of perfection. So you'd better be something more than a mere mortal.

"Elegance" is a type of presence. It may or may not suit your style. I don't think I could ever manage elegance, not even with the help of a full makeover team, charm school, and personal fashion consultant.

The ability to build rapport is certainly vital. Mentalism is all about working with people.

I would also add general showmanship as a big must-have. You've got to be able to hold and enthrall an audience without recourse to flashy magic props.

Enhanced memory? Not particularly. A decent normal memory, yes. Knowledge of mnemonic techniques, very helpful.

Some basic knowledge of "people reading" and suggestion is vitally necessary, even if you don't want to go anywhere near fortune-telling. Reading and reacting to people helps you build presence, create rapport, handle spectators, etc. Having studied both Wonder Words and Wonder Readings, I tend to group people-reading and suggestion together. They go together.

Full-blown cold reading, hypnosis, and muscle reading? Depends on what you want to do. They're not vitally necessary core skills.

Wide knowledge? That's hard to quantify. Any decent magician or mentalist should be intelligent. Certainly if you're doing a routine based on a certain theme, you should strive to know as much as possible about that topic and not look ignorant. But you define your own themes! For instance, I'd never risk doing a routine based on "think of a celebrity", because I don't know celebrities and would never be able to learn the subject. But I'd be happy enough to do "think of a cartoon character".

I would also add, as core skills for mentalists, basic sleights with cards, coins, and small objects.

Communications skills,
Stage Presence, and what the others said^

Cold Reading
Mnumonic Memory skills
Muscle Reading
Spoon/Fork Bending (liquid metal particularly is fun)
Hypnosis
Elegance
A smart suit
Authority



All these things I hope to master in the coming years of my life, as I think a perfect psychic would be able to do something to entertain you at a moments notice, whether it be being able to tell in which hand you are holding a coin, or bending a fork with his/her mind.



Tom
xx

how come you're using the term psychic now Tom? thats completely against what you believe in according to other posts made by you...

Thomas Heine wrote:Believability
Believability
Believability

Just to clarify believability?

No seriously though, your character does need to be believable and also consistent. It would be unreasonable to expect an audience to believe that you are an expert at body language or something at a really young age (sorry I have no idea how old you are, but hopefully you get the idea). Likewise, if you yourself are naturally sceptical, it wouldn't make sense to create a character that used psychic abilities because, a) you wouldn't believe you and b)if you don't believe you how can you expect an audience to?

It would also help to have a wide knowledge about the skill that you are claiming to have. If someone were to ask you about it later then at least you are able to talk to them about it and sound like you know what you are on about. That in turn assists the believability of your abilities.

You'll need good people skills and good communication skills. Without them then a lot of the effects you try and create will be lost. So you need to be able to engage the spectators and build a good rapport.

Many of the technical skills you'll need can be found in Corinda's 13 Steps to Mentalism.

IAIN wrote:how come you're using the term psychic now Tom? thats completely against what you believe in according to other posts made by you...

I don't, but thats the word that was used in the thread title. I personally never tell people I'm psychic, indeed I tell them this AS they are watching the spoon bend... it makes them feel weird I think

Cassie wrote:

Thomas Heine wrote:Believability
Believability
Believability

Just to clarify believability?

No seriously though, your character does need to be believable and also consistent. It would be unreasonable to expect an audience to believe that you are an expert at body language or something at a really young age (sorry I have no idea how old you are, but hopefully you get the idea). Likewise, if you yourself are naturally sceptical, it wouldn't make sense to create a character that used psychic abilities because, a) you wouldn't believe you and b)if you don't believe you how can you expect an audience to?

It would also help to have a wide knowledge about the skill that you are claiming to have. If someone were to ask you about it later then at least you are able to talk to them about it and sound like you know what you are on about. That in turn assists the believability of your abilities.

You'll need good people skills and good communication skills. Without them then a lot of the effects you try and create will be lost. So you need to be able to engage the spectators and build a good rapport.

Many of the technical skills you'll need can be found in Corinda's 13 Steps to Mentalism.

Thank you for the hint!

Just to clarify my position:
The key point being a mentalist (that's what I am for - hmm - several years, ...) is to maintain doubts.

A magician acts beyond the limits of reality ...
... and everyone knows it!

A mentalist deals right ON the borderline of the seemingly known reality ...
... and nobody knows exactly where the borderline goes.

Even if you use some kind of trickery to procure a (seemingly) mental effect it's essential that the spectator isn't able to explain his perception without a doubt as some kind of trick.
An effect is "mentalism" when you maintain the possibility or even more the probability that this effect is "real".

And this is independent from your personal approach.
Your approach may be psychic, spiritual, scientific or whatever else.

The key point is always to be believable in your performance.

Be entertaining but not believable - and you're not a mentalist.
You may have a wide knowledge about the skill that you are claiming to have, you may have good people skills and good communication skills, you may be able to engage the spectators and build a good rapport, you may have endless technical skills ...
... be unbelievable - and you are not a mentalist.

With all those undeniably helpful skills you mentioned you are a magician (in the best case a magician who acts to be a mentalist) when your are not believable.

I hope it was possible for me to clarify my point of view despite my limits in your language.

Cheers
Th.

Mein Gott! I hope elegance really isn't a core requirement!

If it is, I might as well give up now.

And a smart suit?? For half my mentalism gigs, I don't even bother to be clean-shaven!

I do, however, like to think I'm engaging and articulate, and that my work is interesting and entertaining.

Above all else, I think clarity is the most important (and most often overlooked) ingredient to mentalism. Audiences need to understand what is going on. Simple scripts play very well - and work in the performer's favour when audience participation is key to an effect's success. If you can't keep a routine short and simple, it needs to be crystal clear, both for the audience and for the 'volunteers' you call up on stage to make you look good.

Beyond that, entertainment value is all I really care about. I want the audience to leave having enjoyed the show, and feeling that it was worth their time and money. At no point should anyone feel like they were just there to stroke the performer's ego.

As for skills and techniques... whatever's needed to make the show work.

Pete

Eshly wrote:Cold Reading
Mnumonic Memory skills
Muscle Reading
Spoon/Fork Bending (liquid metal particularly is fun)
Hypnosis
Elegance
A smart suit
Authority



All these things I hope to master in the coming years of my life, as I think a perfect psychic would be able to do something to entertain you at a moments notice, whether it be being able to tell in which hand you are holding a coin, or bending a fork with his/her mind.



Tom
xx

Yeah, you picked up on what i was trying to get to with Elegance, Good Clothes are essential, taking your time, speaking clearly and captivating the audience are what really make this work.
I think one of the best skills a Mentalist requires is a knowledge of who they are as a person and trying to apply that to their character on stage, like someone said earlier, if you can't pull it of, then don't try it in the first place.

I think a lot of mentalists overlook conjuring skill. The greatest mentalists that have ever walked the planet have a deep understanding and love for conjuring.
Dunninger. Jermay. Brown. Need I go on?
Abilities in general magic is often overlooked, because the skills required of a magician; acting, misdirection, (slight of hand less so) e.t.c are need more so in mentalism. In magic people know it's an illusion, with mentalism they don't.
Hellstromism is important and again, something I think many lazy mentalists don't put enought time into.
Cold reading- I agree, valuable skill, but has to be used within the correct context.
Hypnotism- Not 100% neccesery, but always acceptable. It can achieve some miracluous things.
I think some other things I would add woud have to be a keen observation and deduction skills. Sherlock holmes style. I know it's a skill that may come under cold reading, but I think it is often glossed over. By paying attention to tiny details, holding tiny details in your head and making deductions, you can perform some mythical, mind blowing miracles. I made my friend think I had been spying on him or stalking his family, because I told him things which there was no way I could have known... apparently. For example, I said to him:
'I think about 6 months ago, someone in your immediate family.. possibly your dad, went to somewhere near India.. Bangladesh, I think. It was possibly quite a commercial area, quite well developed.. There are many tall buildings.. I don't think he's there for buisness, he's there and there's lots of colour.. people dancing, paper flowers.. and deep fried fish things?'
I didn't know any of the information before hand, but I had deduced it all. My friend had a bag, which looked relativley well worn, but not tatty. This lead me to believe that it was roughly 6 months old, which was good because I knew wouldn't be self concious about it. On the bag, it had 'dhaka' written on it, so I guessed it was a present bought back from dhaka, the capital of bangladesh. I guessed his dad, because he had told me that his dad did a lot of traveling. I didn't explicitly say 'dhaka' because then people would be able to equate my mind reading feat with the bag, and by saying only bangladesh unless someone knew that dhaka was the capital of bangladesh, which I was fairly sure with the group I was with it was an obscure detail, they may come close to revealing my deduction. Once I had agreement on the six months part, something struck me. About that time ago from when I did the deduction, there was a celebration in bangladesh for the new year- I don't remember it's name, which didn't matter because I wouldn't have said it anyway, but I described what I knew about the bangladesh new year. Apparently I had described the holiday photo's and I had explain how I did it otherwise I may been reported for espionage!

I think the most important skill a mentalist can possess is to find some way of doing it without boring everyone to death. Especially me.

Mentalism is as much a blank canvas as it is a broad church; I think that whilst there are many magic effects out there that are billed as mentalism (think Alakazam), the majority of them are in fact mental magic.

However, I think it is mental magic where the mentalism aspect really shines: some things in 13 Steps seem to lack a climax, or that certain visceral punch that a lot of powerful magic has. However, whilst I am a big fan of mentalism as it conjures up (see what I did there?) the notion of your esotoric powers, a lot of pure mentalism effects lack that slap in the face that mental magic has. Yeah, it's all very well mentalism effects stating they are "reputation makers" and having performer testimonials that their spectators were open mouthed in silence, but these are effects and abilities that are at the upper echelons of mentalism skills, such as hypnosis, which is a dark art in itself and although falls under the mentalism bracket, it is a discipline in its self.

A lot of mentalism is quite lacklustre, as Mark Lewis suggests, although as a performer I like to think that being selective in the selection of effects is an important consideration. The same can be said of straight magic: you can present an effect and absolutely kill it (not your spectator to quote magic ads, but rather the effect). I used to find that with "mentalism" or even "mental magic" that open-mouthed silence put on such a pedestal by some was in fact the equivalent of spectators nodding their heads in appreciation with a slight uncertainty.

Other times, that holy grail of silence was such an amazing and beautiful reaction that it gives you the payload that you have been working on, developing and practising.

Therefore, my 2 cents worth has to be that you can have all the skills, but unless they are to achieve the desired goal, namely a spectator response or reaction (whether it be sheer astonished silence, high fives or laughter), they become almost academic.

Finally, you have to bear in mind that certain mentalism traits do require a stubbly beard and a eye bags to pass off as being genuine. Take cold reading for example. You can present it in many ways. Whilst I'm a complete novice to cold reading, my understanding is that if you DO pass yourself as mediumistic, or psychic for example, rather than being a palmist or tarot reader, which puts emphasis on the props themselves or accurate systems as being the basis of believability, believability, believability, then I'd imagine that it has to fit your character. If your character is a zany but charming performer, then a routine about tuning into the psychic vibe of your late Uncle Charlie will just seem laughable. If you present cold reading as merely a skill of intuition and reading, like Derren Brown, for example, then perhaps the DB point of reference could act as believability.

The same, again, applies to selection of magic effects; yes, it's well cool to do some of the effects produced by Outlaw, or to talk about serial killers in From Hell, but if it completely grates against your personality and magic persona of fancy card flourishes and sponge balls, then - whilst inherently wonderful and cool - there is a clash. Flowing from this, it is abundantly clear that certain mentalism traits just simply won't work, which is why I know a lot of Talk Magicians here will testify that close friends and family won't buy into their hypnosis or cold reading skills, whereas strangers can. It's because strangers or a paying audience don't know you, and accept the picture that you have portrayed to them on that blank canvas, which is a more natural predisposition towards believability. Or credibility. Many of us lack that credibility in the eyes of our close friends and relatives, unless of course you do really wow them with those open-mouthed-silence-type-effects!

But as to what skills mentalists need, yeah, what the others said. sorry if i've bored anyone to death in this post

Amen to that, therein lies the problem. That's what seperates the good from the bad.