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I've been doing magic i.e coin magic, card tricks, sleights etc for the past two years. I'm wanting to get into the mentalism side of magic now. I've seen some great stuff performed.

I was wondering what's the best way to learn metalism from scratch? What's the best DVD to buy on such subject?

Who is the best magician in regards to mentalism?

Would appreciate some advice

Thanks

Ryan.A

Best DVD? No idea, try Corinda's 13 Steps to Mentalism book instead, far more stuff in there than any DVD. However if you really have to go down the DVD route, check out Colin McLeod, Paul Brook and similar performers - a good start for instant downloads would be the Mentalism section on tmtv/ . No doubt others here will have several names to suggest - best of luck!

I will check it out thank you. I believe that you can Corinda's 13 Steps to Mentalism on DVD?

I've done a little research into Coinvexed 2.0 Sharpie Edition by David Penn. Is this the best coin bend to buy? Do you actually get the Sharpie and gimmick with it Coinvexed 2.0? What's the difference between Coinvexed 2.0 and 3rd generation?

Mentalism or mental magic?
For me the path to mentalism starts with learning presentation and story telling skills. Go read some books on myth, legend, ghost stories, horror stories, books on religion, books on psychology, books on parapsychology etc. Then think about what you want to do, do you want to look at psychological mentalism, are you going to look at doing mind reading, seances, psychokinesis, or something else.
Depending on context I will do the psychology/ESP side of things- (using my background in psychiatry as a way in) or a more "what if the matrix/inception was real then I could be controlling everything around and inside your heads" sort of presentation or a more story telling bizarre magic sort of thing.
Mentalism is about creating a context and a story for your audience as much as or (in my opinion) more than "doing tricks". You can inspire people, you can scare people, you can create a sense of wonder but all that is to do with your ability as a story teller and scene setter.
Once you are comfortable with the narrative side of things then you can start looking at 13 steps etc and then perform.
All this is of course only my opinion but you did ask!

Oh, I think there is a DVD set of 13 steps to mentalism.
Submodalities is a nice DVD for ESP based routines

Enjoy the journey, don't forget to take your time.

FAO: Soveda

Thank you so much for you advise. I will be purchasing 13 Steps Mentalism at some point this week.
The kind of mentalism I would to learn is psychology/ESP side of things. I will most certainly take your advise on board.
I do agree that learning presentation and story telling skills Is a must befor performing.

If you have anymore advise please feel free to message me. Once again thank you for the advise given.

Ryan.A

Ryan.A wrote:I will check it out thank you. I believe that you can Corinda's 13 Steps to Mentalism on DVD?

Yes and no. What you can buy is a set of DVDs by Richard Osterlind that covers much of the material available in the 13 Steps. My understanding is that he updates the things he covers and adds some new stuff too. However, even with a six-disc set no-one is going to be able to cover all of the material from the book.

Consider the price/value of the book vs the DVD set: under £20 vs over £90.

I'd do as Mandrake suggests and start with the book. Not only *would* I do that - I *did* do that : )

T.

hiya ryan.

personally, i wouldnt bother with '13 steps' ........straight away.
for somebody who is wanting to learn mentalism this book can be quite the deterrent. Its rather outdated and an information overload, and from the first couple of 'steps' it will send your brain into plethora with you thinking ' how am i ever going to pull this off?' and the book then being tossed into the cupboard which wont be picked up for the next couple of months and with you not exploring mentalism again. i dont think starting of with reading material is inspiring or practical, you need to see what its like and how its performed first ........... my personal opinion & experience.


i would advise into beginning your learning experience by looking into ' mental magic '
magic is your background after all, and adding just that mental element to a simple trick can make you look like a true mindreader!

some artists work i recommend looking into are - Andy nyman
marc spelmann
colin mcleod
john archer
jay sankey

and some actual effects and DVD'S that i think are strong and enjoyable to watch and perform, to start you off are -

Colin mcleod - opening minds (DVD various effects)
Tom lauten - 357 (single effect)
Andy nymans - warlock (single effect)
Max maven - multiplicity (DVD various effects)
Marc spelmann - penguin lecture


really hope you can get something out of this post, go well buddy

naychandler1 wrote:for somebody who is wanting to learn mentalism this book can be quite the deterrent. Its rather outdated and an information overload, and from the first couple of 'steps' it will send your brain into plethora with you thinking ' how am i ever going to pull this off?' and the book then being tossed into the cupboard which wont be picked up for the next couple of months and with you not exploring mentalism again. i dont think starting of with reading material is inspiring or practical, you need to see what its like and how its performed first ........... my personal opinion & experience.

Hi there,

I accept and respect that this is your opinion and experience. However, from another point of view, I started with this book (albeit with a magic background) and found it to be utterly inspirational. The concepts were crying out to be tried and converted to personal effects. That is what I liked most about it - not a list of routines (which it certainly is not!) but chapters full of tricky naughtyness that I would never have considered before.

It is only dated if you don't look beyond the language, which is much like Shakespeare and Chaucer really. Not much is new.

Watching DVDs is OK and I have nothing against that. But to say that reading is not inspirational... I can't agree with that on any level, mentalism or otherwise.

T.

I am a big fan of the 13 Steps and in fact I annotated Step Two for International Magic. Maybe it will see the light of day one day. I actually knew Tony Corinda fairly well and even worked for him at one time.

But if it really is too advanced then the Karl Fulves self working mentalism book could be a pretty good start. Easy stuff technically which allows a beginner to concentrate on the presentation which really is the important part.

12 steps is a great reference book. A huge chunk of Derrens earlier TV work comes direct from Corinda. But I can see how its hard going for beginners. Banacheks Psi Series of DVDs is a great source of fairly easy ( mechanically) ESP style mentalist effects

. But to say that reading is not inspirational... I can't agree with that on any level, mentalism or otherwise.

T.[/quote]


I think there was a missunderstanding on my part, I didn't mean that all reading is un-inspiring but starting out with a book like ' steps ' is not the ideal material to begin with for someone new. Half of my material consists of lecture notes, ebooks etc etc

.

A lot really depends on where you're wanting to go with mentalism and is it pure mentalism that you're looking at or mental magic? There's quite a big difference between the two, if you're just looking for some mental effects to add to your magic routine then the DVDs mentioned are certainly worth a look and will give you plenty of effects.

If you want to put on a performance of pure mentalism then you really want to learn the mechanics then that's where Corinda (the book) comes in. It's not so much about the effects that are in the book but the ideas and methods that it's pack full of, that's where the value of the book really is. Also you'd probably want to get yourself a copy of Annemann's Practical Mental Effects.

I know someone has already suggested it but Karl Fulve's Self Working Mental Magic is a very good book to get you started. There are some nice effects in there and it'll introduce you to some of the basic methods and ideas around mentalism.

All the Karl Fulves books published by Dover contain some mentalism. In particular there are some stunners in SW Paper Magic. Most of the classic magic textbooks have a chapter on mental magic, too; if you don't have Mark Wilson's Course, Hugard's Modern Magic Manual and Hay's Amateur Magician's Handbook, you should. There's also some good stuff in Magic and Showmanship by Henning Nelms.

Annemann's Practical Mental Effects/Magic was regarded as the bible of mentalism before 13 Steps. It's a book of loosely categorised and apparently dated tricks, but its value, at least for me, is as a cookbook of techniques which can be used in other routines. I'm not sure it's suitable for a beginner but certainly one to buy if you're serious about mentalism.

I don't like DVDs for learning magic. I have a few but I wouldn't recommend them.

Barry

No one has yet directed your attention to a superb resource on this very site: ftopic11429.php

Click on the very first link in the first post.

Your question is quite a common one, and the answers you've had so far reveal a bit of a problem. There actually isn't a single resource that really helps people who are just starting out. Practical Mental Effects and 13 Steps to mentalism are both treasure troves of information. Personally, I don't find them to be outdated (the language used doesn't bother me), but as naychandler1 says, that sort of work can be overwhelming.

The problem with many other works (books and DVDs) is that they often teach you "some tricks" (for example, Andy Nyman's excellent Get Nyman). You can come out with some great things to perform, but little real grounding. You might pick up stuff along the way, but it's not a particularly efficient way of developing your background knowledge. Other books and DVDs focus on one or two aspects of mentalism (for example, Multiplicity, or Elliot Bresler's amazing work on billets, Switchcraft). If you look at Craig's List (no, not that one, the one I referred to above), he refers you to a lot of resources that cover particular techniques in detail.

I suggest not going mad and buying loads of stuff at first. You've already said you are getting 13 Steps and I think that's a good place to start, because it gives you information on many (but not all...) of mentalism's classic techniques. For the price, you cannot get a better start. There are a couple of things I will point out about it. First, it was originally designed as a course, so each chapter was to be provided and read individually. In other words, take your time over a chapter. Second, you don't have to read every chapter and you certainly don't have to do them in order.

You may find your magic background stands you in good stead. Dr Todd Landman, co-founder of the BSME/Psycrets and contributor to this site, is a great believer that magical techniques and knowhow greatly enhance a mentalist's skill set. It may be that you will benefit from starting with areas that make use of abilities you already possess.

One other thing - you may need to think very carefully about your presentation, especially if you are switching to mentalism from "conventional" magic. It could be that you will really benefit from reading a couple of books about performance style/scripting more than you would from works dealing with techniques or tricks. These days, I tend to be as interested in hearing about a performer's approach to choosing material and presenting it, as I am about new tricks.

Actually, that's a lie. I am more interested in it.

In particular, think carefully about whether you want to mix mentalism into your magic sets. The conventional wisdom goes that you can undermine the impact of the magic (because, once you've read someone's mind, they aren't too interested in where that lemon came from), but you also weaken the mentalism because you're implying that it is trickery. It is probably not as clear-cut as that, but it's something to think about.

Google Richard Osterlind Mental Miracles DVD set. He has a wealth of strong but simple to learn effects. He also gives you tips on nuance, timing etc. great stuff.

Also, check out Rick Maue's mental deceptions. Underground and clever stuff.