talkmagic.co.uk

On 29th March a shadow of mystery performers descended upon the faded imperial glory of Birmingham's Paragon hotel, there to attend the 15th Tabula Mentis, entitled Inductive Reasoning.

Marc Salem opened the day with what he described as a range of "rants, tirades, words of advice, and tricks." He gave us a stern reminder that what we were about, more than anything, was keeping secrets, and so the secrets he shared on the day ought to remain just that. Highlights included a remarkably clean Add A Number, and an inspired method for getting a spectator to divine which hand you're hiding something in using a pendulum. He also spoke about the structuring of mentalism acts, that they cannot follow the "climb, dip and climb" structure of a conventional magic act, but must, in effect, build relentlessly to a final, big closer.

A real treat followed Marc's lecture, as we were lucky enough to have Brian Barnes demonstrate his version of Al Koran's blindfold act. I hope I'm not giving too much away by saying that the blindfold in use for the act is genuine. It's an act that Brian has been doing for fifty years, and was an absolute joy to watch. The logic of the proceedings, the natural moments at which the truth of the blindfold was demonstrated, the tense excitement of the performer as he awaited confirmation that he had found the correct card, or correctly estimated the number of cards one of his participants had cut, all made for a genuine spectacle.

Stephen Young was up next, demonstrating his photo-psyche cards. Stephen has put together a broad collection of photographs to be put to reading purposes. Using the provocative idea that readings should be carried out with photos rather than tarot cards, Stephen talked us through the benefits of a system that had no esoteric baggage, could be placed firmly in a psychological framework, and allowed an easy way into an intuitive and interrogative process that I suspect won't replace the tarot but will certainly find a home with readers of the right hue. We were also treated to a whistle-stop tour of his Pict-ionage system, which seemed well suited to remote viewing and control condition style presentations.

Things then started getting a bit Conan Doyle as Ben Cardall introduced us to his approach to mentalism. Those familiar with his work will know that Cardall presents feats of deduction, and his lecture was a window into this world. I think the highlight of his talk for me was the rapid divination of someone's starsign, followed by an "off by two" hit on their date of birth. It's fascinating to watch the development of methods that seem more and more to resemble the kinds of skills mentalists have hitherto only claimed to use.

Which is the perfect segue, really, for the closing lecture from the inestimable Peter Turner. Allowing himself a free format for his lecture, he essentially took requests from those in attendance. He dazzled first with two ACAAN variants, one of which was explained, but the other, performed with a borrowed deck, where two participants both thought of the same playing card and the same number, where the card was, indeed, found at the correct position, seemed truly remarkable. My thoughts at the time, having seen the same effect used on a recent web interview with Turner, and hearing that similar performances had lit up well-known magic forums, was "no-one can be that lucky!" Turner was nothing short of generous in the methods that he tipped, and, again, his methodology seems on a par with the effects. The way in which his name divination works was remarkable enough, but his PIN divination is something else!

This was the first TM since Steve Drury and Madelon Hoedt took up the baton, and I think they have done us proud. If there were nerves, if there was chaos, it never showed, and the day had a great mix of speakers. A bill that features both Salem and Turner has to be seen as a triumph. I can't wait to see what November has in store.

Thanks for posting this. I cannot disagree with anything you've said.

I thoroughly enjoyed the day. The only downsides were the noisy hotel room (slap bang on a major road and no double glazing) and the packed schedule that ran later than advertised, so I had to dash off before the end. Luckily, that was the only trick of Pete Turner's that had a method I worked out!

I think Steve and Madelon did a great job.

One of my favourite moments was Marc Salem's pointed remark about magicians not being able to keep secrets, echoing something I posted on here only days before.

I was a bit sorry that Mandrake did not grace us with his presence, as it's his neck of the woods. Don't make me come looking for you!

Part-Timer wrote:I was a bit sorry that Mandrake did not grace us with his presence, as it's his neck of the woods. Don't make me come looking for you!

Sadly I didn't know that Tab was in my neck of the woods until Mr.Grue's review above! Yes it would have been good to see what you guys get up to, perhaps one day in the future - when you find a Birmingham hotel with effective double glazing !