gabeygoat
Master Poster
i love mentalist tricks. but don't know many. actually, i got alot of ideas from Randi's book on goofy gellar.
Googood books for mentalist (psychic( games/tricks)
Practical Mental Magic
A classic!
Thirteen steps to mentalism by Corinda seems to get a lot of love as well.
If you have favourite tricks you could try and pass them off as mentalism. Not the Zig Zag Girl though.
A classic!
Thirteen steps to mentalism by Corinda seems to get a lot of love as well.
If you have favourite tricks you could try and pass them off as mentalism. Not the Zig Zag Girl though.
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Brown
Penultimate Amazing
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2001
- Messages
- 12,984
I give in. What is googood?
Depending on how serious you are the sky is the limit as far as spending goes. Bang for buck I believe you can't beat Practical Mental Magic and this is a good starting point. I bought bound reprints of The Jinx, amongst other books, in a second hand book shop. A lot, if not all, of PMM is in these volumes. I have seen The Jinx as a CD-ROM. I don't perform except for family and friends so YMMV. I have read Psychological Subtleties 1 and it is great. Also expensive.
Good luck and can I get some free tickets for good seats at your show?
Depending on how serious you are the sky is the limit as far as spending goes. Bang for buck I believe you can't beat Practical Mental Magic and this is a good starting point. I bought bound reprints of The Jinx, amongst other books, in a second hand book shop. A lot, if not all, of PMM is in these volumes. I have seen The Jinx as a CD-ROM. I don't perform except for family and friends so YMMV. I have read Psychological Subtleties 1 and it is great. Also expensive.
Good luck and can I get some free tickets for good seats at your show?
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I disagree with all the above. Even apart from Brown's demonstration that this person isn't serious, PMM and the others only seem simple, but they are not for beginners.
Start with anything Karl Fulves, particularly Self Working Mental Magic. Learn some presentational basics and then fan out if still interested. We do no one any favors by sending them to books that are beyond beginner, and despite what it looks like, PMM is beyond beginner.
Start with anything Karl Fulves, particularly Self Working Mental Magic. Learn some presentational basics and then fan out if still interested. We do no one any favors by sending them to books that are beyond beginner, and despite what it looks like, PMM is beyond beginner.
13 Steps to mentalism, easy to understand practical and for every stage level of mental capability.
I recognize I am virtually alone in this opinion, but I still disagree. 13 Steps is marvelous, but there's too much there for a beginner, and the beginner should have some presentational skills first.
I am a pariah when it comes to recommending books for beginners, I know. I hate when people recommend Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic for newbies, too.
Senex
Philosopher
I'm not going to recommend a mentalist book. What I will do is tell you how old school mentalist tricks worked for me. At one time in my mid-thirties I thought maybe I should change careers and become a middle school teacher. I was uncertain if I had the classroom management skills needed. I decided to become a substitute teacher for a while and see if I could manage children in an inner-city school environment.
The first week presented mixed results. A couple of times I was embattled. I'm soft spoken and gentle by nature and that philosophy wasn't flying. I channeled my dad who could be crazy ass scary angry and that worked better but was unsatisfying. I decided what I needed to do was be entertaining. Substitutes aren't expected to do much teaching in inner-city schools but at best keep the class from rioting. I can do better than that. I decided part of whatever lesson plan I was giving was going to include what I knew -- magic/mentalism.
No paid performer today can get away with "the one-ahead" method of answering questions put in a bag. I was going to go out on a limb here and saying you can only fool children with this old school technique but that isn't true, never doubt how naive your audience might be. I drew the two geometric shapes one inside the other under a map pulled down and exposed them after the class had pictured those same two shapes. I did mentalism number picking. I did those silly mentalism tricks in books and was successful. The best mentalist trick was the "one ahead' answer my hypothetical question test. I was able to show my stand up humor ability as well as mentalism ability as well as make a disenfranchised student feel good for being my confederate to admitting the first piece of paper I held to my head was theirs.
For years after I couldn't go the mall or movies without being recognized by students. No bulloney, children remembered me because I made an effort while substituting. You read those mentalism tricks and wonder when and where can I ever perform these. Become a substitute teacher and have a captive audience
The first week presented mixed results. A couple of times I was embattled. I'm soft spoken and gentle by nature and that philosophy wasn't flying. I channeled my dad who could be crazy ass scary angry and that worked better but was unsatisfying. I decided what I needed to do was be entertaining. Substitutes aren't expected to do much teaching in inner-city schools but at best keep the class from rioting. I can do better than that. I decided part of whatever lesson plan I was giving was going to include what I knew -- magic/mentalism.
No paid performer today can get away with "the one-ahead" method of answering questions put in a bag. I was going to go out on a limb here and saying you can only fool children with this old school technique but that isn't true, never doubt how naive your audience might be. I drew the two geometric shapes one inside the other under a map pulled down and exposed them after the class had pictured those same two shapes. I did mentalism number picking. I did those silly mentalism tricks in books and was successful. The best mentalist trick was the "one ahead' answer my hypothetical question test. I was able to show my stand up humor ability as well as mentalism ability as well as make a disenfranchised student feel good for being my confederate to admitting the first piece of paper I held to my head was theirs.
For years after I couldn't go the mall or movies without being recognized by students. No bulloney, children remembered me because I made an effort while substituting. You read those mentalism tricks and wonder when and where can I ever perform these. Become a substitute teacher and have a captive audience
Most people are magicians before making the transition to mentalist, so most have the basic idea of misdirection, the ability to bluff and know that for any effect to work there has to be an unearthly amount of practice.
For the would be new mentalist that wants to learn simple effects, 13 steps to mentalism, if not used as a tool for them to practice / perform can be used to gauge how other people do many of their effects. Using the principles to make simpler effects that they can perform.
I am a touring mentalist and an author working with a very well respected performer in this industry, preparing for the release of my first book and i have to say i thought 13 steps to mentalism outdated and useless upon first glance. I fully take that back now as the principles within the book i still use today as a reference.
Expansion as a performer is solely based on the individual, If they want to take their passion seriously, they will need to own a copy at some point, it was the first book i owned.
That said Google 'the one ahead' principle and 'magicians force' and toy with them for a little bit
Assuming the new mentalist has the magician's background you suggest, then I have no problem starting him/her on 13 Steps. The OP gives no indication of that being the case, though.Most people are magicians before making the transition to mentalist, so most have the basic idea of misdirection, the ability to bluff and know that for any effect to work there has to be an unearthly amount of practice.
For the would be new mentalist that wants to learn simple effects, 13 steps to mentalism, if not used as a tool for them to practice / perform can be used to gauge how other people do many of their effects. Using the principles to make simpler effects that they can perform.
I am a touring mentalist and an author working with a very well respected performer in this industry, preparing for the release of my first book and i have to say i thought 13 steps to mentalism outdated and useless upon first glance. I fully take that back now as the principles within the book i still use today as a reference.
Expansion as a performer is solely based on the individual, If they want to take their passion seriously, they will need to own a copy at some point, it was the first book i owned.
That said Google 'the one ahead' principle and 'magicians force' and toy with them for a little bit
And I agree that 13 Steps isn't outdated. I liken a new mentalist to a teenage boy and 13 Steps to the boy's father. At first, the boy is certain that Dad is pretty dumb and doesn't get the new world, but as he gets older the teen recognizes that nearly all the experience in the world resides in his dad.
Good luck with your book. If you don't mind pm'ing me with your title when it comes out I'll give it a look.
Brown
Penultimate Amazing
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2001
- Messages
- 12,984
This may be a good time to return to some comments I made about Ted Annemann and his work:
There is a difference between performing an effect exactly as described, and performing it in your own style. If you perform some of the old mentalist effects exactly as described, they would not play well today. It requires some innovation on the part of the performer, as well as some experimentation, to adapt an old effect, not only a modern audience, but to a performer's particular style.
Well said; I agree. Assuming the person is new to performing, I would still hesitate to recommend PMM first, though I think it would work better as a starting point than 13 Steps.
Your complaint/admonition applies to nearly everything in the magical and mental arts. Too many performers (and not just newbies, imo) spend too much effort on method at the expense of presentation, mistakenly thinking presentation and character are the easy parts.
Senex
Philosopher
I own a small library of mentalist books but I can't recommend any to a beginner because they all suck for a beginner. None of those books helped me when I was young. Garrette articulates why. What I want to do is write how I performed when I was young.
In college I worked at the bookstore and we had two parties a year. My job at the bookstore was in no small part due to my entertaining ability. I performed magic/mentalism twice a year in college. Just the other day I came across a rubber nail in a drawer I was cleaning out and remembered I used to bend things. You have to use multiple methods when performing for the same audience. Leverage was being suspect so I needed plan B and rubber nails was cool. Switching the original nail for a rubber one is easy -- switching the bent nail for a real bent nail was trickier, but doable.
My point is I am a clumsy individual but I had intelligent people believing I could perform woo. Twice I had beautiful young women I had to explain to what I did was trickery because they were being mislead by my performance and were going to do something stupid by believing in woo. My explanation there is no woo was not welcomed. They believed what I did was real.
I was and still am a good performer.
In college I worked at the bookstore and we had two parties a year. My job at the bookstore was in no small part due to my entertaining ability. I performed magic/mentalism twice a year in college. Just the other day I came across a rubber nail in a drawer I was cleaning out and remembered I used to bend things. You have to use multiple methods when performing for the same audience. Leverage was being suspect so I needed plan B and rubber nails was cool. Switching the original nail for a rubber one is easy -- switching the bent nail for a real bent nail was trickier, but doable.
My point is I am a clumsy individual but I had intelligent people believing I could perform woo. Twice I had beautiful young women I had to explain to what I did was trickery because they were being mislead by my performance and were going to do something stupid by believing in woo. My explanation there is no woo was not welcomed. They believed what I did was real.
I was and still am a good performer.
On the fore front of books, Ive finally had my first book published by Kenton Knepper!!
http://www.wonderwizards.com/product_info.php?products_id=522
He added a couple of effects and commented my work.
http://www.wonderwizards.com/product_info.php?products_id=522
He added a couple of effects and commented my work.
Congrats again. When I finish transferring some funds to Paypal I intend to purchase it.On the fore front of books, Ive finally had my first book published by Kenton Knepper!!
http://www.wonderwizards.com/product_info.php?products_id=522
He added a couple of effects and commented my work.
