The Magicanada Project

Liam · Joined: 30 Dec 2007 Posts: 424

i really like the routine where the magician has three paper cups, and one has a nail under it. a spectator scrabbles them and then the magician crushes the other two.
i dont really know what type of effect that is though...
I also think really dirrect mind reading where the spectator seems to think of anything, but then on a peice of paper in your wallet you have it predicted. Or similar thing but with a swami gimmick, to make it more dirrect.
Its just kind of that if you could really read minds, would you use this power to memorize lists, or get them to think of a number that corrosponds to an adjective, that corrosponds to a thing that you predicted

Gary Dickson · Guest

LIVR · Joined: 29 Aug 2008 Posts: 52 Location: Ontario

Liam · Joined: 30 Dec 2007 Posts: 424

BrianMillerMagic · Joined: 14 Aug 2007 Posts: 543 Location: New York State

Spellbinder · Joined: 12 Aug 2007 Posts: 17 Location: East Orange, NJ

The idea of separating mentalism from magic is a relatively new one (1980's or so). The old time magicians usually had either a separate mentalism section in their regular magic shows, or were just as likely to alternate magic tricks with mental effects. In that context, a memory trick was just that, and it was viewed as just something else the magician could do that ordinary people couldn't.

If you look in Tarbell, for example, you'll see mentalism dispersed among card tricks, coin effects, silk tricks... as well as whole sections on just mentalism mixed in with sections on just magic. Magicians were expected to be knowledgable in many fields that have now become specialized, and overly specialized in my opinion.
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Professor Spellbinder
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LIVR · Joined: 29 Aug 2008 Posts: 52 Location: Ontario

Why put yourself in a box?

Houdini swallowed needles, Ricky Jay throws playing cards at large pieces of fruit, Ben Train tapdances.

Variety is the spice of life.

Michael Kras · Posted: Sat Nov 01, 2008 4:11 pm Post subject:

Very true... my mom has always had a certain dislike for mentalism... she just doesn't seem to find it impressive as though it's an everyday occurance! I've been trying my hardest to get her to appreciate it. So far, she's actually starting to get impressed by straight mind reading. No predictions, no memory work, no muslce reading, just flat out mind reading ala cold reading, anagrams, psychological forces, etc.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't use a memory-based effect in my shows. I use the Joel Given's More Memory Man quite often, actually. However, as much as the spectators love it, it always feels slightly dissatisfying to me. But oh well, the audience comes first.
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Liam · Joined: 30 Dec 2007 Posts: 424

well, i've goten into mentalism alot more and my opinions have changed.
In my opinion, there are lots of memory tricks that i dont find that impressive, but i've recently learned a trick were the mentalist memorizes a shuffled deck within about 10 seconds. That kind of thing would take some serious mental power.
I kind of like mind stunts. Things like having the spectator name their birthday and saying the day of the week. Cubing large numbers. And the magic square (4x4 version). Something about these effects make them seem like raw mental power.

Michael Kras · Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 12:08 pm Post subject:

My mom loves magic, but hates mentalism... she finds it "boring and unimpressive", and I'm talking about her saying this after watching people like Max Maven. Regardless, I still continue work on it because I love it.

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Michael Kras
Forum Administrator