I can do a lot of mentalism effects but I was wondering what ones have the greatest impact?

All based on presentation and performance. One effect may floor the audience on one day and cause yawns and sighs on another.

JMO

So true. I think you should go with what excites you. Do your best with those.

Anabelle

IMO there is a golden rule in mentalism: Not the effect creates the impact on an audience but you as the performer.

As mentioned above it depends on presentation. THe audience must feel and see you reading minds, getting into predictions etc. Derren Brown writes about this in Pure Effect in a very good way.

And for above reasons I couldn't and wouldn't vote for one single effect to consider it the best in general. I only could vote for one of my repertoire which has a great impact. But that's also temporary since one day I come up with an outstanding presentation for another effect of my programme and then this effect might have more impact than the effect I considered the best months ago.

Think about it and go through your repertoire and remember most of the time almost 90% or even more rely on you as the performer and your presentation and only the rest is technique. But this doesn't mean that one should only rehearse presentation.
If your technical abilities weren't so perfect practiced this 10% also can ruin the whole effect. So both are important to gain 100% impact. But its much easier to learn technique thant to perfect an amazing presentation to get the impact on an effect.

That was my essay of the day ;o))

Greetings
Thomas

Presentation is critical, but picking the right effects is equally important. For instance, my presentation skills are pretty much uniform for most of the effects I use. Still, some tricks get much better reactions than others.

I think IMHO I'd have to disagree with you Elliot. The effects are of course important but I'm with the others here. Presentation is absolutely what it's all about. We've all seen great 'presenters' take something we have have mistakenly deemed (lets me honest) 'below us' and turned it into an amazing WOW factor, or it has simply been a joy to watch.

I have seen some great effects totally destroyed by certain performers who, although they knew its mechanics,had a dreadful presentation of it.

Bobser

I must agree with all said above, but one that really impacted and excited me even though the method was quite obvious for the wise mentalist was Nimrod Harel's Trauma. I don't know if I can detail this routine because I guess it is one of his most kept ones on his show but I must tell you it kicked people's brain out.

I agree that presentation is extremely important. Still, given an equally competent presentation, some effects just come off stronger than others.

I find it surprising that people seem to disagree on this point. It is 100% correct.

I’m sure most of you have uncles who taught you a trick or two as a kid. Usually they weren’t so great. Why spend years studying? Just work on the presentation of the “uncle tricks”. They’ll end up as good as anything you’ll see Marc Salem or David Copperfield performing. Right?

ElliottB please think twice when you post something in public, sometimes you might sound quite absurd, read again the last part of your post and understand.
I don't intend to criticize but try to sound at least rational.

It looks fine to me. What specifically did you think was not rational?

mind reading.

The one's that have the impact of "HUHHHH!?!?" - before the "howchadooeeet?!?!?!"....

One of my fav's - Larry Becker's Casino Royale -> no matter how many times I do it -> it really does stun the audience... first time I did it I thought I must have presented it badly - until I realized everyone was in shock...

And for whatever reason - I'm not sure why - metal bending always goes over like crazy.... at least for adolescents and young adults I demonstrate for...

But like others say - its what ya do with it - hey Borodin had an effect that made me go out and buy D'Lites for mystic effect... go figure...

I agree with the performeras mpact statement. I once saw Terry Seabrooke perform bill to wallet for 15-20 minutes and it was ammazingly enterraining. I can't get more than 3-5 minutes out of the routine and keep it entertaining.

Michael