I am suitably chastised. So I won't add Kuda Bux from India.

LOL

Or Kardor from Mars

I think it is good to have this discussion, I have seen UK and Canada mentalist’s shows, and myself I have performed in Toronto. I have found the audiences to be a little different here in the US, we boar easy, if you take too long to get to the punch then we seem to tune out. I find that in Canada the audience is a little more laid back and will wait for the buildup. Maybe it’s not the art but the delivery that is wrong in other areas and because the audience here in the US is so vast you see more mentalism here then other places. In my local area alone I know of a handful of magicians, but only a few mentalists, that are working so this discussion is interesting to say the lease.

I guess you are pretty much right.
Even though you will find a few mentalists in other countries, it also seems to me that mentalism mainly is an American phenomen these days.

Up to my knowledge, we only is a very small handfull performing mentalists in Scandinavia.
I only know about one in Sweden, one in Denmark, and yours sincerely in this country

Sven

Alain is based out of the DC area not Canada *

I fear that because most magicians do not understand anything at all about mentalism, they figure it is something for people who are too clumsy to do sleight of hand to do. So they state, "Now, I'm going to do some mentalism. Here, take a card, concentrate on it. I'll read your mind. Your card is the three of hearts." I've seen presentations like this on television by people who should know better.

That is NOT mentalism.

Mentalism is the new "street magic."

It is the new "watch steal."

And the US does not have anything like a monopoly on it.

I think all American mentalists should remember when Kreskin couldn't even get booked on American television. It was Canadian television that boosted his career.

This is basically a twist on an odd situation. Most Canadian entertainers don't really get into big bucks until they move down South.

Pity, because there are some excellent ones in Canada.

Mentalism is all about acting. Poor acting equals poor performance.

No matter how much I try to discourage the use of "magician" when booking or upon arrival, the term is still used. I still use it marketing (when I have to) but lets's take tonight for instance.

As soon as its announced the show will be starting, here come the parents with the little toddlers putting them down right in front. I politely whisper to the parents that its not a regular magic show, mentalism blah blah blah and all I get is this hurt question mark look on the parents faces (kids could careless).

On top of that, here is Mr balloon twister right near the front with his painted face and one pop, two pop then three popped balloons. I was hoping he would come up to me after the show so we could "discuss" proper etiquette. However, I did not trust myself to approach him.

I made due with what I had and dealt with it just the same but afterwards it left a bad taste about what I do and perform.

There, I feel much gooder now.

I've just ordered a book by sir arthur conan doyle about the history of spiritualism...

anyway - reading the lists put together, do you know what? I think it's lovely how multicultural the UK side of things is...

we are and have always been a sponge like breed...absorbing, mixing up and moving on...even the english language (you crazy americans with your "colorful" spellings!) is one of the few which doesn't always translate other languages words - we don't feel the need to re-translate croissant for example, but strangely the French have "le week-end"...

sorry - back on topic - hoorah and pip-pip for all mentalists wherever they hailed from, but I am obviously biased towards the english ones, despite being a quarter american, a quarter english, and half isle of wight...

with regards to audiences - I think over here, UK audiences on average are more patient and have a more "give him a go before passing comment" way of thinking..

I agree. I dislike watching a poor actor. It is too boring.

I feel a year younger.

I know someone from Canada.
His name is Haim Goldenberg and he is doing TV

:)
:)

I think many of you know Haim very well and saw his amazing TV shows
(and he was born in Israel and learned mentalism in Israe)

A month ago we went to a resturant in Halifax and everyone knew him there

Lior

Is that his day job?









Just kidding, could not resist.
And I beat Greg to it.

I sincerely hope mentalism doesn't get all too big here in the U.S.A. I am much more comfortable with it being rare and underground.

I don't think people appreciate mentalism enough to differentiate it from the field of magic. Magic itself is a rare experience for most people, let alone the more obscure field of mentalism. However in my opinion people enjoy both mentalism and magic equally. Both are supernatural.

As for the U.S. seeming to be the frontrunner of mentalism, I'd say that's grossly inaccurate. We're one of the youngest civilizations in the world. Mental tricksters have been around since Ancient egypt and earlier. Our country's superpower status though gives us the ability to take an idea from another country and make it bigger and better, so what's popular in America has more global influence.