Anyone can recommend?

Hi!
In this thread you'll find quite a few.
http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewt......5&29
Best,

I would recomend to start with the two basics: Annemann's Practical Mental Effects, and Corinda's 13 Steps To Mentalism.

Peo

Ther is also a good karl Fulves book about mentalims that can be done inpromtu. it is old looking but good and cheap.

Look at Bob Cassidy's website.
'The Library' is very helpful.

Is syzygy good?
what about mentalism inc?

Kenllh,

It depends upon what you have read before.
If you are new to mentalism then start with Annemann's Practical Mental Effects, and Corinda's 13 Steps To Mentalism.

If you are not new to mentalism then syzygy would be a good buy and mentalism inc would be a good buy for an experienced performer,. However, if you were not new to mentalism you would know that already...

SYZYGY - The First Five Years (CD-ROM is also included), is exellent.
But not for a beginner.
Plus it is a very expensive book, but worth its price.

Peo

Good Books?
Stunners Plus
7 Deceptions
Paramiracles

All of these are not only great for info, but fun to read too.

Annemann's Practical Mental Effects and Corinda's 13 Steps To Mentalism are certainly foundation works. I would also recommend T.A. Water's Mind, Myth, and Magick. His digressions in many ways are more valuable than the effects.

Bob Cassidy has an approach to mentalism that is certainly worthy of study. The Art of Mentalism is a gold mine of information and approaches.

I would recommend picking up a copy of the Digital Pantagram and the Jinx (which material for Annemann's Practical Mental Effects came from) both on CD Rom. The price for either of these can't be beat. (However, I still prefer cracking open the books themselves.)

For cold reading, anything by Herb Dewey. His stuff comes up on eBay and is woth watching for.

While it may have more value as a primary source to backtrack center tear related methodology, Al Mann's Purloined Thought is worth it's weight in gold, but it is not the easiest to find.

And then I would consider Larry Becker's Stunners Plus and the compiled SYZYGY newsletters. Both are wonderful resources for both methodology and original approach.

Certainly it is not an exhaustive list, but these seem to be the works I am picking up time and time again while others sit on my bookshelf far less perused.

I recommend having a good look through the archives of the Magic Café.
Also, click on the First Year Archive at the top right of this page. There's a wealth of information there and you'll find your question has been answered many times before, often by some of the greatest minds in mentalism...

I have seen practical mental effects before.
I was hoping for something heavier than that, but since you guys said that mentalism inc is for the experienced, and syzygy seems too expensive, do you have anything in the middle? somwehere between beginner and amateur.
tnks.

Kenllh,
Don't discount Practical Mental Effects. Magicians are often less than satisfied with it because the methods seem "old" while, in my experience, those truly doing mentalism appreciate it because method is less important to the success of mentalism than presentation. Your method of couse must be solid but you presentation is absolutely what sells it. You have to ask yourself, if those who are successfully doing mentalism (not mental magic) swear by it, do I need to look at it differently?

I say this with all due respect to you because that is exactly what happened to me. I was a magician doing mental magic and had little use for the book, but at some point I had a shift in my perspective. It made sense and I started doing "mentalism." Then I had a whole different view of the book (and others). I wish I could describe it better.

Practical Mental Magic and Corinda are really all you need to start a career in mentalism.

Theater of the mind is also good.

We need a button here at the Café that just lists every book that we think is good, because this is like beating the perverbial dead horse.

Theater of the Mind by Barrie Richardson is a wonderful book.

Al

My recent favourites are Theatre of the mind and Mentalism, Inc.