I don’t like mentalist with esp cards. It seems to gimmicky for me for casual mentalist. Seems like a prop and a mentalist shouldn’t need a prop.

While I'm not a fan of using playing cards in mentalism, IMO, ESP cards are quite "organic" for a mentalist to carry. Consider: The very TERM "ESP" was in large part coined by Dr. Rhine himself, after his groundbreaking tests with ESP cards at Duke University in the 30's. It was the first scientific test to determine psychic abilities. Makes perfect sense for a mentalist to be carrying these.

Gotta agree with Gabe, here. You'd expect a plumber to have tools... why not expect a mentalist to have some props? ESP cards are a totally appropriate "prop" for a mentalist to have.

Personally... I hate doing math, and avoid performing anything with numbers. No toxic. No add-a-no. And although I've seen great reactions to the magic square, I won't touch it.

I usually find ESP cards to be out of place or badly justified in a performance. The introductions I’ve seen used don’t set up well. The parapsychological community hasn’t used them in decades. They are either an antique artefact of early psi testing, a magic prop, or a reference to ghost busters (still valid and contemporary.) Usually the way I’ve seen them performed with somehow manages to make it feel like a magic trick. However everyone should watch the post credit scenes of Ghostbusters afterlife where Bill Murray and Sigourney Weaver are doing the shock test and reveal that the cards are marked. This is going to be a stigma with ESP cards that will be hard to get away from for modern audiences. I wouldn’t expect esp cards to be the tools of a mentalist, but then again we each get to define what a mentalist is. So it does all come down to personal preference.

Personally I guess my least favourite mental effect must be smash and stab. Everyone I know who has performed it regularly has spiked themselves at some point. Many idiots have spiked their audience members, and it’s uncomfortable for the audience. I don’t dislike roulette routines, I do the staple guns myself, but where the real risk of harm is so high I think it’s a good idea to avoid it.

Hey Matt - what are your thoughts on the 100% safe versions (such as Nailed It or Shattered by Scott Alexander)? Personally, I'm a fan.

But I agree 100% about NEVER using an audience member's hand. Even if you have a method with no physical danger, you could potentially cause psychological trauma to an innocent spectator. For some laypeople, it's already very stressful just to be on stage!

I agree Joe. I’m familiar with shattered and I don’t have a problem with it. (Although I’ve known people to cut themselves on glass with the bottle. Broken at the beginning). Don’t know the other one. But yeah, I’m just talking about the spike versions.

Effects where the performer doesn’t even understand or remain consistent with their powers.

Example: Headline predictions from body language/NLP experts.

Lol. There's been a lot of that here over the years

I agree with the ESP point. I recently did the ESP match effect but because nobody knows what Zener cards are anymore (even after an explanation), they were just as impressed if not more when I matched playing cards together. I asked them whether they thought that was magic OR based on the patter I presented (mentalism-patter). They almost all said the latter despite the cards. Although I like to stay away from cards. I do think which hand is cool but I think WE think it is cooler than it is. So it's the gamification of mentalism which makes it interesting/interactive as well as a "proover" of your skills vs an emotive effect that gets into their personal hearts/minds. I think if we can either think: is this emotive? or is it personal? or is it visceral? vs is it fooling/deceptive/impressive will allow us to better filter our own effects.

For me, it's predictions performed as predictions. I find the premise completely implausible. As others have said, the inherent implausibility relegates it to the land of trickery, and I don't think that's the experience most of us are trying to give the audience.

That said, I really enjoy predictions performed as influence. In our modern consumer culture, we've all had the experience of being coerced into buying something without being aware of the coercion. That sort of common experience lends a lot of plausibility to the idea. That notion also goes hand in hand with the idea that if I can get a thought out your mind, it stands to reason that I could get one in there as well.

Absolutely agree

I also think if you've READ minds during the show based on whatever your patter is but it turns out it was all a lie because you'd predicted it all along anyways, then you've subtly ruined your credibility?