Marc paul -
'...a mentalist with a working knowledge of of misdirection and sleight of hand is in a much better position to deceive an audience who is not'.

I've been reading a lot lately on mentalism. Im mostly a card handler and make a living from it.

I read some effect where there are descriptions of items glued together and fake this and fake that(not that I have a problem with gimmicks well, to a point). I seem to be sitting there thinking well surely you can do it this way eg a topchange with business cards or a DL or a pass. The handling would possibly be cleaner and gimmickless inspectable.

I love killosal killer - I have used it for years. I have now stared to use a load wallet and a card index - its spot on every time and inspectable - not that they ask to inspect it. I use gary kurtzs card to pocket/wallet technique. I often don't use and index and just thumb through the deck and side steal.

the above is an example I guess of what I'm talking about just wondered wot you all thought.

I am also good with my hands. It took me years to realize I don't need the props to do what I can do naturaly without them. I think you are way ahead of the game as you realized this early Kent

I did the same with kk and then an index . I really like card mentalism because of the variety of things you can do . Particularly changing what I do depending on the spectator reactions. I believe skill with sleights opens up many possibilities beyond gimmicks . Even if you go on to leave the cards and magic and use business cards / paper etc.
Basically a good switch can achieve forces , peeks etc. What else do you need in terms of handling !!

Roki:
I'm with you about mental card effects I love them too.

...True, the utility of sleight of hand is always useful. I don't use an index, and I only use 4 cards. I have combined ideas similar to Derren's thought of card and the "invisible card" in the KK manuscript. Without any overt equivoque you only need 4 cards. I love it.

Sean