I'm making a list based on your feedback, this is what I have so far:
How To Increase The Believability Of Your Performance
1. Implicit communicated background story
2. Belief in oneself
3. "For those who believe, no explanation is necessary. For those who don't, no explanation will suffice."
4. Use of a believable theme
5. Being consistent in application of theme
6. Use of music to arouse emotion
7. Appearance / Image
8. Start small, end big
9. Get some misses and most hits
10.Use of dual reality to provide illusion of interpretation
11.Knowledge / information availability
12.Avoiding claims and disclaimers
13. Trust developed through knowledge
14. Use of confirmation bias
15. Achieving "false consensus"
16. Encouraging people (positivity) to self-believe
17. Focus on audience enjoyment and interest
18. Use of method in various ways to eliminate successful fishing
19. Demonstrate cognitive interest
20. Exhibit empathy
21. Being liked
22. Create feel of equality (between two peers, as opposed to peer - superior)
23. Involvement so as to provide spectator a stake in the success
Regards,
Mike

This is proving to be a very useful discussion, for me especially, thinking of these sorts of things for the first time

Ryan,

Glad to hear that. I'm hoping the list becomes a comprehensive resource for all those that want to maximize their ability to embed belief in the hearts, minds, and souls of their spectators. Thanks to all those who have contributed.

Regards,
Mike

...think for yourself...

Again, your questions of "how" are, in my opinion, the wrong questions to ask. It doesn't take much thought to realize that the rings have to be proven solid, appear to be linked visibly in a magical way, and then they should be confirmed by the audience to be linked.

A prediction needs a trusted committee or person to act as a representative for the rest of the audience. They should be involved as much as possible, preferably holding the prediction in a safe place (a place unavailable to the performer) until they (the trusted person/committee reveals the prediction.

The "how" of making it believable isn't that complicated. First you have to analyze what you're trying to make people believe, and why.

In your example you aren't simply asking people to believe that two rings link. Anyone can do that with a break in one of the rings. What you are really asking them to believe is that you can cause two COMPLETELY SOLID rings to become linked. Why do you want them to believe this? To create an impossible illusion for entertainment's sake, I expect. If so, then you must create a magical feeling about what you are doing, through your script, your wardrobe, music, lighting, acting -- in short, THEATRE.

In your second example you want the audience to believe you can foretell the future. Why do you want them to believe that?

Do you want them to think that you have supernatural abilities so that they will pay you to demonstrate your powers for them in the future? Do you want to start a religion? Is it just to create an illusion of having psychic powers?

A headline prediction is most often used as a publicity stunt, and not a part of a regular performance, so let's say that you want to use the prediction for self-promotion. So, what is it that you are publicizing? Do you have a public performance coming up that you'd like to promote? Do you even have a professional-quality show rehearsed and ready to go if the publicity inspired by the headline prediction draws inquiries? If not, then why are you doing this?

Are you doing it just to see your name in the paper? If so, to many people that becomes apparent, and your believability factor drops exponentially. It's also a wasted opportunity. Yes, you get your name in the paper, and I suppose that any publicity is good publicity (although Michael Jackson might have disagreed after the child-molestation charges were laid). But these opportunities don't happen very often, so later, when you DO have a performance you'd like to promote to induce more people to buy tickets, and you go back to the newspaper to do another headline prediction, they won't be interested because "it's been done".

So, what's your reason for wanting people to believe you can predict the future?
Once you get that straight, then you can address the obvious ways to make it more believable.

-entity

"If so, then you must create a magical feeling about what you are doing, through your script, your wardrobe, music, lighting, acting -- in short, THEATRE."

Entity, yes, I have written down appearance / image (wardrobe), I have written down music, but lighting would fall under performance conditions and that is not on my list, I will add it. Thanks!

I see your point about publicity---I think it can go either way. Appreciate your thoughts!

Regards,
Mike

I'm making a list based on your feedback, this is what I have so far:
How To Increase The Believability Of Your Performance
1. Implicit communicated background story
2. Belief in oneself
3. "For those who believe, no explanation is necessary. For those who don't, no explanation will suffice."
4. Use of a believable theme
5. Being consistent in application of theme
6. Use of music to arouse emotion
7. Appearance / Image
8. Start small, end big
9. Get some misses and most hits
10.Use of dual reality to provide illusion of interpretation
11.Knowledge / information availability
12.Avoiding claims and disclaimers
13. Trust developed through knowledge
14. Use of confirmation bias
15. Achieving "false consensus"
16. Encouraging people (positivity) to self-believe
17. Focus on audience enjoyment and interest
18. Use of method in various ways to eliminate successful fishing
19. Demonstrate cognitive interest
20. Exhibit empathy
21. Being liked
22. Create feel of equality (between two peers, as opposed to peer - superior)
23. Involvement so as to provide spectator a stake in the success
24. Performance conditions
25. Publicity
Regards,
Mike

Can anyone explain the 'belief in oneself' bit to me? It's making me LOL but at the same time is a little bit worrying.
I have belief in myself to perform the effect but know that I have no more mental powers than any member of my audience. I just know secrets and have the ability to act out the role. Because of these two things people believe I'm a genuine psychic, even although I assure them I am not.
I also sleep well,

Bob, two options. One, method acting. Two, shuteye. Shuteyes tend to garner the largest following of believers, and in some cases can cause great harm because of this.

If being a shuteye isn't palatable, then method acting would be a close second. Believe that what you are doing is "real" as much as you can, internally, without deluding yourself.

Hello Bobser,

I think that is referring to confidence in one's abilities. Thus, even if you do not have the "power", you possess a confidence in your ability to carry out your role. Thanks for asking! And anybody else, please feel free to clarify if I have misinterpreted.

Regards,
Mike

That's it Mike.

It was a piece of advice I got maybe 20 years ago. If you believe that you are actually making three little balls bounce around all over the place and appear and disappear from under three tin cups then the audience will believe it also.

When, for performance sake, the magician or mentalist believes they are who they actually claim to be then self confidence goes through the roof. The audience is able to pick up on this and they eventually start to believe it as well. It's moxie baby.

And Bob, it seems like you are doing it without realizing it.

Peace and Godspeed.

Insight,

I have to be a bit honest: I'm not exactly sure what you hope to accomplish by creating a list. I might be missing the point, but as I understand it, mentalism is much closer to performance art or theater in contrast to many other types of magic. While there's nothing strictly wrong with compiling a list, I don't think you can increase believability of what you're doing by just going down a check-list of and checkin off things. It's a much more organic thing. The first thing I always tell people who want to get into mentalism is this: take a theater acting course. Learn the basics of theater because that is what mentalism is: theater. Your list is more or less proof of this: aside from a few magic related points, this is the kind of stuff you would learn in a theater class.

The obvious argument here is: "Well, Jim-bob, all magic is theater." But unfortunately, that's wrong. Magic tricks, by their very nature are technical things. Anyone can, with enough practice, perform them. (Granted there are exceptions, as always... have you seen Eugene Burger perform an Ambitious Aces routine?) However, the central spectacle of mentalism is the performer... the cheap tricks of his trade, because many are just that, cheap dirty tricks (I'm making a point here, community, don't flay me please. ) don't matter. I don't go to see a Max Maven show to see him do some tricks. I go to see him perform. His particular medium is mentalism. David Copperfield is the same: in a field that has many magicians performing illusions who you can really interchange because they are not that memorable, David has managed to get people to come see HIS magic. He became the regular everyday guy whose life was seemingly filled with cool miracles.

Can you change one mentalist for another? Sure... Will they be as entertaining to watch performing the effect? Probably not. Can you change one skilled cardician for another? Sure.... Will they be as entertaining to watch performing the effect..... most of the time, it wont' matter as the trick will be the same. Taking theater and acting lessons is a valuable addition to ANY performer's toolkit but it is especially important to the mentalist whose stock and trade is his character. Mentalism IS a character driven art.

Thought experiment: we take three interesting mentalism effects, a 4th Dimensional Telepathy, a Drawing Dupe and a Prediction; we instruct your average mentalist and Derren Brown on the mechanics that they MUST use to perform the effect; we set them loose upon 2 audiences, Derren goes first for the first one and Jim-bob goes first for the second one. Whose show do you think the audience will enjoy more, given that they performed the exact same effects?

Don't get me wrong, I think the topic of the discussion is a worthy one, but not one that really lends itself to a step-by-step checklist program.

In summary, I think I'll soon be getting a reputation for long posts,

Edward Cutting

The point is mentalism is a vehicle and medium through which an interesting performing persona can interact with an audience.

George Burns laid out two truths about performing years ago.

"When you can fake sincerity you've got it made."

"Most of what I say is true. The rest is show business."

Liking this thread

While I see Edward Cutting's point, I think a list of things here is very useful - not necessarily as a fix-all checklist that will instantly make everyone a better mentalism, but it certainly highlights things that beginners like myself should be mindful of.

I'm certainly finding it very helpful

Yes it was long and I did have two beers and a shave, but.... I think you might soon be getting a reputation for GOOD posts. I liked all of it. (long lists are mainly for the OCD folks by the way).
Can I say, that whilst I got your meaning with regards to Derren Brown versus any other mentalist I do believe that (as good as he undoubtedly is) that is based on assumptiveness in the minds of the audience. It's said that a performer, in front of their fans, can NEVER do a bad performance and to a certain extent I believe this to be true. My point? There are many out there who can do this stuff as good as DB, and I think all real performers (other than the kids in here who would love to touch his goatie)know that.
Anyway like I said, I enjoyed your post.
Bob.
ps: I'm wearing David Beckham aftershave and simply couldn't give a jot.

When it comes to the audience, Drew McAdam says it best; and I recently came to find out that this gem is worth far more than many others pieces of advice I have received.

It really doesn't matter what your peers, other magicians and mentalists think, it is what the audience thinks. It is what they believe. Ask someone who is not a mentalist or magician what they think is believable, if doing something such and such a way is good and better than another way. Get their response and then talk to a peer. Chances are the two answers will be different. I've been doing this a lot lately and I have come to realize that, as Drew says, the two answers were completely different, at times not even in the same zip/postal code. By choosing to go with the audience, the affect of the effect has been stronger and more believable.

Peace and Godspeed.

26. Fail occationally.

Hey guys! Great post here!

Well, I totally agree with the idea under entity's arguments (at least what I took from that). Anything you do must have a meaning, a reason why. That's about consistency, in order to create believability.

The technique, the "how", is not the main point, since there are many ways you can achieve an effect. Sure you need to have technique, practice and master that in a way. But, on a second level, the meaning you give to that effect, the why you want someone to believe what you are doing is real, taking their perspective as a starting point, could clarify a way to achieve believability.

There's also a point in the list that I would like to propose a discussion. It says "For those who believe, no explanation is necessary. For those who don't, no explanation will suffice". Well, my personal opinion is that maybe, even if someone has a vision, a belief system that creates a barrier to believe on those effects, just maybe, one could create a "suspension" of that barrier, presenting in such a consistent way that it would create involvement, therefore creating at least a spark of belief (even if their racional thinking kills that right in the next moment). Well, that's just an idea, IMHO.

And finally, just pointing to something Edward said: "It's a much more organic thing". Totally agree with that. If have your audience's point of view on one hand and you need a meaning for what you are doing on the other, definetly that's something you can't check on a list, but something you need to put some effort on in order to make it believable.

Just remembering those are just my personal view on the subject. Any agreement or discordance are welcome. LOL

Ale

Edward, although I respectfully disagree, I enjoyed reading your post. Keep them coming. Dreadnought, I agree---it's all about what the audience thinks. Eshla, your thought is capured in point 9.

Regards,
Mike