Not sure why ships don't use mentalists. There are a few working occasionally but the fact the Sealegs can name them all...

If you present each effect as "I will read your mind" ofcourse it will get boring, that's what different presentations are for.

Bank Night for example can be presented as a "mind game", whereby you try and outwit the whole audiance (the hard part is to do this and still make it seem like your a nice guy, Osterlind does this well in Mind Mysteries 1, easily the best bit of the DVD).

Then you have things like predictions, which is not mind reading, but "mind control" and you also have the very basic Q&A act, which I can't see playing badly to a ship. Afterall, if you have 100 people infront of you and you can answer their deepest questions without ever having looked at the questions themselves, then that's incredible!



I am no expert, not by any means, but I think if you can get work on a ship then it may well be the fact they don't know how good Mentalism can be.


Tom
xx

Mentalism has to be commercial guys.

There are many great thinkers out there coming up with some amazing mentalism.
However impressing, fooling and playing to other magicians and mentalists is not going to make you a great entertainer.

This year I have regularly worked to audience sizes of between one thousand & two thousand people. Cruises, cabaret rooms and business centres are all included in this work.

My average show length is 60 minutes and the audience remains captivated from beginning to end of my show.
Often I receive standing ovations.

This is not a boast, but evidence that the key to working is to be commercial. Many of you know I only perform stage and stand up mentalism, which I realise gives me an advantage as far as experience is concerned.

Far too many mentalists put too much focus on being clever or trying to fool others in the field.
There were a few people that didn't understand the material on my DVD Connected. The reason perhaps because they did not regularly play to very large audiences.

Forget being clever and concentrate on being entertaining. Make your show a piece of theatre, Music, lighting and great scripts.

The magic world seems to be obsessed with fooling other magicians. Its time to concentrate on entertaining the audience.

Was is it that most pros are working old well trodden routines, year after year and all the young guys are always coming up with the latest big new ideas but only working once a month or spend their entire time showing off at conventions.

Think about it.


Paul Stockman

Ray,
OK, your points are well taken. Sorry I over reacted a bit.

Me have a magic show? Ah.....NO!

Mostly the statements I made in my previous post that set out the reasons for mentalists not getting booked by cruise lines (that magicmonkeyphoto seemed to think might be unfounded) are derived from odd comments that Cruise Directors, production managers, bookers, agents, etc have made during the 25 years that I've been earning a living working on cruise ships.

If my coments seem harsh it's because the truth is sometimes a painful thing to hear not because I have anything against mentalism or mentalists. (I like mentalism so much I had Marc Paul join in a bit in my show on P&O's Ventura)

I can understand though that a post from someone unknown to you might not carry much weight... but if you doubt the position of some cruise lines in this matter you can always check out Holland America Cruise line's web site page regarding what type of acts they book, where they plainly state that they don't book mentalists.

But regardless of the policy of individual cruise lines towards mentalists I believe there is work out there on ships for them IF they can deliver the goods.

I think that the fact that Greg Otto, in 30 years of working as a stand up on ships, has never encountered a mentalist; and that I, in 25 years of working on ships, can name only 4, (Marc Paul, Paul Stockman, Graham P Jolley, and Derren Brown) tells it's own story both about the general attitude of the ships towards mentalism acts and the quality of the acts that have successfully found they can work these venues.

I read Greg's message differently. I read it as they are not known as mentalists. If Greg does an act on ship along the lines of what he has put forward to the community, he does quite a bit of mentalism, but books himself as a standup comic.

I could be way off.

Tony

Just do standup-no mentalism-no magic these days.

My wife and I have worked Cruise Ships. Putting all the semantics, clever wording, and double talk aside . . . as a general rule Cruise Ships do not hire mentalists.

Why?

There are a few reasons…but number one..is that they get poor ratings from the audiences. In short, they’re boring!

Sealegs already stated it..I am just confirming..or agreeing with his statements. I am not saying that menatalists don’t ever get hired but . . . the facts are the facts.

Another reason . . . some mentalists have also started doing readings on the ships . . . some for money. (thus breaking other rules and proper etiquette.)

And as Sealegs already stated . . . mentalists will also, while going for the deep secrets, (dead relatives, lost loves, etc) have made passengers uncomfortable.

The Cruise ships want entertainment . . . not a John Edward/Uri Gellar act. I have stated this before here at the Café, too many mentalists get wrapped around the axle over trying to prove that they have real powers instead of truly entertaining an audience.

Here is another one to add to the list:
Performances on a cruise ship are heavily time dependant. They expect you to make your mark, forty-five minutes give or take 3. Because mentalism depends on the many-times unpredictable audience participation, mentalists have been known to go WAY over time.

To call yourself a magician and then show up doing a mentalist act will not go over well. The cruise directors are not novices to entertainment. They know the deal. On top of that, I would be surprised if you even made it on the ship because they screen the acts rather well. Even if you call yourself a magician, they will be looking at your Video, website, etc. They are not Stupid! Ask Sealegs or Paul Stockman.

All of the critical points that C&K have mentioned are the hallmarks of any PROFESSIONAL entertainer; i.e., don't misrepresent what you do, do the time contracted (not more, not less), follow the rules/policies established by the venue/sponsor (remember, the sponsor/venue is the boss, you are the "hired help") and -- above all -- BE ENTERTAINING!