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Glenn New user Seaford, Sussex, UK 80 Posts |
I am 28 years old and have recently discovered mentalism. It is such an exciting branch of magic and I wish I had discovered it earlier. At what age did you start and how long did it take before you felt comfortable enough to perform your material.
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Thoughtreader Inner circle Calgary, Alberta, Canada 1565 Posts |
Quote:
On 2002-04-29 18:37, Glenn wrote: I started to study it at the age of 12 but wasn't ready to perform it until another 16 years. I had to perfect my stage presence skills. PSIncerely Yours, Paul Alberstat |
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Mike Spremulli New user 22 Posts |
I discovered mentalism in my early 20's and now I'm in my early 30's and am still not 100% comfortable
I find that the longer I go between performing pieces, the greater my anxiety becomes. I think "trick", like anything else, is to perform on a regular basis. Regards, Mike Spremulli |
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Greg Arce Inner circle 6732 Posts |
I always dabbled with mentalism tricks, but I really got hooked when I was 18 and started studying psychology. After my first year I had a class that gave extra points for demonstrations or projects presented in the class. I told the teacher that I had a bit of a gift and ended up doing a full hour of mentalism. I even predicted the headlines on that first try and was hooked ever since.
Oh, the headline trick was pretty funny on how it turned out. I bought a small locking file case and practiced at home trying to get the prediction in.... I worked out all the details. A month before my demonstration I gave the file to my teacher and told him to lock it away somewhere safe and bring it in that morning. The morning came and I showed up early to class. I walk through the door and no one was there, but sitting on his desk was the file. I was it shock. Too easy. I did my dirty work and left the class. I came back late when everyone was already there. I still remember the prediction: Miami has a county call Dade and I put "Dade Posts $500,000 for New Jail" well, the headline in the paper read "Pat's Dad Posts $500, 000 Bail" it was about the Patricia Hearst case. I played it off as a miss, but everyone was shocked on the similiarity of Dad and Dade and Bail and Jail. I was a hit! Even then I knew the power of "just missing." Greg
One of my favorite quotes: "A critic is a legless man who teaches running."
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Bambaladam Special user 636 Posts |
HI!
I'm 25, and started studying my Annemann two or three years ago. And now, I've started showing people stuff in a more serious way. The trick is to make sure you have a real stunner up your sleeve, and it should be a very "mentalist" one as opposed to "mental magic". If you know you're going to show everyone something they've never seen before, and can't just dismiss as a "trick", performing all the stuff before that becomes easier. And by the time you get to the jawdropper, everyone is in a good mood etc and so it becomes easier. And the real trick is to just have a LOT OF BALLS. And hopefully not the spongy ones. Now, I'm working on improving my repertoir to include only stunners. /bamba |
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GothicBen Veteran user England 353 Posts |
I started when I was 9! Really! I somehow worked out how to "divine" which hand contains a coin, and did that for years, along with a "Trick that cannot be explained" style card prediction my mum taught me!
So, I've always been wierd! |
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E-Leoni Veteran user USA 358 Posts |
I started when I was 15 or 16. A simple jumbo card prediction on the table, pic a card, offer them the chance to change their mind , even replace the card with another one you are holding, show them the card they can switch for , no, no, no...they never change their minds,(almost never) ,.act indifferent, I tell them I gave them the chance to change your mind....turn over the jumbo card and it matches.
28 years latter I still enjoy the reaction. It is one of the simplest things I do, and I can not believe how freaky they get. E-Leoni. |
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MichelAsselin Veteran user 20th century, 3rd dimension 326 Posts |
In this life, my profile was very similar to Paul Alberstat. As well, I developped a taste for the Strange and chanced upon a book on mnemmonics which was a give-away from a gas station (Esso). A big influence was the book The World Greatest Magicians, which had wonderful pictures and text... and introduced me to Slydini, Vernon, Dingle, Henning and a young unknown going by the name of Copperfield. But the coolest section was on a thing called mentalism, featuring a strange guy named Kreskin and Falkenstein and a guy named Fogel - I think there was Chung Ling Soo and the bullet catch. I actually cut my teeth on the back section of the book, psychically bending keys.
I love seeing good close-up, but there is nothing like mentalism. The true appeal is that the spectators cannot tell if it is real or not. I am convinced that the most powerful approach is not to convince them that you are 'real' but to bring them to question whether you are, or not, a real psychic. That tethering on the edge, that is where you want them
" , ? ; !!! "
- Marcel Marceau, Feb 30, 1945. |
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Drewmcadam Inner circle Scotland 1239 Posts |
About seven. My father was a conjurer and used to bore me silly with card tricks. One Xmas I wanted a Johnny Seven gun… but got a magician’s table. Then one day my father “predicted” how much change I had in my pocket… this was real magic. I learned a couple of mental magic tricks, and a few of the basics, and used to pull them out the bag from time to time. Then, in November 1973, I saw Uri Geller on TV, and I was off and running. At the Xmas party that year, I bent a key, and got a girl… (yeah, I married her) and have been at it ever since. Unfortunately, I was on my own – I didn’t know about Anneman and so on. More recently, thanks to the Internet, I met up with Ian Rowland who re-kindled my affair with mentalism… The rest, as they say is history.
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saglaser Loyal user Champaign, IL 248 Posts |
After dabbling with easy magic tricks as a pre-teen, I fell back in love with magic at age 45. The more I learned, the more my tastes moved towards bizarre and mentalism. I started learning mentalism in ernest at age 48. I am now a few weeks into being 49, so I'm still very much a beginner.
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Andy Leviss Inner circle NYC 1179 Posts |
In magic since I was four (let's hear it for the Fisher Price Magic Box :o) Was intrigued by mentalism and mental magic from my mid-teens, and made the full switch to mentalism when I was 17 going on 18. My first true mentalism performance was around that time (spring of my freshman year of college), and man, the reaction to that as opposed to when I do magic shows...wow. If I wasn't hooked before then, I certainly was after.
--Andy P.S. - My "conversion" was all Tony Razzano and Lee Earle's mutual fault ;o)
Note: I have PMs turned off; if you want to reach me, please e-mail [email]Andy.MagicCafe@DucksEcho.com[/email]!
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John Smetana ???? - 2009 499 Posts |
Quote:
On 2002-05-01 00:36, Andy Leviss wrote: Hey Andy...don't blame Tony...he really is a nice guy and can he do card tricks...wow! LOL Best thoughts, John Smetana |
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Tony Razzano Inner circle South River, NJ 1600 Posts |
John,
( Tony holds up fingers in the shape of a cross at the mention of cards) Seriously, John, thanks for the compliment and Andy, glad to have had a small part in leading you to menatlism. Best regards, Tony Razzano
Best regards,
<BR>Tony Razzano, Past President, PEA Winner of the PEA"s Bascom Jones and Bob Haines Awards |
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Mikael Eriksson Inner circle None of your business 1064 Posts |
Around age 6 I was at my 4 year old friend´s house, and we were sitting on the floor with her daddy. Suddenly I discovered that I could predict what color would come up on a die. I did it for myself about five times in a row, and then I told them: "Look, I know what side is going to come up!" I showed them, about 3 times more in a row. I think my friend was too young to understand why I thought it was so fantastic, but her daddy... he looked without a word, and then returned to what he was doing before. He really looked amazed. I did it for myself about 2 more times, totally about 10 times in a row, and then I became afraid I would fail, and imediately I failed.
Coincidence or real magic, a sweet childhood memory anyhow! Mikael |
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Millard123 Regular user Millard Longman 174 Posts |
For as long as I can remember, I have seen psychic energy fields surrounding people and other things. So I guess that means I have been a mentalist (mental case?) all my life.
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Mike Robbins Elite user Anchorage, Alaska 447 Posts |
About 5 years ago, I became interested in it and started reading everything I could find about it and studying it. My first performance came about 2 years ago and I've been refining it ever since (and will be forever more, no doubt).
Mike
The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.
Shakespeare |
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Philemon Vanderbeck Inner circle Seattle, WA 4694 Posts |
I was 12 when I picked up my first Tarot deck and started playing with it...
Professor Philemon Vanderbeck
That Creepy Magician "I use my sixth sense to create the illusion of possessing the other five." |
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Conjurer New user Ireland 13 Posts |
Well, Im 13 now and Ive started getting into mentalsim. I have a few simple effects but hey Im only starting!
Currently saving for a copy of 13 steps to mentalsim. Conjurer |
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Lesault New user 63 Posts |
I got interested in magic at about 5 years old. I got a new 'Paul Daniels Magic Set' every christmas / birthday - for the next few years I thought that was all there was to magic and began to get bored with it. I took it up again about 5 years ago after seeing David Blaine on TV. I decided it would be better to be able to do magic without so many expensive props after I spent my cig thru pound coin I have been into psychological effects for about 2 years.
Lesault. |
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A l a i n B e ll o n Veteran user 302 Posts |
I don't quite recall at what age I started with magic, but some years ago I was shown a picture of myself at age 5 or 6 doing a birthday party magic show.
At age 7 or 8 I started dwelling into the occult, perhaps due to having one grandfather that was a Mason and another a Rosicrucian. At about that same age I was part of an ESP training group for children (ask my parents). Later on we did ESP demonstrations. I did about 7 TV shows back then. I was billed as the real thing. When you are 7 yrs old it does not matter to you whether you are doing it for real or not, as long as adults treat you well. So I would say I was into mentalism for sure at age 8. I grew up to become a physicist and it does not come as a surprise that I am a total skeptic now. -Alain Bellon |
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