Hi, I was just wondering what has happened to Ben Cummings after his "Conversations with Mindreaders"

Regards

Mark

I've asked this question a couple of times over the past few years and received no information other than he seems to have pi**ed off many of the featured gusts fro the project after the project was released.

I liked him and would like to know what he's up to and if he's still performing. regardless it was a great resource for the working pros and those who could afford it.

I really enjoyed the conversations with m....a "Part 2" would be great
:)

Stuart Cumberland essentially did his own versions, one on séances and one on readings. I recommend both.

As for CWM, I enjoyed it, but the unethical business dealing with the creator left me cold.

Tony

What sort of "unethical business" are we talking about here?

Auctioning this very set on the auction site, then cancelling it because he said the winning bid was not high enough.
If you don't set a reserve, you live with what it goes for.
I asked him where to send the money, 3 days later he replied and said I wasn't paying him enough and cancelled the sale.

Tony Iacoviello

Yes, Seance and UPR are also very nice...

:)

The way I understand it, according to several of the guest mentalists that were featured in the project that I've discussed this with personally, is they were invited to participate and agreed to do so with the understanding that this was going to be ax exclusive product for the mentalism community only, offered at a premium price, to keep it out of the realm of the general public and the amateur magic community. It was under this agreement that most of them agreed to participate. Initially this is how it was sold, but then it was offered in another format to the general public or anyone who wanted to buy it on ebay and other public sites. I had heard that Ben had sold the rights or distribution to allow this to happened, which of course in reality changed the terms and agreement of which those that participated agreed to do so.

I've always wanted to hear Ben's take on all of this, but as mentioned he has all seemed to disappear. He seemed like such a nice guy, genuine in his interest in the community and this project. I always felt this had many future possibilities for followup projects. I would have also liked to see his performance. I actually had considered doing something with this as well as another exclusive project, but also with some additional live events, a marketplace and some more ideas I'll keep to myself for now. When I approached about a dozen or so top mentalists, some that did Ben's project and some that hadn't, most were not willing to do it due to the bad taste in their mouth from Ben's project It's really too bad.

The way I understand it, according to several of the guest mentalists that were featured in the project that I've discussed this with personally, is they were invited to participate and agreed to do so with the understanding that this was going to be ax exclusive product for the mentalism community only, offered at a premium price, to keep it out of the realm of the general public and the amateur magic community. It was under this agreement that most of them agreed to participate. Initially this is how it was sold, but then it was offered in another format to the general public or anyone who wanted to buy it on ebay and other public sites. I had heard that Ben had sold the rights or distribution to allow this to happened, which of course in reality changed the terms and agreement of which those that participated agreed to do so.

I've always wanted to hear Ben's take on all of this, but as mentioned he has all seemed to disappear. He seemed like such a nice guy, genuine in his interest in the community and this project. I always felt this had many future possibilities for followup projects. I would have also liked to see his performance. I actually had considered doing something with this as well as another exclusive project, but also with some additional live events, a marketplace and some more ideas I'll keep to myself for now. When I approached about a dozen or so top mentalists, some that did Ben's project and some that hadn't, most were not willing to do it due to the bad taste in their mouth from Ben's project It's really too bad.

Tony, that's not the way I remember it, but I could be wrong. After making this a limited set priced very high, he started selling them on ebay several years later, the complete vol 1 as a two disc set of MP3's I saw it listed several times and the first few sets went for pretty good money but no where near the original asking price. I bid on it a couple of times, always outbid but I always got a second chance offer to buy them at my bid. Finally I ended up getting them on a second chance for about $90.00 and they did come from Ben himself, so he was the seller.
Funny thing at the bottom of the letter that came with the set it says: P.S. This item may not be sold on ebay! Thank you.

I can only go by my own experience. I won the bid for about $50 and was told it wasn’t enough. This may have been when he first started selling there because I saw them listed again later and there was a reserve. But there was no way I was going to buy from someone who reneged from a deal. My business philosophy is simple, you do what you agree to do, if you don’t, I don’t deal with you.

Years later I bought the MP3 CD version from a friend here on the Café. Coincidentally, that happened after a similar thread to this one and I told of my experience.

Tony

Tony: Does Stuart only have the readers version on his FW site or is offered somewhere else?

http://practicebuildingcenter.com/

Reminds me...i have to put them on my ipod again...
:)

it's a shame I thought he was really interested in performing mentalism ,anyway funny video, specially when he says " from the gorgeous Island of Saint Barths ".

Best Luck

It's a pity that Ben burnt many bridges with the guys he interviewed,
as this series is excellent. There is a lot of ill feeling about
what was stated and what actually happened with the material.

Ben has now joined the growing list of magic marketing guys
who realise that the pond of magicians is actually a very small one
and has gone on to obviously bigger ones, as has Dave Dee , Randy Charach and others

There seems to be a lot of Cummings and goings...

Ken Dyne is doing a bang up job over at: http://www.ConfessionsOfRealMindreaders.com

Maybe, but it's not the same. These too are quite accessible.

Also wondering what happened to Ben Cummins. And Tim David, you beat me to bringing up the Ken Dyne interviews. So far they have been great.