On 2012-03-28 16:14, bevbevvybev wrote:
Women are missing in mentalism. Women either tend to be the other half of a double act picking up codes OR they're borderline / full shut-eyes contacting spirits and such like.

Would be nice to see a convincing female mentalist who stands alone on her own skill, ability and presence. intuition is strong with the ladies, be nice to see one use it as a performance vehicle!

(No disrespect to any of the female mentalists on here, just think it would be more interesting and varied if there were more of you!)

On 2012-03-28 17:37, granterg wrote:
What is missing are mentalism shops.

granterg

On 2012-03-28 17:11, that'sJustWrong! wrote:
Monkeys. Monkeys are missing but monkeys make everything better. And bourbon. Monkeys and bourbon.

And yeah, someone said it, flash. We don't have a lot of it in what we do. We talk a lot but don't have a lot of "Ooh Shiny!" for the easily distracted. How many times have we watched a mentalist in his black turtleneck and black suit against a black curtain... an hour of a floating head. Here's an incident that I never got back to and am now thinking I should have. I did a show a little while back and the venue wanted to project it on two screens. I didn't understand why; it was a small theatre and an even smaller stage. I could see the faces of the people in the back row. I was also tripping over their cameraman during tech. Finally, we reached an agreement on what he should come in close to focus on, the stuff that the audience really needed to SEE, and to stay out of my way the rest of the time (I believe in using the stage). He asked what he should focus on the rest of the time and I told him to film the audience.

My God, I wish I had that tape now. He was pretty on the ball and caught some amazing reactions. For a few minutes I wondered if it was cool to shift some of the focus to them but their own reactions sold that show. They saw it was OK to laugh, to gasp, to melt in astonishment. I bet that tape of the house would sell me more gigs than any tape of me. I think this comes under "Give them something to look at" and should really look into trying to do that again.

On 2012-03-28 08:48, mastermindreader wrote:
...never get around to learning the basic skills of an entertainer.

On 2012-03-28 17:53, IAIN wrote:
Rymans, staples and paperchase!

On 2012-03-28 08:48, mastermindreader wrote:

Quote:

On 2012-03-28 08:06, SamNJ wrote:
In presentation, mentalism all too often fails to be ENTERTAINING.

No. It is not mentalism that fails to be entertaining. It's so called "mentalists" who are guilty of that. Although the same problem exists in magic in general. Sturgeon's Law applies. (Emphasis supplied by Turk-Mike Sturgeon)

But in mentalism, there is not much to look at other than the performer. And far too many would-be mentalists buy and learn every trick and routine they can find, but never get around to learning the basic skills of an entertainer.

On 2012-03-28 16:14, bevbevvybev wrote:
Women are missing in mentalism. Women either tend to be the other half of a double act picking up codes OR they're borderline / full shut-eyes contacting spirits and such like.

Would be nice to see a convincing female mentalist who stands alone on her own skill, ability and presence. intuition is strong with the ladies, be nice to see one use it as a performance vehicle!

(No disrespect to any of the female mentalists on here, just think it would be more interesting and varied if there were more of you!)