DO:
Read the following books

Maximum entertainment
13 Steps to Mentalism
Practical Mental Effects

DO NOT:
Expect us to give you someone elses act

Haha, that should be a sticky at the top!

agreed.

Chaz that was actually as much funny as it is the truth.

I love this.

DITTO!

Ray

Seriously, this is great. This should actually be a sticky. There are way too many threads here directing beginners to the exact same material.

I feel like these are the citizenship papers of mentalism and this forum has become immigration. Serious question for the seasoned veterans here: Do sparks like this contribute to a noticeable growth in actual dedicated mentalists or is mostly one-off secret seekers?

I'm not sure I understand the question Browneyed.

Every so often a magician or a mentalist becomes popular and a swarm of new people flock into forums like this to learn the secrets of what they did. How many of those, if any, stay and become true mentalists? Are these peaks in popularity what bring about the new generations of mentalists or is it just a temporary thing that fades?

Ah, I understand now thanks. I would say that the majority of the time it's just an influx of the curious, or magicians who want to add a mental magic trick to their act and as such they rarely stay when they realize the answer either requires work, or just isn't given. In a few cases people stay and learn and join the community and kick back, but it's mostly "Hey, I saw someone do something on TV. Teach me how!" and then crickets when they either get their answer or are met with silence.

That's what I thought, mentalism seems to be one of those "it chooses you" things. You should probably stress to the swarms the immense amount of work that lies ahead of them, though, and I think they'll run for the hills immediately. I've been at it 8 years and there's still so much that I don't know. It's an investment that pays off very, very slowly.

"Doing it successfully takes hard work" is true for... about everything people are drawn to: acting, playing music, singing, dancing, juggling, drawing, taking photographs, painting, writing.
And of course, magic and mentalism.

Lots of curious come, "try a few chords" and leave. Others stay.
I was drawn to mentalism (from magic to mentalism) because of a Gary Kurtz show on French TV. Derren Brown finished getting the nail in

Funnily enough, I realize now (like, this minute!) I didn' try to discover how GK of DB did what I'd seen and the idea never crossed my mind... I find it surprising, but I went looking for mentalism material at large, and not for what I'd seen in their shows... Does that make me weird? I feel weird!

From the beginning, I didn't want to add mentalism to my magic: I wanted to become a mentalist!

Very temporary and it quickly fades. Then there the few that hang on, and decide to personally want to change mentalism in their own way without much regard for what exists or has come before them. Quite a double-edged sword. Definitely a result of the Internet, youtube and the "I-got-to-have-it-now" boom and generation.

This stuff has always been on t.v. but previously you have to physically put in the time, effort and work to find this on your own. It was called paying your dues.

Whether the curiosity is temporary or permanent, these are the things they should still read. We are not making them read it in order for it to be a "pass into the club". These books aren't for initiation. We suggest these books because so many methodological discussions we have branch off from the simple ideas inside of them.

Too bad there's not a way to turn Youtube into Cursive. That would solve the problem.

Tom's comment about cursive wins the internet for today!

Ha! I just saw this. Love it.

And if anyone cares, we just put together a new site for Max Ent:

www.MaximumEntertainment.info

***it. I wanted to know a specific routine from BGT.... not AGT.

Way to be passive agressive