Videotaping myself when I am performing a show is an ego shredding exercise that I recommend to any performer who is in the process of getting just a little full of themselves. And that IS an occupational hazard, right? You do a show and there are always people waiting to talk to you while you're packing up. Look into the eyes of enough True Believers and you can almost start to believe you ARE some kind of a special of human being.

But I recently started thinking about what it is that the audience SEES when I perform. It's been a while since I taped a show and so I made a fresh recording...and as I watched me entertaining them, there was a creeping urge to crawl under the table, change my name...move to another country. I was doing some things that I wasn't even aware of doing...and that nasty brutally honest recording shone the spotlight on every single one of them.

My point is that what I wasn't doing everything I THOUGHT I was doing. The me I saw on that tape isn't the me I thought I was showing to audiences. Obviously I work hard to make the changes that I needed to make. But it did set me to considering how what I see in my mind -- what I intended in my show design -- can be different from what the audience sees. Does that make sense?

To those of you who perform MENTALISM...what do you think your audiences see when they look at you? Is it a magician doing mental feats of...magic? Do they sit in their chairs and think "Gee...I wonder if there IS something to all that talk about ESP...maybe it IS for real...?" Or maybe they sit there and think "This guy IS for real!" Do you care what the audience thinks as long as they are entertained?

Of course the pat answer is that most of us want to be seen as "real" on some level. If you believe that...my question is: How do YOU get there?

How do YOU construct your performance, select your material and structure your show to make it pure mentalism? In short...what SPECIFIC things do you do in the design and execution of your performance to consciously create a no-doubt-about-it MENTALISM performance? Very curious to know what other performers think about this.

David

David, you are so right in regards to seeing ourselves on video. It is very humbling. Even when I rehearse scripting I audio record myself, and I would rather have a root canal than hear my own voice. It's not just the tone of my voice either. It is the language patterns, inflection etc. But I think that's the case with most people, well that I have ever discussed it with that is. It's a rough but necessary exercise.

"Do you care what the audience thinks as long as they are entertained?"

This can be a tricky one. Obviously we want to entertain our audience. But I strive to achieve more than that. I want my audience to have a visceral experience. Amazed, shocked, mesmerized and a little creeped out.

"Of course the pat answer is that most of us want to be seen as "real" on some level. If you believe that...my question is: How do YOU get there?"

I want them to feel that what they are seeing is real while they are there. When they leave I want them wondering what it was they just experienced. I do not try to convince anyone of anything. I think sometimes we give ourselves too much credit thinking we are changing peoples belief systems. I think that is hogwash. But I play the part, heart and soul while I am on stage. I think that is the only way for mentalism to feel real. And mentalism is after all feats of esp, mindreading etc.

I 100% agree with you on how difficult it can be to watch oneself performing. It's so easy to be on the end of things where you think everything is going swimmingly and you're the best - only to see a video clip and feel that creeping horror of "Oh, that's what I look like. Well ... s***." It's similar to busking. Hard to be egotistical when your crowd walks away in the middle of your set.

Anyway. To answer the question at the end of your post.

When I'm working on doing something that's pure mentalism I first start with the concept that I want to portray to the audience for that show - this usually gives me a finale concept as well. I then brain dump a general list of effects I can do to create that experience for them. This is usually at least twice what could fit in the show. Then I narrow it down, eliminating the fluff, and keeping it interesting (texture to the show, variety of effects perceived, so on). Then I write a script that weaves it all together, then I reduce the script as much as possible. Inspired by Eugene Burger I try to convey the story with as few words as possible.

If I'm going for a pure feeling, which I often am, I also try to use as few props as possible. Not necessarily going for propless material, mind, but keeping the workings minimal. I try to confine everything to one small wooden box I have (around 2/3 the size of a shoe box), though I also use a bigger white board for visibility purposes.

The visual impression I like to give is one man (me) on stage creating this experience.

[quote]On Mar 7, 2017, David Thiel wrote:


{My point is that what I wasn't doing everything I THOUGHT I was doing. The me I saw on that tape isn't the me I thought I was showing to audiences. Obviously I work hard to make the changes that I needed to make. But it did set me to considering how what I see in my mind -- what I intended in my show design -- can be different from what the audience sees. Does that make sense?}

Makes a lot of sense. Oftentimes the show in our head is different from what the audience sees. The camera is unbiased and an excellent way to critique.

This is obviously a very loaded question that would take paragraphs to answer fully, so I will attempt to answer in brief. This is just one performer's opinion and method of achieving it so take that into consideration when responding.

To start, it is important for you to understand my goal when performing. I want to make people think "MAYBE... this is real." I don't want to turn non-believers into believers but I do want to (excuse the cliche) plant a seed of doubt in his or her mind. So I structure my show with that goal in mind. This allows me to use some "props" (i.e. Pencil, paper, other visual mediums) to "read people's minds."

Structurally, I focus on making it a textured performance of strong routines with a through-thread upon which the audience can grasp. I do not subscribe to the idea of making your show progressively more impossible, however, I do end with the most impossible routine in my act. My finale is also the second most engaging. The second most impossible and the most engaging routine I do is my opener (Obviously the metric used to judge both of these aspects of the routine is subjective so there is no definite answer, it depends on performing cycle). I choose material I want to do and material that have wiggle room for "real mind reading" so one of my favorite routines is Luke Jermay's version of a living or dead test that does not involve either the leaving nor the dead. I focus on keeping myself engaged when I perform so I give the aura of real mind reading and allowing for coincidence to occur.

I videotape myself performing and go through Maximum Entertainment twice. I find killer pieces that I already have in my collection as to avoid falling into the trap of "the next big thing" and use those pieces in a way that is not the obvious way to do them. I take massive inspiration in structure and delivery from comedians, and tone from films. I look to the other arts to inform my show.

All the specific routines I do I try not to think of as individuals or "I do this bit now." I try and think of it as a tool or a way of conveying my thinking process. The specifics I use to do so are not the important part, but the mindset I am in when constructing the show. What is the cohesive show going to look like if I just do the routines in a row, and then what can I change or add to fill in the gaps and make the show make sense.

Hopefully this makes sense.

Best wishes,
Harry

There are dangers hiding in David's good advice, at least for most of us who see ourselves on video and realize that we do not look quite like Michael Weber! There are, after all, some things about ourselves that we cannot change.

The mentalist who gets this rigorous in self-appraisal might remember the perspective of Reinhold Neibuhr's "Serenity Prayer:" namely, the quest to "accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."

George

It's funny how I do relate to the "ego shredding" part of filming oneself, but not in the same way as you, as what you describe.
What makes me want to crawl under a carpet when watching videos of my performances is usually linked to stagecraft: for instance, I thought I'd moved fluidly accross the stage when in reality, I walked as if I was recovering from brain surgery Stuff like that. That's what I work hard on improving!

But about being percived as "real"... Well, I had never thought of what specifically to do!? Good question!

Almost all people who come to talke to me after shows believe I'm for real. Maybe those who don't think so just stay away from me, I don't know... But for instance, there's one couple, friends of a magician friend. They know he's a magician, they know he and I are in the same club, yet, they both believe what I do is real!

I guess the best answer I myself can make to your question is "I always behave as if I really could". I don't pick specific material, nor specific props... I do avoid what I find too "magiccy", such as sponge balls or brightly colored items, I do avoid magic "feats" such as making an object appear/disappear and so on(*).

But I would say that what I think about the most is: behaving as if it was for real.



------------------------
(*) about this though: I believe how far you can go, how "magiccy" you can be, depends on your audience and their culture. In some countries, you could makea coind disappear from your hand, claim to have done it though willpower --and be believed.

I have never taken myself so seriously to stop and think that I am for real.

There's not a lot you can do to make people think what you want them too. Bottom line is, you'll never know anyway what they think.

I just like to have fun and hope the audience has fun. And I suspect a few of them think I'm for real. I'll let a few of them take that away if they'd like.

J

PS: I stopped video taping myself a long time ago. Why revisit it.

I think I cringe at some of my behaviorisms more than my appearance or voice which I've seen/heard recorded so many times I've gotten used to it. But sometimes I do weird things I am not aware of. Like at a show I videoed a few months ago, I came out when the curtains parted with my hands held up in front of me for some reason. And they stayed there for a long time. It was weird. I don't normally do it but for some reason I did on this occasion.

As far as stage movement and blocking, I am pretty relaxed about that. I try to avoid messes or visual confusion as much as I can, but if I misplace something or do something awkward, I poke fun at myself and say something like, "How unprofessional!". I think showing I have a sense of humor about myself gets the audience on my side, but not too much of that or I could lose my authority/status which is of course key.

Real/not real? I think I am atypical for a mentalist because I don't think about that. I just don't care. I PLAY it real and get pretty heavy at some points... I don't discourage belief, but I consider this theater and my only goal in terms of belief is for the time period the show is happening... afterwards I truly do not care and if anything it makes me uncomfortable if someone "believes" too much... Its not so much a guilt thing but a concern for their ability to discern reality from theater.

"I don't discourage belief, but I consider this theater and my only goal in terms of belief is for the time period the show is happening... afterwards I truly do not care and if anything it makes me uncomfortable if someone "believes" too much... Its not so much a guilt thing but a concern for their ability to discern reality from theater."

I agree with this completely. I was at the Magic Castle this weekend and a friend of mine did a private mentalism show for a group. As always there are people who want to "touch the prophet" at the end of the show, but one guy was way overboard with it. He approached my friend and began making statements that he felt he was destined to be there that night for that very show, and that he knew my friend was going to be the guy who guided him further along with understanding his own intuition and spirituality. The guy also mentioned that he had just recently lost his wife to illness.

I felt horrible for the guy. But at some point we need to firmly get their attention and make it clear that what we do is for entertainment purposes only. Now obviously this man believed what he believed when he came into the room before the show ever started. He just latched on to my friend and it became very uncomfortable very quickly.

There is a reason there is no publically available video footage of me online ...... I've seen the footage!! Regardless of the reactions I get from audiences and the post show comments and even repeat bookings, I have yet to see a video of me performing that I would be comfortable showing to another living soul.

Mark

Robert Burns covered this in his poem of 1786: "To a louse."

Burns original

O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!

Standard English translation

And would some Power give us the gift
To see ourselves as others see us!

What an interesting thread. Videotape is an excellent resource that obviously reveals all. When I do this I try to have a focus for my taping. This helps me set manageable goals for improving my future performances. Is it my voice, blocking, etc. Thanks for sharing this David.

Jeff

As of now, I am recording every theater show I do (once per week) on a GoPro and download and watch it and take notes. Things I like, things I didn't, good lines, lines that didn't work so well. Improvements to movement, audience management, cutting down on dead time that I didn't realize was dead. Constant feedback, analysis and refinement, since I'm not performing every day, is essential for me to improve more quickly.

I read this thread early this week, and this story keeps coming back into my mind. I feel badly for the man, and for the performer who got this laid on his lap. How does one deal with something like this?

The man is clearly hurt and in need and clearly looking in the wrong place. What do you say to someone who is in such a state? If you tell him "Look, buddy, this is an act. I'm not really what I portray, I'm a guy doing tricks...." you basically tell him that he's a sucker and he got fooled. That's a punch in the gut, and this one sounds like he's in no shape to take that. Make him feel the fool and he may find a new mission in life; save the world from your evil deception. On the other hand the typical non-answers that mentalists give about what we do are fine for most people, but in this case might only lead him on into believing what he wants to believe. It seems like a no win situation. Burst his unstable bubble or end up with a stalker/disciple thinking you are his personal messiah. I'm sure there are those types out there who might think that they want that, but I for one and the community as far as I have met don't.

So what's a mentalist to do? How do you deflect this sort of advance without creating a stalker who scatters rose petals on your footprints or creating an avenger bent on your destruction? Tell him "I'm not that sort of mage...." and scoot out the door? Give him a quick personal reading wherein the spirits advise him to seek a mental professional? Hypnotize him and leave before he opens his eyes? (Just kidding, that's no way to treat anybody.) In effect, a performer is put into a position better suited to a clinician. What do you do? How do you gracefully extract yourself from that spot?

What did your friend say? How did this end?

Recording and watching your own performances to spot opportunities for growth and improvement is wise advice indeed.

Finding someone at the top of the mentalism field to also watch your recordings and provide their guidance may also prove to be immensely valuable.