I always say the best influences and inspirations for Mentalism come from outside the field, otherwise we are literally creating carbon copies, and not expressing ourselves and our tastes. Whether it’s art, music, literature, film and tv, I’d love to see what inspires and influences your work and character, and can perhaps bring something new to someone else’s work via their own interpretation.

Here a few of my influences and inspirations and some things where my performing persona comes from, whilst there are hundreds, here’s a few that have been on my mind whilst writing the new show.

David Lynch (creative process, character, performance) (particularly Twin peaks and catching the big fish book) - I love that idea that at the first glance everything looks just as it should be, but taking a closer look, you find things aren’t quite as they seem. A masterclass in adding surrealism to drama.

HBO Shangri-la (creative process) - utterly incredible Rick Rubin creative process limited series.

The Magic Christian (character, performance) - not many people have seen this film but I think it’s incredible.

Bill Hicks (character, performance) - the philosophy of talking with a room. Not just at them.

Jeff Russo (creative process and used in show) - I seem to be using more and more of Jeff’s scores in my work even to the point where a whole routine was built around a piece of his music.

Neil Gaiman (Creative process, world building) - Probably one of my biggest influences. The way he tells stories and builds worlds was huge influence on how I create the story of my presentations.

Lev Grossman, Suzanne Clarke (World building, creative process) - realistic examples of what magic might actually look like if it existed. Gives inspiration for showing 'the process'.

Sherlock Holmes/Dr. Joseph Bell (Character creation, realism) - A fictional person with incredible skills based on a real person with those skills.

Daniel Sloss (Character, story telling) - Just the most recent comedian I've been watching. His delivery of lines is spot on, and I like dark humor. I admire a comedian's ability to hold a room with nothing but words. When I first started that was a massive influence in my minimalist style.

M Todd Gallowglas (Story telling, character) - This guy isn't famous at all as far as I know, but I used to watch him perform at ren faires. He's a traditional story teller and again, like comedians, able to hold the room just by using words.

Henry Rollins (personal inspiration) - Rollins looks like a typical dumb meat head jock but he's actually very intelligent and observant.

I get most of my scripting ideas from exploring mythology and legends, unsolved mysteries, ghost stories, etc.

For different ways of looking at things: John Langdon, Patrick Hughes, various optical illusion and odd-perspective photography books.

As far as general knowledge about the world, I've been learning more about paper manufacture and printmaking, and it has inspired all sorts of things. Recently I actually bought a book for its cover, because the cover used an unusual printing technique that I enjoyed. Then literally just today that cover led me to come up with something that may prove to be exceedingly useful. (Teaser: imagine being able to do all your favorite Leo Boudreau-esque binary effects blindfolded or over the phone.)

My interest in mentalism and my performance approach derive from many years of reading and writing on the subject of psychical research.

Barry

Mine are suitably pretentious....

stoicism - helps you with clarity of thought, logic and when to use emotion and when not to
random research I dig up about all kinds of things, partly cos of my social interests, but sometimes they cry out to be used as a premise
a small book on surrealist parlour games for the same reason
screenwriting techniques - there's a nice list of questions you can ask yourself to generate a timeline for any novel or screenplay and I can condense that for mentalism plots
I've also gone back to my roots (without zipping up my boots) and started painting again, IRL and digitally - I'm finding that relaxes me but keeps me focused, which is handy as it lets me think about all kinds of nonsense and sometimes that comes out as an idea for a routine

I'm currently re-writing a novel in a different format and plot, part of it involves psychic ability and how they may or may not work - and I think I've come up with something a bit different and both logical and odd at the same time, and I'm finding that also gives me little ideas to explore elsewhere...

M.C. Escher.

Didn't know you were into hip-hop...

His latest track is awesome. I’ve been playing it for two moths now, it seems to never end.

I’m sure the moths enjoyed it

Glad to see I’m not the only one that knows moths dig hip-hop.

Alan Moore (Comic Writer)
Grant Morrison (Comic Writer)
Alejandro Jodorowsky (Comic Writer)

This comic writers are terrific and their stories had hugely influenced the way I think about magic and mentalism.

Sigmund Freud (Psychologist) dressing up your presentations with concepts created by one of the pioneers in psychology.

Plato (Philosopher) a lot, specially his myth of the cavern.

And Dreams, one of my biggest influences

Ohhh I forgot Al Di Meola the jazz fusion master

I think we can learn a lot of timing and rithym by listening music

Lol