I spent years treating mentalism like magic with invisible props. Then I understood why the best mentalists present themselves as if the props never mattered in the first place.
Read MoreThere is a moment in the practice of mentalism where the imaginary starts to feel real. Joshua Jay calls it conviction. Derren Brown calls it the foundation of all deception. I call it the strangest thing that has ever happened to me at a hotel room desk.
Read MoreThe standing ovation at a mentalism convention means nothing if the same routine puts a corporate audience to sleep. I learned this the hard way when I tried to bring convention thinking into the real world.
Read MoreEvery mentalist faces the same question eventually: do you tell the audience you are not actually psychic? The answer is more complicated than either side wants to admit, and my own position has changed three times.
Read MoreI mix magic and mentalism in my shows despite purists saying you should never do that. Here is why the line between them matters, where I draw it, and why I deliberately cross it anyway.
Read MoreI came to mentalism thinking it was all about guessing cards and reading body language. Then I discovered Derren Brown, and the entire art form cracked open.
Read MoreI used to think the most astonishing magic required the most visual effects. Then I realized that the tricks happening inside someone's head are far more powerful than anything happening in someone's hands.
Read MoreThe most powerful tool in my performance arsenal is not a deck of cards or a prediction envelope. It is the moment when someone realizes I am paying attention to them -- really paying attention.
Read MoreKreskin did not just build a career in mentalism. He built a market. And the principles behind his success apply to anyone trying to grow an audience for what they do.
Read MoreSome mentalism effects are personality delivery systems disguised as tricks. Here is why these three classics are the ones I keep coming back to.
Read MoreThe moment I stopped asking people to pick a card and started asking them to think of one, everything about my mentalism changed. The gap between these two instructions is the gap between a puzzle and a miracle.
Read MoreI used to present prediction effects with all the warmth and personality of a laboratory protocol. The predictions were strong, but the presentations were killing them. Here is what I changed.
Read MoreKen Weber describes the moment that changed how he thought about entertainment forever -- watching a mentalist perform for an audience of people Weber knew personally. The lesson it taught me about what audiences actually want has never left me.
Read MoreKreskin flails his limbs when he laughs, repeats 'no way, shape, or form' until you want to scream, and drops celebrity names like confetti. And none of it matters. Here is why.
Read MoreWeber calls Mark Salem arguably the most successful mentalist of his era. But what makes Salem extraordinary is not his mental miracles -- it is his ability to make every person in the room feel like a friend.
Read MoreA performer mispronounced a word in his act for years and nobody told him. That story changed how I think about feedback, isolation, and the silent agreements that keep performers mediocre.
Read MoreEvery mentalism purist told me not to mix magic and mentalism in the same show. I did it anyway. Here is what I learned about why they were partly right and mostly wrong.
Read MoreStage mentalism impresses a room. Close-up mentalism rewires someone's reality. I discovered this difference at a dinner table in Linz, and it changed the direction of my entire act.
Read MoreESP cards look like they belong in a laboratory, not a performance. I spent months figuring out how to make clinical props feel human, and the solution had nothing to do with the props themselves.
Read MoreMy family thought magic was a phase. When I performed mentalism at a family gathering in Vienna, my aunt called my mother the next day to talk about it. That is when I knew the show worked.
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