props and propless

Let’s talk props and minimalistic mentalism.
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In recent years, there has been an increase in the popularity of what has become known as prop-less mentalism with a small number of marketing minded mentalists making a name for themselves within the magic fraternity.

The problem is, in my opinion, much of the prop-less mentalism being touted as cutting edge seems very jumbled and heavily instructional. It works fantastically (sometimes) in a magic club lecture or when you are being followed by a film crew while filming a DVD release, but try it in a dark night club on the Costa del Sol at 11pm when the crowd have been drinking since lunch time and the kids are skidding across the dance floor on their knees, and it is a completely different matter.

I'm not saying I'd give it a go in that sort of environment, it does of course have its place and I would never say ignore it completely, however I would say pick your prop-less routines carefully and use them sparingly.

For our mentalism to be effective in any environment, we tend to need people to write things down, it is the most efficient way of getting the information you want to feed back as though you are reading their mind. There are of course some amazing gadgets and bits of equipment on the market for gaining the information required, from gimmicked pads with magnetic pens, to special wallets with multiple peeks and expensive electrical gizmo’s that can transmit a drawing to a watch via a smart phone at three hundred meters, I have manufactured and sold a few myself over the years and some of those on the market are good but others are terrible.

But you should ask yourself, do you need all that stuff? Well no, to be quite honest you don’t. Think of it like this, as long as you keep it simple, the audience don’t care (because they shouldn’t know) how you get the word they are thinking of and the minute you accept the fact they don’t care (and shouldn’t know), then it doesn’t matter if you use a hi tech computerized clipboard, the latest in photosensitive film hidden in a wallet, or a simple centre tear, what truly matters is that when you feed the info back to them, not only does it entertain them, but it appears as though the only way you can know what they are thinking, is if you can read their mind.

Here’s an example of a question I have asked on multiple forums, one which seems to offend a few people.

You can buy a piece of equipment which includes a receiver and five computer chipped plastic cards with ESP symbols printed on them, which will enable you to tell which one of the five symbols has been chosen while your back is turned and you are across the room, the deluxe version of this equipment with leather wallets, extra chips and blank cards, costs approximately eight hundred dollars.

My question is this, why would you pay eight hundred dollars for this hi-tech equipment whey you can do the same thing with five of your business cards and a pen?

But let’s take it a step further, what if I told you that you could take ten standard cheap blank cards from your pocket and hand them with a pen to ten different audience members with instructions they draw ANY picture they like on the blank side, then collect the cards, mix them and have two chosen at random by an audience member, one seen and one unseen, while your back is turned and you are across the room, and then with no pumping no stooges, no electronics and no gaffed cards, recreate both drawings and give character readings to the people who drew them……..would you pay me eight hundred dollars for that effect?

Now I know some people would say yes and then they would be very disappointed when they discovered they’d need to learn a mnemonic peg system to instantly remember ten freely drawn pictures and link them together to create a stack, learn how to do a simple but sloppy looking false shuffle to retain the stack order and then apply audience management to ensure they know which drawings are chosen at random while their back is turned.

But you can do it and it is not as difficult as it sounds, plus once you’ve learned the skills required you can apply them to dozens of different routines.

To my mind that knowledge is worth far more than eight hundred dollars.

Incidentally, I call this routine 'The $800 Dollar Miracle' and it will be included in my next book 'Minimalistic, Metaphysical, Mentalism.

Until next time. Be lucky.

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