Why is the mentally speaking forum so dead? What would it take to revive it?

I started two threads in Inner Thoughts that I think you will find interesting:

1) Highly Toxic
2) Kurotsuke Hustler

Elliott

Thanks for the very appropriate question.There may be multiple reasons, but four come to mind.

1. Some people post less in many threads than they used to.

2. Mentalism may have passed its peak interest; some guys have moved on.

3. It has been a slow year for the kinds of new effects, props, and products that this "room" in the Café focuses on.

4.Thinking back some years, many of us used to reflect, as a community, with leading thinkers like Dick Christian and Bob Cassidy, who are no longer with us.

George

Because this section is for reviews. The mentalism bandwagon has left town along with many of the good creators and releases of its heyday and what remains is a few mentalists and a lot of magicians believing what they do is mentalism because they simply claim it is. The result is many of the pros, some of which were our greatest creators, have left too tired of their hard and in some case life's work being diminished by magicians. The greatest example I remember of this was seeing a clown (in full makeup and costume) performing MOABT at a kids birthday party. Cassidy & I had a laugh and a cry over that one!

Releases have been replaced by lectures and of course, all of this blurs the lines of mentalism today. 15 years ago, this like Penny And Inner Thoughts would be filled with actual people sincerely wanting to learn about mentalism, its difference from magic, the many aspects of the foundational levels, principles, the business and executional side of things and so on. Today with the magicians at the helm it is just about effects, and of course, since most of the releases are now coming from magicians, there continues to be more poor material than ever before, less new material overall, and little of substance. Instead of releasing books or DVDs full of content, today in the name of making a buck, much of it is being released as overpriced, single effect releases without much impact or interest.

It's all part of what Bob called the trivialization of mentalism, which unfortunately is alive and well, but contributes to the slower, lesser pace here.

Good analysis ... Jan

George, it seems to be more of 2 and 3 I think.

Mindpro, I think you have answered the question.

I concur. With Mindpro.

I'd also say that lately, people are more likely to post reviews in the Latest and Greatest.