This doesn't help you much now, but since you're at University you should take advantage and sign yourself up for some theatre. Just a little knowledge of basic acting will make you more confident on stage and automatically better than most other Magicians.

My advice,

1. Listen to some music that gets your blood flowing. Move around and get loose. Imagine yourself, in your head, as a boxer or a professional fighter getting ready for a fight. Get yourself hyped up so you can hit the stage strong.
2. Slow down your speech, when you're nervous you talk faster. Remember, Slow is Smooth, and Smooth is good.
3. Work the mechanics of the trick until you can do it without thinking about it, that way you can focus on presentation.
4. When talking allow your eyes to drift around the room. But, you don't need to really look at people, look between them. They will all think you're looking at someone near them and you can avoid eye contact if it is a problem for you.
5. Finally, envision yourself being successful. Mental framing means so much. If you walk on thinking you're going to do a good job, then you may. If you walk on thinking you're going to fail, then you will.

Good luck.

One more thing. Magic and Mentalism, are not like singing or music. If a singer hits a bad note, the whole audience will know. But your audience likely has never seen anything like this before. So if you mess up, they may very well know even know. So no matter what happens, keep going. You'll be surprised what you can get away with if you don't admit you messed up.

I am really thankful for all the advices provided above and I really appreciate them. I`ve been recently asked by University commitee to add music to my show, any ideas about what music would be appropriate to mentalism act?

Well Mentalism often involves a lot of talking, it could be difficult to talk over music. But, if you're heart is set on music, then go for something soft and without lyrics. That way people can understand you.

Add something classical which will just act as background music if it HAS to have music. OR just insist music won't suit your act.

I screwed up a few things at my last show and I was gutted, I carried on anyway and actually nobody even noticed.

Had my first mentalism act today... Wasn`t really bad, however 1 thing went wrong almost messing up the whole show. Whilst I was performing the 3 envelope test 1 girl made a paper airplane out of the billet on which she were writing... So when I opened the misnumbered envelope she has noticed that the billet belonged to her... it was a very bad experience and I was really mad about it for a couple of hours... Just because of that paper plane...

Such is life. Maybe have an out for a case like this next time. Any idea why she has done this?

Regards,

Prometheus

I'm glad your performance went reasonably well. The bottom line (the paper plane) has to do with audience control and management. If you intend on pursuing mentalism I would suggest Richard Osterlind's "Field Manual for Mentalism". He shares valuable insight into the behind the scenes situations. There are no 'tricks' in this volume; just really powerful advice from someone who's been there and is still performing strong.

BTW - I can't understand all the fascination with the 'booze' in this thread.

Ray

I have absolutely 0 ideas why she might have done this, proly just to show off with her uniqueness and stuff

In addition to Richard Osterlind's sage and wonderful material, Bob Cassidy has so many books and PDF's out that can help (Staging it, Fundamentals of Mentalism, and so much more). Keep at it!

Glad it went well on the most part, for next tinme do some reading on audience control etc. Just put it down to experience. How did you cope with the nerves in the end? Did you change your act at all?

You have to be ready for anything. One suggestion is to pre-fold your billets. Generally people will at least try to refold them in the same way, but even that isn’t guaranteed to stop a determined origamist. Banachek gives his audience very explicit instructions on how to fold the billets, explaining that it’s so they will all look identical, so he can't tell them apart.

Theatre class for sure, public speaking, and audience management. Tricks will come. Learn to present!

Russeljalen
It was really hard to cope with the nerves and pressure. I was really mad about it... and could not calm down for a couple of hours. I`m performing every week since then in the psychology club at my university. There are lots of hecklers. Because of those guys I feel like nobody is interested in what I am doing although there are some... but they are generally quiet. I`m getting tense and angry with everyday because of those guys and I don`t know what to do with it.
Everybody, i`m really grateful for your advices and support... Thank you guys.

Baha. I am new to mentalism as well, but I have 20 years experience in my field, and that includes a lot of public speaking. These hours you spend with a tough crowd will only make you better. Your whole life will not be in front of the psychology club at university. We have both have plenty of opportunity ahead. These experiences are just our first steps. Do not get discouraged.