1948, George Armstrong wrote in a mentalism book's intro:

"too many mental acts become boring because they are unrelieved by humour or other human emotions. The successful entertainer, whatever his forte may be, plays upon the emotions of his audience. The mentalist must play upon more than one emotion for success... "

And we get told" emotional mentalism" is a new thing...not saying this was the first time someone explicitly wrote about the emotional context, just thought it was worth sharing...

A performance can easily lapse into boredom if one is not careful. The importance of positive audience reaction cannot be overstated.

Great observation, thanks!
It is not a new thing as you said Iain, but conceptualization allows proper observation, as in any human practice.

Toasters make noises, as well as rubber ducks, but we needed John Cage and his sound/music experiments and concepts to get it in a new way.

All Mentalism should be “emotional”, because we are emotional beings at the core

I ain’t telling no fish jokes.

How about: A Rabbi, Priest, and Baptist Preacher walk into a bar.

The bartender says: "What is this, some kind of joke?"

Good found IAIN!

I guess much of the misunderstanding surrounding this subject is that "emotional mentalism" is being commonly used to describe a "touching performance of mentalism"... and mentalism eliciting emotions is not the same thing as it being "touching" so, context is fundamental. Even the word mentalism in the distant past didn't have the meaning it has nowadays.



LOL