The first ever virtual MV just hours away. I’m excited but I have no idea what it’s going to be like.

I’m going to be doing an hourly blog at Magic Pendulums. If you’ve read my blogs about previous MINDventions you know I tell how it is. Good or bad. (We’ve posted my MV blogs from other years. Have a look.)

Really looking forward to this event. I lecture tomorrow at 11:15. Hope to see you there.

David

My lecture is today! (17th Jan 2021 at 10am EST that's 3pm UK time)
I'm really excited to share some material that I've been working on recently for Socially Distant live environments. No spectators on stage. No going into the audience and no handing out or borrowing of props. Also no pre-show or meeting with people before the show. By their nature these routines can also be performed in virtual shows. I'll be sharing...
A method for using the numbers generated in a Magic Square to create a very strong and direct number prediction.
Predicting who is the most intuitive member of your audience.
Directly reading the minds of several members of the audience while they remain in their seats and how to build this into an effect like Q and A with the whole audience involved.
I'll re-visit a classic self-working card trick that can now be personalised for your virtual clients. Giving the impression that you have created a bespoke show just for them.
A strong, powerful chair prediction routine. Where no-one leaves their seat!

And finally we'll do a mini workshop together on Annemann's Classic Billet switch so that you'll be able to perform it invisibly. As part of this I'll teach my handling of Telepathy Plus...that has NO visible one ahead!

Some speakers are hidden as a surprise in the so called "Mindvention Minutes" (actually a full hour...)... you meet them (and me) there ... Jan

Mindvention Minutes: great lecture by Jan about the right handling of wallets in mentalism.His version of "Name and Place“ with the Dr.Jaks wallet is well structured and the use of the wallet is well motivated. Great Job Jan! Herbert

Not a lot mentioned on how this went doing it the first time online. What was the hi-lite, and was it a success. Although I didn't join this year, if it played well in this environment todays world is experiencing, it does open an exciting possibility.

Jan Foster was the best of all three days, Marc Paul was also fine but for the most part, performers trying to push their products and boring ramblings. Obviously the organizers didn't think of doing a quality check of the material that the performers were to present. Lets face it, Mentalism reached long time ago its peak of creativity.

I thought Keith Barry was very good as well. I do agree that there was possibly a bit too much of ‘Performace and buisness advice’. Perhaps one or two speakers could concentrate on that but it does get a bit repetitive. Jan’s lecture was spot on with specific advice using a prop. More of that please.

Thanks Mark & corindaman. Yes Jan is awesome and it seems his lecture was the stand out at Mindvention.

Eh? Totally disagree with this (except for the Jan Foster and Marc Paul bit, but I would describe Marc's session as far more than "fine"). For me, Jan and Marc were absolutely excellent and I took more away from a few minutes from David Thiel and Joshua Lozoff than I have from a lot of other material and performers recently.

I attended a few of the workshops, again all were excellent in their own ways. Those aside though, the price of entry for the information given was a steal and whilst I hope that we get back to face-to-face events soon, Luca, Renato and Danny did an excellent job and I hope continue with this format at least in part.

I think that from a pure learning perspective, this was the best MV ever. I took away a number of great concepts and new ideas.

Obviously an on-line convention can never duplicate the other huge component of MV: the human interaction. Some of my fondest memories of MV came from moments shared with other performers in Jack's Pub...or heading out to see a show on the Strip with people I'd just met...or spending time with friends I hadn't seen since the previous MV. For me, the Zoom gatherings didn't do it.

But you can't reasonably compare the on-line experience with the in-person one -- they are very different animals.

Am I glad they did MV this year? Absolutely!

Do I feel the content was worthwhile? No question.

Did I still have that sense of community? Yup.

It was a great experience. Hopefully we can do it again LIVE -- but I will happily settle for another on-line experience.

David