I want to start doing some mental magic. What routines would each of you recommend? Thought Transmitter, Prediction Impossible,Private Property, Sight Unseen, any of the above, or any one that you like that I have not mentioned. Thanks...

Get a copy of Anneman's Practical Mental Magic. It's very inexpensive and one of the best sources for mental effects. You'll find lots to do in there.

Get copies of Luke Jermay, Richard Osterlind and Max Maven also. I have only recently gotten into that since I have had numerous requests to perform mentalism routines and the offers are amazing, financially speaking. It will take me a while to get routines down to performance level but I have read all three of these authors in the past few weeks and the material is excellent and well presented.

Basic books to have:

• Anneman's Practical Mental Magic
  
• 13 Steps to Mentalism by Tony Corinda
  
• Mind, Myth and Magic by T.A. Waters
  
• The Bold & Subtle Miracles of Dr. Faust by David Hoy
  
• Self-Working Mental Magic by Karl Fulves
  

Steve

Second's, the work of Richard Osterlind, his Mind Mysteries DVD's are great..

-e-

I have got Anneman's Practical Mental Magic and have read maybe half of the book but didn't really find anything that I thought would be worth doing. I think it is because I'm not really familiar with mental magic so I was wondering if there are any effects from the book that people recommend or like or get good reactions from.
Thanks

Hiro

Definitely get Osterlind's stuff. He has a whole host of sensational effects that you could use.

WAIT! WAIT! WAIT! If rtcooks is just now getting interested in Mentalism, the Osterlind material is WAY too advanced. Start with the basics and work your way up.

If rtcooks just wants the name of an effect to cut his teeth on and get a feel for mental magic, I might recommend "Mental Epic." Or would this marketed effect be to difficult for beginning?

alan

I found Karl Fulves - Self Working Mental Magic was a great place to start - very cheap too.

Self Working Mental Magic ..... didn't like it... maybe that because I am in the UK.. many tricks in there with dollars...
Practical mental magic....... fantastic

I'm having a memory block (makes sense in a mentalism topic ) Is Mental Epic the same as Mind Control?

Mind Control is the effect with three cards and the pen.

Barrie Richardson (SP) has a book called Theater of the Mind. It has a ton of great mentalism. I highly recommend it!

With cards, you can mark your deck and do a mind reading on it.

You CAN do that, but be careful. Some spectators assume or even LOOK for marked cards in a mental act. I avoid them.

Steve

Starting out in mentalism...

13 steps to mentalism by Corinda is a must
Psychological Subtelties by banachek is useful as is a lot of banacheks material.

I think that, if you are willing to spend money on good books in order to develop a basic knowledge of the techniques that us mentalists use then you can begin to invent mentalism effects. Its about grasping the basics first - as with everything else.

Descriptions of Mental Epic can be seen on-line at dealer's websites. Three predictions match the random "thoughts" of three spectators. The third "thought" is often a card.

alan

Annemann's book has lots of gems in.'A day in your life','the Germain gem','news event prediction','between the lines','symmist','the 20th century newspaper test',sefalaljia','horrors','voodoo','the krazy kode','who killed mr x?','the astral ad','half and half','in the mind','open minds','thoughts in the air','diabolical influence' and many other effects are really good.
Andre

You can do some pretty impressive mental magic with the invisible deck, and with a lot of other simple magic items for sale everywhere. You just have to work on your presentation.

Anabelle

I also recommend Bob Mason's Marka-Thot, and Ultimate Prediction.

Steve