Vol#8 Character Building and storytelling in mentalism
Introduction This month’s installment is going to be a little bit different to each of the other volumes in this series. I am going to attempt to share an insight into how to create/ build and or find your character, utilize stories within your performances and share some of my own experiences that have helped me in my mentalism to not only create material but helped me in confidence/ rapport building. I thought it would be fitting to share a story here in the introduction, this story has not made it into my mentalism nor will it but I think it might give a few of you an insight into me as a person and simultaneously give you a few laughs. I love telling stories and between you and me – I writing stories is a path that I will be venturing down in the future. I must have been twelve at the time, we had moved from Queensbury council estate (the ghetto) to Stone Leigh which was a stone’s throw away. Whenever our Granddad was picking us up, my brother and I used to stand on the end of the road eagerly awaiting the car to pull up and collect us to take us for the day. The white Subaru we had loved driving around in as kids was no more and I vividly remember our Granddad Dennis pulling up in a shiny new green Suzuki 4x4. We climbed inside the 4x4 and just like the Subaru there was a tartan cover draped over the back seats. Granddad Dennis was getting older, but he never showed it. He looked at us in the interior mirror and smiled with his cheeky grin “How are you boys?” We both confirmed that we were good and everything was okay, we were always happy when we were going out for the day with Granddad. We buckled up and he pulled out onto the road, one thing that was really funny about the way my Granddad drove was the way he held onto the wheel. He held the steering wheel between his first and middle fingers, knuckles bent and his hands resembled a horse’s hoof. Which was always hilarious to us because my Granddad was obsessed with horses and was known locally as a ‘horse whisperer’. It was a joke that me and my brother never shared with my Granddad, we laughed in the back referring to the way he held the wheel as ‘horse nip’. We arrived at my Grandma and Granddad’s house and on the doorstep as always Grandma was waiting to greet us at the door, she’d baby us on the way in and tell us she had prepared food. Eating my Grandma’s cooking was something we always looked forward to, you see my Grandma was a traditional type of woman raised in a farmhouse. Her cooking was sublime, there’s a saying that most people have grown to live by when talking about food “Quality not Quantity”, my Grandma had the ‘Midas touch’ she overfed everyone in the house and the quality of the food was second to none. Often there was a choice of puddings and by the end of the meals, you just couldn’t move. My brother and I always offered to wash and dry and my Grandma would hear nothing of it. My Granddad used to take a quick nap after he had eaten whilst waiting for my Grandma
to finish putting the dishes away, she would come into the room and we would always have a quick game of cards. My Granddad would wake and we would get ready to leave for the gala! This week’s gala was in Ilkley, a beautiful little village in West Yorkshire, the grass green and trimmed to perfection, the flowers were bright and grew as far as the eyes could see. We entered the gala, the galas were always laid out the same, a series of stalls on a field that sold an array of things - some old and some new. A huge bouncy castle and fairground rides at the far side of the huge field the gala took place on, a series of food vans littered around the field and in the middle a cordoned off area that would act as the ‘stage’ where the entertainment would take place. I call it a stage loosely because it wasn’t raised off of the ground and the entertainment was usually stunt men on motorbikes jumping cars and people, fire breathers, dancers, falconry displays and other spectacles that required space to perform. The amount of money my brother and I had to spend on the stalls was solely dictated by the jobs we had done for my Granddad. My favorite stalls were the ones in which you had to play a game to win prizes, usually it was ‘hook a duck’ or ‘pop a balloon’ a dart game in which each dart was placed on a playing card and each playing card related to a prize. What I found interesting about this particular day was when we finally got to the game stalls, there must have been some issue as the ‘pop a balloon’ game was not set up how it usually was. The prizes were there, the cards were there but no board and no darts. It became apparent to us that the stall holder had some sort of issue and had to change the game. He had laid the prizes out onto a table with a playing card taped down in front of each prize. The aim of the game was to cut to one of the cards to win a prize. I had to play! My Grandma is a very honest soul, sometimes too honest and she openly told the stall holder that I was a magician. This didn’t seem to faze the stall holder, he must have taken one look at me and thought to himself ‘yeah right’. You see I was going through a bit of strange time, I had dyed my hair bleach blonde and I used to spike up just my fringe. My age, size (I was overly thin and small) and shy character must have made the stall holder completely disregard the statement my Grandma made. On the stall there was only a few prizes that I really wanted to win. The main prize on the stall was a hi-fi system, I even remember the card that I had to cut to get the hi-fi the 8 of diamonds. I paid the fifty pence to the stall holder to play, I reached down to cut the cards and just before cutting them I looked up and said “How do we know this is a regular deck of cards?” The stall holder replied confidently “Look through them”, I had counted on him saying that. I looked through the deck quickly and noticed that the 8 of diamonds was missing! I had a feeling that might be the case, there was always some sort of scam to these games. I remember thinking to myself, “two can play this game”.
I quickly looked at the three prizes I liked the most, culled those cards to the top and said “yeah they are normal”. The stall holder I feel at that time thought he was one step ahead of me, just before I cut the deck I asked him if I could shuffle them. I false shuffled the deck and even offered the stall holder to shuffle the cards – he politely declined. I then cut the cards and you guessed, it landed on the prize I wanted. I paid the stall holder another 50 pence, played again and ‘as luck would have it’ I cut straight to another prize and finally I did this one more time to win one more prize. The final prize was not for me, it was for my Grandma, I had noticed her looking at it when we first approached the stall. It was a little ornament, she loved to collect odd ‘bobbins’ as she called them and I could see by the smile on her face that I had made her day. I thought the stall holder would be mad, I looked up at him and he patted me on the head saying “You are going to go far kid”. I couldn’t believe it, I stood there smiling for a moment. The prizes even though I loved them seemed irrelevant as the comment the stall holder made was what I held as being the biggest prize. My Grandma ushered us away, she started giggling and said “You cheeky little devil”. The rest of the day was completely magical, we had ice cream and watched stunt men. The day went all too fast. When I was a kid, I always wanted to be an adult. Now being an adult, I want to go back to being a kid – Isn’t life a funny thing?
Storytelling has become an integral part of my performances, sharing small sentiments and experiences I find helps me connect with my audience. In this volume we are going to closely be looking at a few ways that I create ideas and I have tried to talk about the way that I approach creating stories. This is something that I have never talked about, I honestly feel I am going to struggle in areas of this volume because I have not refined the way I talk about this type of thinking. I have never really tried to quantize what my process is so this is a first for me. When reading this please take that into account. I am currently travelling through America as I write this document, I am going to try let my surrounding inspire me as I am writing. I hope you love this volume,
Pete Turner 2016
Why is finding your character so important? This is a question that shouldn’t really need an answer. I am going to answer this question anyway as I know several performers personally that have been performing professionally for over 30 years that still don’t know their own identity. These performers openly admit that they still haven’t found themselves and it is something that troubles them daily. It is so important to know who you are as a performer, I struggled for a long time with knowing who I was. Did I want to be a psychologist? A psychic? Someone who could predict the future (a fortune teller)? A philosopher? I had so many questions reverberating around my mind in regards to who I was and no answers. I went through a stage in my early twenties dressing in suits and wearing waist coats and a pocket watch in my everyday life because I thought it was who I were. I tried so many different routes and avenues and at one point even referred to my participants as ‘Subjects’, like they were some sort of guinea pig in an experiment – eurgh! I was an idiot. I look back to that point in my career and I shake my head in shame, then again I will probably do the same ten years from now. I was naïve and spent too much time focusing on what material I wanted to perform, not who I was and I always distanced my private life from my performances – I feel that was the biggest mistake I made, I expected my participants to share their private thoughts with me and wasn’t willing to share my experiences with them. In order to connect with an audience, feel credible and come across as genuine you need to be comfortable with who you are and what your character represents. It is I feel one of the most important aspects of being a mentalist.
Do you have to tell stories in your act? NO!! Not at all, but your stories and life experiences should help aid the way that you think and create/ perform. Life events are easily the best way to create premises and connect with your audience. Your stories can inspire a quote or a paragraph that you can utilize as one of your scripts, the sentiment of the story might be the thing you that you decide to share with your audience. Let your experiences be your premise, share with your audience the interesting things about you. BE THE STORY!
Philip Larkin’s rule of thirds Philip Larkin is a very interesting poet that I was introduced to by a man I am going to refer to as ‘Martin S’ some of you will definitely know whom I am talking about and for those of you who don’t, you probably never will but all the same I am thankful for his recommendation. The entirety of this volume is in some way going to be inspired by this man’s thinking. Philip Larkin at times is often too clever for his own good, which I think is purposeful within his poetry, he uses very clever verbiage when writing which can leave people arguing over meaning of the poem. Any art that divides opinion is clever tactically and it wouldn’t surprise me if Philip Larkin had done this on purpose. The reason it is so clever is that Philip has managed to capture his thoughts in such a way that they mean different things to different people without being ambiguous. You see it’s very easy to be indirect and implicit and let people find their own meaning but even harder to be totally specific and divide opinion. It’s also a great tactic as it gets people talking about him and his work. One thing that really stood out for me was how he constructed a poem and what rules he followed/ applied to creating the perfect poem. These are the exact rules that I follow when creating mentalism and I think you will see how perfectly they fit within the confines of a mentalism performance. 1. Do people believe it? 2. Do people care? 3. Do people still care? Think about that for a few seconds.
Do people believe it? The answer is not as simple as you may have first thought, it’s not as simple as it reads it’s a very in-depth question or at least I believe it is. When I looked at this question for the first time (several years ago) I assumed it meant is the effect I am performing believable or too impossible? I then after revisiting this same rule of thirds time and time again realized that I was wrong. Its way deeper than that, it’s about you as a person. Are YOU believable? If you are aiming to perform magic with a flair of mentalism or don’t claim to have real abilities then you might think that question doesn’t apply to you… It does just in ways you might have not thought about.
If people believe in you as a person, they are more inclined to sit and listen to what you have to say and invest time talking about you and what they have witnessed long after you have left. If a person feels you are fake I can guarantee to you that they will not invest time in you. They will instantly dislike you and the only thing you are going to get is negative feelings and stories shared about you after you have left.
What makes someone fake? When someone’s character is too strong, the character they have built for themselves over takes their actual characteristics/ personality and the audience don’t get to see, hear/ feel an actual representation of the performer. I believe this is why so many people are scared of clowns – They are hidden behind a veil of anonymity, we don’t know who they really are and it’s hard to understand why they are far too happy for no reason at all. There are very few people that can pull off changing themselves completely and those who do have to find other ways to be ‘believable’, they have to work hard to become their character and often even let their character take over their personal life to a point that that character is no longer a character – I hope that makes sense, in essence they become the character and that’s why they are believable. I feel it is much easier to change your character to fit your personal life than change your personal life to fit your character. It is fine to create a character, but the best way to build that character is to let the character you create share the best parts or YOU. Accentuate the things that you feel are your best qualities – This is something that I will cover in more detail later. This is the best analogy I can give as to what participants can feel like - You know when you have known someone for a long, long time and they tell you a lie to your face and you know damn well that they are lying to you and you don’t have the heart to say anything but feel hurt because they chose to lie to you? That feeling that you get when you just know they are lying doesn’t sit very nicely and the only reason that we forgive those feelings is because we have known that person for so long (if it is something that is forgivable of course). Well imagine experiencing those same feelings and not knowing the person that is lying – How would you act in that situation? Would you have the time of day for that person? Would you believe another word that, that person is saying? The answers to those questions are obvious, you wouldn’t entertain it and you certainly wouldn’t want to give that person your time and by not understanding the correct balance between your personal life and character you can easily make your audience feel that way. This is what I feel Philip was portraying when he looked at what he was writing. He constantly questioned whether his writing was believable right down to the context in which his writing existed within. I strongly think he was trying to ensure that the things he wrote came from the heart – Ask yourself when you write “is it real or is it simply constructed?”
Being believable I always say that YOU are the fascinating and entertaining force not your material. Your material should always just be an expression of yourself. Your effects should never overtake you, you need to find the golden ratio. This is the hardest factor in becoming believable – If all you do is perform effects never sharing a part of yourself then the audience can only base their judgment based on the effects and I feel that is a poor representation of you as you are not a trick or a method. One such performer that had this ratio perfect is Uri Geller. Regardless of what you feel about Uri sit at watch him. He’s such a fascinating person, he tells stories about his life and shares where he first discovered his abilities, talks openly and honestly about his process (even if it is pseudo), he waits until people ASK him to demonstrate his abilities and then he always points out that it might not work so if he is ever under heat or being examined he can simply say ‘It hasn’t worked this time’. He was so convincing when he said “I am telling it to bend in my mind over and over” and the way I feel that he sounds so convincing when he says this is even though people might believe he is faking it and the spoon is already bent I FEEL that he genuinely tries to get it to bend more and really does scream bend in his mind over and over. Even though it is pre bent, he is trying to bend it more for real – Whether the spoon bends more or not because he is trying to bend it for real and that’s how he comes across as so genuine. Read back what I have just wrote as I have tipped a massive part of my process in that one paragraph and it was inspired solely by my belief of what Uri might have done. When you are mid routine ‘reading’ a participant - actually read them outside of the pretending to do it with the information you already know actually try figure the participant out, the way you look at the them the way that you act is always going to feel real as it is real. All of them looks cannot be recreated or acted upon – This is one of the biggest secrets to coming across as real. I think he never needs feel guilty about saying those lines and the reason he comes off as genuine is because he technically is telling the truth. If you are ever going to lie to your audience think about what you are going to lie about and then ask yourself – How can I make this lie technically true? When you deliver that lie it will never feel that you are telling a lie as it is technically no longer a lie. I know this is a lot to think about, but it makes a world of difference. Let your audience know what is going on inside your head and share your feelings, remember they cannot see inside your head and therefore they will never be able to understand what it is like to see a piece of information or get an intuitive feeling and the less that your audience can understand logically, the less believable what you are doing becomes. Share with them what your brain is doing, if you can find a visual or audible way to do this
using a metaphor or prop in a stage show then I guarantee your audience will totally connect with it. This is why more often than not when you see a medium who is channeling a spirit, you will notice that they lift their head back and close their eyes and make choking noises – They are painting a process and if they make that process visual enough and believable enough then the rest becomes believable with little or no work. Regardless of your opinion of Mediums, I guarantee there is someone (wife, girlfriend or friend) who knows what you do and no matter how much you tell them mediums are fake still believes. This goes to show you just how much a ‘process’ can aid your credibility. Logic is another important factor in being believable, if your logic doesn’t fit alongside your participants/ audience’s then what you portray is always going to be hard for them believe how could it not? That’s why some people don’t believe in ghosts/ aliens because to them it doesn’t sit with their logic. If you can find a way to create a logic that covers a mass demographic then for the most part you are going to be believable. Remember though, there is no possible way that you can get everyone to believe. I have witnessed performers flat out say “I don’t believe in mediums because of X, Y and Z” usually boasting that they can replicate the same feat using other means and I feel this is the wrong approach as it indirectly suggests you are using tricks. I think regardless of your beliefs you should understand that your audience will be divided on such matters – The better approach is to walk right down the middle of the line adhering to both the divided audiences logic (believers in mediums and none believers) That is the path I personally walk. Here is an example, Performer: “I have always been fascinated with people that can make contact with the other side, I personally have never seen it up close and personal and still don’t know how much of it is actually contacting the dead and how much of it is the medium reading the person that they are delivering the message to without knowing that they are actually reading that person and the medium believing that the information is coming from somewhere else. It is certainly a subject area that divides opinion and if I am honest I am on the fence between both camps. I am sure I will never know the answers to each of the questions I have on the subject but sometimes the greatest things in life are meant to remain a mystery. However, I was still inspired enough to test myself to see if I could replicate by reading someone what I know and have seen mediums from a distance do and I would like to share with you my findings”. In terms of building rapport you have now not killed rapport with anyone - imagine pulling mediums to pieces and the people you are performing to believe in them, you have not created the best rapport with that person as you are ridiculing their belief – That is not acceptable. This is a very simple example of the importance of matching the participant’s logic and perspective you are not there to offer an opinion on what anyone else is doing – you are there to share a small piece of your mind, body and spirit.
Let’s put this in another context - one in which could easily get offensive and take a look at it there and it might point out how offensive we can be without realizing sometimes. This is a context that most performers will avoid talking about because they feel this is crossing the line, yet they don’t feel destroying and ridiculing a participant’s beliefs to be so. NOTE TO READER*** I am purely using this as an example, I hold no opinion either way and I don’t particularly mind what you believe in, as long as you are happy and healthy. Let’s say that my job was to study the skies, clouds atmosphere and everything related to such things and I said, Cloud specialist: “People who preach or post on Facebook about god are manipulative liars that play on people’s fears to regiment them in order to living life in a cult like fashion. I study the sky all day long and I can tell you there is no man hiding behind a cloud looking down viewing everyone. I mean clouds are made up of X, Y and Z and there is no way that a cloud could even hold the weight of a metaphysical being. My friend who is an expert in the solar system also states that there is no way that god could be outside of the solar system because there are XX many of planets and stars and that would make us smaller than the smallest piece of dust and god just wouldn’t be able to see that closely. Let me show you what I do at work, you can look in the sky yourself and see that gods not real”. You could very quickly rub people up the wrong way and instantly people don’t want to give you their time and rightly so. You are not there to force your opinions on other people or present facts one way or another to change somebodies beliefs. You are there to share yourself, don’t put obstacles in front of your path. Create the simplest and most direct connection and open people’s eyes to just how amazing your view is of the world. After that? Focus on the material. Is the material you a performing believable? Is the premise or the plot believable?
PDE vs. MDE: In order to keep things really simple, I tend to look at material in one of two main categories, P.D.E.’s or M.D.E.’s (This is of course before I break the material down into sub categories just to appease my O.C.D). P.D.E.’s = Performance-driven effects M.D.E.’s = Method-driven effects A performance-driven effect (PDE) is where the method from within the effect is the minimal focal point and the performance is the main focal point. The scripts, the story and the mood you create within the performance is what counts. This is the way I tend to prefer creating material. A method-driven effect (MDE) is an effect where you have a really clever (for the sake of being clever) method which the focal point of a routine and then try to fit a performance around the clever method and by default the presentation/ performance takes a back seat. There really is no right or wrong way to do things, just personal preference. It took me a long time to realize this, I harped on for a long time about how things should be done – When in reality, there are things that will work for you but won’t work for me and vice versa. I can only offer you an insight into my creative process – I tend to (when creating material) envision the finished performance (not focusing on a method) as though I was watching someone else’s performance. I then do the hindsight mentalist thing of criticizing the bits in the performance that I don’t like and then refine until it plays out perfect in my mind and then after enjoying the performance I would sit and try to work out the method. The method is the only part of an entire routine that the audience should never see, therefore it’s the only area that I don’t overtly focus on.
The fortune cookie This is something that I have probably been asked about more than anything else, I have never really talked about this principle and or effect before in writing form. When I released my Jinxed DVD set there was a moment during the ‘question and an answer’ routine that I gave the woman a billet that would ‘Change her life’. I must have had well over a thousand emails asking me what I wrote inside the billet If you haven’t seen the effect I will outline it in a moment but let me talk about my inspiration for this routine and how it affected me. I spend a lot of my private time in Spain, I bought an apartment out there as I was going through a spell of what can only be described as a midlife crises (pre midlife) everything got on top over in England and I just wanted some time away. Tim Litchfield came to spend some time with me out in Spain and during his visit (which was out of season) there really was very little to do out there other than the beach and a couple of restaurants. Each day we attempted to find somewhere new to eat/ drink and after a few days we found a little Chinese restaurant underneath an archway. When Tim left there was even fewer restaurants open as we drew further and further away from season and I had found a liking for the Chinese food. I used to visit the restaurant every other day and whilst eating there I got to know the staff, the wife of the owner was such an interesting character and had so many stories to share. Every time I went into the restaurant they told me something new and wonderful. Upon one of my many visits we got onto the subject of my relationships. Having just come out of a long term relationship, I was very open like they had been with me. At the end of the meal we all shared a shot and she then gave me a fortune cookie. She told me not to open it at the table and don’t share what ‘Fortune’ was inside. Wait till I was alone and it felt right to open it. I opened the fortune cookie and I will keep the content of the cookie to myself because I promised I would. I always talk about taking inspiration from life events. Here is what it inspired.
Effect The performer (after performing) writes something on a piece of card keeping it towards himself and addresses someone in the group. Performer: “I want you to take this, I want you to promise me that you won’t open this now, today. I want you to wait until it feels right to open it and then when you feel it is the right time then open it and inside there is something that will completely change your
life. If you open it before then, you won’t understand what the message inside means as it’s not relevant to this point in your life”. The woman takes the billet and weeks later she opens the billet and has a life changing epiphany. -
Reading this back it sounds completely shit on paper. If you have ever seen this, you will understand the actual power this routine has.
It is one of those routines which everyone else talks about long after the performance. As I mentioned earlier it is one of the routines in which I received a lot of emails asking what I put inside the billet. I was always very cagey about what I put inside the billet because it was honestly difficult to give an answer. People then took this as I was hiding something huge that I just couldn’t share. It had a power which I would have never expected. I really loved the routine in fact what am I saying? I still love this routine! There are a couple of variants – One variant I will share, the other one I will keep to myself (not because it is anything private or special but because it is going to be hard to describe). OPTIONAL*** during a performance of a quick piece, fail to pick up on the answer or set up two pieces of information reveal one of them. So there is one piece of information in ‘limbo’. At the end of your set write on a billet, “You have finally started using your feelings to make a decision, you are at a crossroads in your life in-which you are about to make a decision. If you use the same feelings you used when deciding to open this message your decision will undoubtable be the best it can be”. If you want to add a hit (which I think detracts from the overall feel of the piece). But if you do add a P.S to the message like this, P.S “I felt the last time we talked you thought of XX, thanks for sharing”. Or something along those lines that is going to generate a hit when the participant opens the piece of card later on. This is what I have always referred to as ‘The gift that keeps giving’. And really fits into Philip Larkin’s third rule – Do they still care?
Little metaphorical moments Metaphorical moments are for me the most important thing within my work. They are little sentences or tiny sentiments that are stronger than any effect. In-fact they are that strong they are easy to class them as effects themselves. A metaphorical moment is a moment of scripting that frames whatever it is I am talking about in a light that sounds beautiful, I am going to share a few of my scripts that I really love and sound incredible. I try to look at things in a nice metaphorical light to be able to make them seem interesting and indirectly suggest that I have a more well-rounded view of things. I am quite philosophical anyway but the way I look things, if I can make your participant feel that you have a different way to look at the world, it aids giving you an air of credibility when it comes to suggesting that you can read things about a person that others just might miss. More often than not a metaphorical moment can aid the presentation and make the presentation interesting. Here are a few examples -
A star sign Performer: “People believe because the stars are thousands and thousands of miles away they cannot have an effect on our lives here and now. I like to believe that they completely do, let me give you an example why. Our zodiac signs are each unique and have a specific characteristics and the way that we act is supposedly dictated by the stars we are born under. Therefore, if we can work out the way that somebody thinks, that would lead to the way that somebody acts and if we can work out all of that then wouldn’t that lead us to knowing which star someone was born under? I would like to attempt to show you my logic” -
This is a really simple way to present a star sign divination to a group.
A book Performer: “One thing I love when reading a good book is that I am indirectly reading the author’s thoughts and feelings anywhere from a few to a few thousand miles away. His or her inner-most feelings captured on paper”. This is where the participant would select a word, Performer: “Can you think of a memory or series of thoughts that spring to mind when thinking of this word?”
[IF you force a word that can evoke a memory like snowball, birthday ETC. then you have the basic idea of what the memory is and therefore you know specifics to reveal in order to make it seem like you know the memory.] Performer: “It really shows you the power you have in your hands when you read a book”.
Shuffling a deck of cards Something as small and simple as shuffling a deck of cards can create dead time. Whilst the participant is shuffling you can say something along the lines of – Performer: “It is said there are well over a quintillion different orders in which a deck of cards can end up in after being shuffled, so to quantize that, if you took all of the planets in the cosmos and put life forms on those planets assuming there is not already and gave them a deck of cards and asked them to shuffle the likeliness is that has never been in this order before and never will be again”. If the participant is still shuffling finish by saying, Performer: “If you went to the nearest beach there are less grains of sand than there are order in which the deck can end up in after being shuffled”. Reach your hand out and say, Performer: “So there is no way any of us could know the order of this deck”. The trick here is to understand when there is dead time in a routine and try to fill it with something to keep the audience entertained. I tend to now look at routines and apply the script while the participant is doing something. The above example with the book, I would apply the script while the participant is looking through the book, this indirectly suggests that you are not watching them when they are searching for the word. I try to think about all the times there could be dead time in a routine and fill it with scripts like this – This point is something that took me a long time to learn, keep things interesting and it makes the routine seem like it is moving at a nice pace and never gets boring.
Telepathy Performer: “The way that our brains transmit information is a lot like cellular communication. If you take a simple phone call as an analogy, if two people are simultaneously trying to call each other the call can never connect. If both parties are waiting for the other party to call then the call can obviously never connect. It takes one person willing to make a call and the other party willing to receive the call in order to create a successful communication. This is exactly the same as transmitting and receiving thoughts, in order to create a successful communication I need to know who is better at sending thoughts and who is better at receiving thoughts. [This enables you to have a get out of jail free card when applying a psychological force.]
Another line that I really love is – Performer: “This for me is as little about telepathy as it is as much about empathy’. [Whenever I perform I try to focus on being empathetic, I honestly feel that it is easier to pick up on someone’s feelings than it is someone’s thoughts. I always try to liken any performance to real life, in fact I probably shouldn’t call it a performance more sharing an experience.]
Time This is an interesting principle, it could be used in the Q+A, or it could be used solo. This works so well because it has the female (must be female) feel an emotion and then use them feelings to reflect upon her own life. Here is the basic idea outlined, the last time I used this was in a parlor setting, it works just as strong one on one or just for a small group. Performer: “This is for the lady in the group that has recently been feeling under confident, unappreciated by the people around her. I am not going to say who this is but you will know who I am talking to”. [This is great because most females feel this way, so most females will be thinking it is aimed at them.] Performer: “I am going to ask the female thinking this way a simple question, which right now will make no sense but in a minute I promise it will. If you could spend just five more minutes with someone who had passed away that you dearly loved, hugging and talking to them what would you give for those five minutes? I don’t want you to answer this out loud but think about it for a few seconds. If I was to give an answer to that question, the answer would be absolutely anything. [Straight away you have struck a REALLY emotional chord getting them to think about this person. Which is going to be used later for good, you also mention hugs and talking which is also something women favor massively.] Performer: “The reason I asked that question is because that is how valuable five minutes of your time is to someone else. Even though YOU have felt slightly under confident and haven’t valued your own time as much as you usually would recently doesn’t mean somebody else hasn’t and for that reason all them feelings you just felt a moment ago, someone else feels for you and you suddenly realize you are loved massively”. [Notice that I pointed out the feelings they just felt, because of this it is very easy for them to understand how loved they actually are and how someone else feels.] This approach is very, very strong and just to prove how wonderful this is I will tell you what happened after I had performed my parlor show. Several females (at individual times) approached me and thanked me, one female told me it was just what she needed to hear and that she instantly felt so much more appreciated.
It is little of the cuff readings that make the biggest differences. You can see how it focuses on emotion and making people feel, that is a wonderful thing for anyone to experience. Then to take them feelings and make them understand someone else’s feelings is such a great way to help someone heal. Just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it is not there Here is another little metaphorical reading that I use to give someone confidence. Picture the scene; I am sat with a female that tells me she is under confident. I look at her and reach into the air and pretend to pluck something out of the air (like an imaginary coin sized object). I reach for the participants palm and hold it outstretched placing the invisible object into the participant’s palm. Performer: “Do you know what that is?” Participant: “Nope” Performer: “How could you because you can’t see it right?” Participant: “No I can’t see it”. Performer: “This is confidence…I know you can’t see it but it doesn’t mean it is not there. I want you to think about that for a few seconds. Just because you cannot see it does not mean it is not there. You cannot see the wind but you can see the things that it affects. It is a strange concept, I understand that. I want you to keep that (point to the palm) to remind you that just because sometimes you cannot see the confidence in yourself, it does not mean it is not there. You are an amazing person that keeps the people around you constantly smiling and feeling inspired, an older sister of sorts. That takes confidence!” This is very small but beautiful; please don’t overlook the power of this! On the subject of time here is a routine that I utilize that I think sheds a nice light and will serve as a good example on how to utilize sentiments and story in performance.
A moment from a memory in time Effect The performer sits with a group of people and addresses a female in that group. After asking her a couple of questions about her intuitive nature, the performer asks the participant to join in attempting to divine a memory. The participant is placed in a particular frame of mind and she starts to feel answers, and with no prior knowledge of the performer, the participant reveals several pieces of information that include places and names, all of which are confirmed to be true!
Breakdown This is such an amazing piece of emotional mentalism. Don’t overlook its simple nature. I have the feeling that after reading this, you will be out performing this at any opportunity you get. I have performed this in my close-up set all around the world for some time now, and it never fails to create beautiful moments. I would go as far as to say that I am that proud of this. It is one of the only pieces I am going to continue performing even when I change my set! Please read this to the end without skipping. It may be a little ambiguous right till you get to the end, but trust me, it’s worth it. All you need for this is a watch where the stem pulls out twice. On the first click it just adjusts the date, and the second, the time, meaning if it just clicked out once, it won’t have any effect on the time. Set your watch to 7:45 and pull the pin out once and you are set (leave the pin out). (If it happens to be 7:45 in the evening or morning when you perform this, change the time on the watch to something else.) It is essential that you also know the actual time. When you are sitting with your participants, make sure you know the actual time (this is ultra-important). The easiest way to do this is to sit in a room with a clock on the wall, or double check your mobile telephone just before going into this routine. Address a female participant: Performer: “Has anyone ever told you that you have an intuitive nature surrounding you?” Let the participant respond. It really doesn’t matter what the answer is, as you are going to give the same answer regardless. I always use a female, as they tend to try a lot harder and to have a better imagination for this. Performer: “Have you ever had a moment when you just had a feeling about something, a knot in your stomach, and your feelings were true? (Let them respond.) “Have you had a feeling about a certain person and it turned out your instincts were correct?” Let them respond. It really doesn’t matter what they say. If you get someone who is being a flat-out nightmare to work with, move on to someone else at the table. I have never had this happen yet. Performer: “Would you be comfortable if we explored some of your intuitive powers?” If they say No, don’t breach their request by trying to force them; just move on to someone else at the table. I have never had someone say No, but what is important about the last question is that the participant psychologically feels something is about to happen. If it wasn’t, why would you ask the question? Look at your watch. You are about to miscall the time.
Performer: “By my watch I make it (state the real time). Does everyone here have roughly that?” Let everyone see the watch face. Remove the watch from your wrist, pull out the stem to adjust the time and start to swivel the stem while saying: Performer: “In a moment, this is what I would like you to do: take the stem of the watch and spin it between your fingers. You are going to do this until I ask you to stop turning it.” Whilst saying this, you need to secretly (but as quickly as possible) change the time to 7:45. It needs to be this time exactly, as it is going to be important later on. When you have the watch set to 7:45, address the participant. Performer: “You are going to be doing this while the watch is face down. Can you hold out your hand for me?” (Remember, this is all done in one smooth motion; your actions and scripting should work together flawlessly.) As the participant extends their hand, everyone’s focus and attention will be on them. Remember, the audience and the participant don’t have a clue about what is to happen, as the effect has not started yet, and therefore they will not be looking for you to adjust the watch to a certain time or to employ any sneaky moves. As you reach forward to place the watch into the participant’s palm, nudge the stem in half a step (setting it to adjust the date, not the time). This will now mean the participant cannot adjust the time from 7:45, yet when they turn the stem, they will believe they are adjusting the time. (There is a beautiful alternative to having to adjust the time and to push the stem to the date setting, which allows you to move straight into placing the watch into the participant’s palm after showing them a time. This is created by Steve Palmer [UK] should you want to search it out, but it is currently unpublished. This is great for anyone that has big fingers [like me] and is genuinely a really cool addition to this routine, as it makes the routine from the starting blocks really, really clean.) Place the watch face down into the palm of the participant and address them. Performer: “I want you to close your eyes for me. Take a few deep breaths in and out. Really relax every single muscle and let your mind just slip into a relaxed place. “Imagine the temperature of this place, the relaxing sounds. I want you to keep your eyes closed and to focus on a time when you thought something positive was going to happen and then it happened. “Imagine the feelings you experienced, just keeping your eyes closed while I talk to the group.”
This is where you are going to employ something beautiful. I believe it is one of the greatest things you can share with a group. For ease of remembrance, I am going to name this the Young and Free Ploy. Address everyone else at the table: Performer: “I invite you all to join (name participant’s name) in closing your eyes. (Wait till they have done this.) “I would like you all, in your minds, to travel back in time to your childhood. “Imagine seeing a younger version of yourself standing outside in one of your favorite childhood places. Imagine the sounds, the smells, and the ambiance that surrounds you. “I want you to imagine what it would feel like to be free again, to not have to worry about bills or the social stresses set by society, to be relinquished of any responsibility for a few seconds. “Imagine seeing a cheeky smile on your younger self as you imagine running through your favorite childhood place and the wind blowing through your hair. You’re running wild and free, as free as a bird. I want you all, excluding (name participant that is holding the watch), to take a few seconds, and when you feel the hairs stand up on the back of your neck, open your eyes.” (As you can see, there is a subtle use of the Confirmation Principle at the end of the last script. It suggests that the hairs will stand up on the back of the neck, and by opening their eyes, it confirms that that is exactly what has happened. While using this script, drop your voice into a calming and relaxing tone.) Wait for everyone to open their eyes. Performer: “It feels wonderful, doesn’t it? “This is exactly how (say the name of the participant with the watch) is feeling right now, and she is going to explore something amazing while in this frame of mind. “Keeping your eyes closed for just a few more seconds, (again repeating the name of the participant), I want you to concentrate on amplifying the feelings you got when you were in this scenario, and I want you in your own time to open your eyes when they are at their strongest.” (This is again the Confirmation Principle. When the participant opens her eyes, it suggests to the rest of the group that she has amplified her intuitive abilities.) Performer: “I want you to take hold of the stem of the watch between your thumb and forefinger and to start to turn it. Keep turning the stem while I am talking to you and just forget about the speed at which you’re turning the stem. In fact, pay no attention to it; just listen to my words. “I have one memory that means more to me than any other memory in my life. It is a memory that I will never forget.
“You are going to tell me what my memory is, right down to the specifics. You’re worrying right now, thinking, 'How could I do this?' “If you trust yourself and go into this with an open heart, then I promise you something amazing might just happen. “So I will get the ball rolling. I am with a family member in this memory. Don’t rush into committing to anything. Take your time, feel it in your heart and then tell me what the relation is of that family member.” (This is where you are going to prompt them to tell you parts of a memory. For now, let them create the memory. This is just an example of one of the possibilities.) Participant: “Your Granddad.” Performer: “Ok, take a few seconds, and really feel it in your heart. What was his name?” Participant: “Derek.” Performer: “You honestly are doing amazingly. Do you feel you can continue? (Let them respond.) “In this memory, were we inside or we outside?” Participant: “You were outside.” Performer: “What were we doing outside?” Participant: “He was teaching you to ride a bike.” (This is where you really solidify things. You need to put emotion into you story, so I suggest building a memory that is slightly upsetting. You are going to need to improvise slightly; this is very easy, as they have given you a structure. This is where you will take the memory they created and make it a little more vivid. Smile when you say the following lines.) Performer: “I am going to stop you right there, (name of participant). Please push in the stem on the watch and keep the watch face down. You genuinely felt the stem of the watch push in? (Let them respond.) “There is no way that you, nor I, could know the time you set on the watch. (Let them respond.) “Let me tell you about the memory. This memory was about one of the most important men ever in my life: my granddad. His name was Dennis, not Derek, but you were very close. “I lived on Hillcrest Avenue at the time. What was really great about this memory was that I remember staying up late and him taking me out after my friends had gone in to get ready for bed. We went out at that time just so I had no pressure with them watching me.
“I was really embarrassed, as I never had a Mum or a Dad to teach me how to ride a bike. I lived with my Nana Pat. My granddad came over every couple of weeks, and this was a particularly special week for me. “My granddad held the back of the bike as we went up and down the avenue a few times. After a couple of failed attempts of trying to balance, my Nan appeared at the door and shouted over: 'Dennis, bring (use your name here) in. Its 7:45 (call out the time you set the watch to) and it’s time to get him ready for bed.' “No sooner had those words escaped my Nan’s mouth than my granddad looked up; he forgot to keep hold of the bike. Off I went on my own, riding my bike for the very first time ever! “I was so proud of myself. I felt the wind blow through my hair and I was free. I probably wouldn’t have remembered the time if my Nan had not shouted, but it’s a memory I certainly shall never forget. "I know what some of you may be thinking, that maybe I am just agreeing with (name the participant).” Lean over toward the participant and speak so the rest can hear, but suggest with your body language as though you are just talking to them. Performer: “I think you and I both know I am not, and you really did feel all of those things. There is only one way I could confirm that (name participant) really did intuitively pick up on that memory, and feel the name and all the additional details. “My memory happened a little after 7:45 in the evening. You turned the stem of the watch until we both lost track of the time…. What time have you subconsciously set the watch to?” Get ready to watch your participant’s reaction. She will flip over the watch, and when she states aloud 7:45, this is all you need to confirm that the entire memory took place and that she did, in fact, receive it! After the demonstration, it is important to prove the watch is, in fact, working (just to knock that theory out of the ballpark should anyone question it). Don’t point out that the watch is working. You should just imply. This is done very simply. Wait till everything that has happened has sunk in. Then when it has sunk in, reach forward to take the watch back, but don’t bring it toward your body. Hold the watch in your hands and ask for the time. When you get the time, tilt the face forward slightly so people can see that the time changes (this will prevent anyone from thinking it doesn’t move), and then pop it in and casually let them see it working as you move your hands back toward your body. This just puts the cherry on top of the cake. This routine really shows you the power of the Confirmation Principle. These small principles are often overlooked, but can be so powerful that they take a simple routine and turn it into a miracle. You will notice that I let them take a near hit on the name. I think it is much more credible, as that psychologically makes it appear very early on that you are not just
agreeing with them. The secret to making the rest of this seem credible is to build in actual pieces of your own memory around the memory they created. So for example, when I reiterated the memory back to the participant (in the above example), I added that I lived at Hillcrest Avenue, which I really did. I did learn to ride a bike there; I did grow up with my Nan. It was mostly true, and because it was true, I could tell it with conviction and gain credibility even before the watch was turned over. The improvisation process is really easy. Let’s take a look at another example of a memory they could create and how you would improvise around it. Family relation: Dad Name: Paul Inside or Outside: Outside What were we doing: Football I will keep this very brief just to give you the idea of how simple this is (just a paragraph to summarize). Phil, not Paul (let the participant have a near miss). We were on Hillcrest Avenue. I saw my dad, and as I didn’t grow up with him, it was a complete shock. My brother, Sam, and I approached our dad, and he took us to Littlemoor Park, which was about a five minute walk from our house. We played football and completely lost track of time until our Nan phoned. She was mad and proclaimed, “It’s 7:45. The boys should be in bed now.” I think you get the picture. Please do not ruin this by presenting just like this. It is just a summary, an example. The more emotion you put into telling the story of the memory, the better it will come across. This is a real example of just how powerful presentation is in mentalism. If you can make your eyes water, use it, talk more softly and, when you talk about the memory, remember it is the first time you have talked about this memory. It doesn’t matter if you look like you are searching for the details, as it adds to the credibility. Never underestimate the power of using the participant as leverage. Let them change their mind, let them feel and let them create.
Beautiful symphony This is another beautiful reading based piece, it may seem short in nature don’t overlook its power. This is for a woman that has recently started dating (in the first couple of months). Often during this time there are a lot of things people will message each other via text message or social media. This is for nothing more than lack of confidence in personal interaction and ease of using social media to portray how we feel. You will occasionally find yourself in these situations and when you do trust me this is so strong it is worth taking advantage of.
Performer: “I feel there is something you have been meaning to say to (name the person they are dating). I think there has been a confidence issue that is holding you back. I am going to let you in on a little secret; he (or she) is thinking the exact same thing at this moment in time! I know you have often found yourself sat phone in hand about to send a message to tell that person what it is you want to say but before you go home and do this I want to ask you a question. Have you ever heard a piece of music so amazing that it made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up on end?” (Let them respond) Performer: “Do you think that piece of music would have made the hairs stand on the back of your neck if I had written down the notes on a piece of paper and simply showed you them?” (Let them respond the answer is obviously going to be a no) Performer: “I think this is very similar situation and I think you now know what you need to do”. This is what I like to call a sideways entrance into someone’s emotions. You create a very simple formula for them that they can take a couple of seconds to think about and then answer mentally. Because they answer the question, the chances of them actually taking action are a lot higher because they believe it was their idea.
Chaos This is a routine that I am tinkering with at the moment but the script is adjustable to just about any performance in which things are messed up and mixed about and then end up in an order – Like the E.S.P symbols for example. I will outline the way I do the effect – I will share the method, please take note though the method is something I am still currently working on, I don’t feel it is the right one for this effect just yet but I think once I have the right method down it will be so smooth. Right now this one kills, you can either use this as an open to an out of this world routine in which the participants make all the decisions or you can reveal as it – I have used both. Let me explain the effect.
Effect The performer displays a deck of cards, he mixes the cards face up and face down and quickly shows the participants sat at the table just how he can readjust the deck with little or no work. He then displays the faces and gets confirmation that the faces are still well mixed.
He proposes that the participants at the table mix the deck of cards. He runs through the deck and asks participant number one to say stop. The moment participant one says stop the performer stops at the position and hands that stack of cards to participant one. He hands the remaining cards to a second participant. After both parties have shuffled the deck, ensuring the faces are toward the floor to overly make sure none of us can track the shuffle or know the order of the deck the two packets are swapped and the process is repeated. When participant one is finished he places his cards on the table, participant two finishes and places her cards on top of participant ones. Both participant one and two are asked if they are happy or would like to shuffle more. They both decline the offer and the performer addresses the pair of them – Performer: “There is obviously no way that any of us could know the order of those cards because of the haphazard way that the decks were shuffled – Has either of you ever heard of chaos theory?” Participants in unison: “No” Performer: “It’s a theory that suggests if a Butterfly flaps its wings in Japan it could create a hurricane in Toronto. I once heard a sentiment presented by Hideo Kojima that expressed that even flowers bloom on a battlefield. I think that truly expresses the way we should look at the world. I don’t like to think that something as beautiful as a butterfly can create so much destruction and damage but that something that is so damaging such as a hurricane in Toronto can aid a baby butterfly in somewhere as far away as Japan to flap its wings. I think it is a much nicer way to look at the world. Take for example the situation at hand, you haphazardly mixed up a deck that was already haphazard. How is it possible to create something beautiful from something so chaotic? The secret is simple, to look at things backwards. Maybe when took the cards and mixed them up your actions really weren’t mixing them up you were actually rectifying the order of the deck. Then when I offered you to mix them some more the reason you declined is not because you felt they were mixed enough but because you somehow knew it was just enough of a mix. The performer turns over the deck and spreads them on the table and the deck has been perfectly separated. All the reds from all of the blacks! Sounds impossible and certainly gets an incredible reaction. The story is the thing that I love the most in this routine. Read and re-read it because the amount of different routines that this story/ sentiment can slot into is unbelievable.
Breakdown The description doesn’t leave much to figure out the method. It is the same watching it, my aim is never to fry people as I don’t like being fooling – It is just something I feel that is not for me BUT that said every magician I have ever shared this routine with has been fried at the outcome. I don’t think there is one magician that has figured this out. The only thing that is stopping this routine from being perfect is if the deck was back in new deck order and I think the solution has just hit me now writing this document! FUCK – I will thank you guys for that. I would of course need to test it out but I think it would work. Anyway, back to the routine at hand. The first thing is making the deck seem randomly mixed up and creating a reason for you not touching the deck. I am going to first utilize the ‘Slop shuffle’ – I believe it is called that, I couldn’t tell you who invented it or where it was first referenced. This is going to be difficult for me to explain but I will do my best to explain it as elegantly as possible. Take half a deck of cards – This just makes it easier for me to explain, when you have your half a deck come back. Hold the half of a deck in your left hand in dealers position so that the cards are face up - As though you were about to deal cards onto the table. Thumb one card off of the deck and push it into your right hand which is mirroring your left hand (it too is in dealers position, receiving the cards with your thumb, in essence you are pushing the cards from one hand in dealers position to the other in dealers position). After thumbing over a couple of cards into your right hand, turn your right hand over and place the thumbed off cards (which are now in your right hand and upside down) ontop of the cards in the dealers grip of your left hand. What you are doing is placing facedown cards on top of the face up cards. When you have done this thumb the face up cards into your right hand and then turn your wrist back over and then place the packet in your right hand onto the top of the left hand packet and thumb more off. Repeat this process and in the end what you will notice is that half of the packet will be face up and half will be face down but separated into the two halves so by simply turning over the facedown half the deck will all be back orientated the same way. It will deceive you the first time that you do it as it really looks like the deck is mixed face up and facedown. Once you have learnt this technique practice it with a full deck, then the real fun begins. Shuffle the deck so that it is well mixed utilize the slop shuffle as outlined above but – only turn your hand over every time you hit a different colored card to the face card.
If the face card is red you would twist your wrist when you hit a black card and vice versa. When you get to the end of the slop shuffle this time you will realize that you have separated the deck red from black almost instantly. This is the guise that you will be using in performance once you have done this your work is almost done. There is really not too much left to do. If you can efficiently do this there is little or no work on your part. As an alternative to this, if you are not comfortable doing this you could already start with the deck separated red from black and false shuffle a couple of times to give the illusion that the deck is well mixed either way it leads to this moment in performance that is super bold but totally kicks the shit out of every person in the room. This is something I learnt a long time ago, if you are bold enough to state something with enough confidence it becomes real – What do I mean by that? In performance I mix the cards face up and facedown and quickly separate them proving that even something as difficult as a deck being shuffled like that is not a challenge for me to rectify. This is the bold moment, I then turn toward the participant that is sat at the right hand side of me, and I casually flash the cards while saying “the cards are still well mixed”. I honestly even though the cards are all red and all black the person will say yes!! It is the weirdest thing to experience, you have just shown someone a deck of cards that are in order and they would swear that the deck is mixed up. This is the only confirmation that the group need to feel the deck is mixed up it is very casual. This is where you are going to apply something that I can only describe as a face up classic force. Thumb through the cards and then say to someone at the table “Tell me when to stop”. The aim is to get them to stop right where the black cards touch the red (the very middle of the deck). This is not necessary to the performance but I love adding that little bit where I can say “If you had of gone one card more or one card less this would have been different”. Now the group feel that they are the ones that made the decision as to how many cards they were going to be shuffling. It really doesn’t matter how they shuffle the cards, one person will be holding all of the reds and one person will be holding all of the black so that they can shuffle to their hearts content. After they have shuffled for a few second ask them to swap packets and continue. When they are done simply ask one participant to place their packet on the table and then the other participant to place their packet on top of that.
This is where you are going to have to be very bold. After both packets are on the table ask each of them this question (you ask the question once but look toward both of them) Performer: “Are you happy the deck is mixed to a point none of us could know the order?” Let them answer yes and proceed with – Performer: “Do you want to pick them up and mix them some more or are you completely happy?” By getting the confirmation that they are happy the deck is completely mixed up and then getting them to verbalize a yes and then asking them after that if they would like to shuffle you can guarantee that they will say no. The reason that they will say no is that they have confirmed to themselves that they are happy and to say yes at this point they would have to go back on their word that they made a moment ago. This is the bit that ensures that they are going to totally think this is fair as when it comes to them recapping what happened they will remember that you asked them if they wanted them to shuffle some more. If you ever get someone that is so adamant that they want to re-shuffle the deck simply half them and let them re shuffle, I can honestly say I have never had this happen and I have worked for some of the worst kinds of people. I also think if the process of them shuffling the first time was good enough they will never want to shuffle again as it took them some time to shuffle the first time and it can become a laborious process. This is where I would apply the sentiment putting a time delay in-between the shuffling process and the reveal.
The approach This is a question that I answer as I find it hard outlining this for people performs, so this is going
get asked all the time, I have never really given a concise to express in just a few words via a messaging service. I am who want to get well on their way to becoming someone who to apply to close up and social situations.
I have copied one of the questions into here, I will leave the poster anonymous. The reason for sharing this is so that if you feel the same, you know that you are not the only one. I too struggled with this at one time and I will share with you my outlook and opinion on said question. “Hi Pete, I love your work thank you for everything you have reignited my passion for mentalism. Do you have any advice on not shaking when performing? I approach the people that I want to perform for confidently and then when I open my mouth I forget what I want to say and my hands shake when I am handing things to the participant. I try to hide my hands but it just makes me feel like I am out of place”.
To answer the question I am going to break it down into bullet points, and add a few points as some people may not have the confidence to approach people. -
Approaching people Forgetting what to say Shaking hands
Each of these points are things that I am going to look at in depth, because each one of them is equally as important as the last.
Approaching people This is the first hurdle in the process – I am going to liken it to my singing. It sounds strange because the things seem so dissimilar but you will understand why it is so relevant. For as long as I can remember I have played the guitar, I was always a lead guitar player and because of that I never really had any passion to sing. I remember that when I was asked to do backing vocals in every band I have ever been in shying away from the idea. I found when I was about 18 that I was pretty good at hardcore heavy metal vocals and became the front man in a bad – Still shying away from singing and only doing it if it was essential with my voice being hid behind all the backing vocals in the band when I did. I liked listening to that music but realized that a lot of my preferences changed and I started mellowing out and playing acoustic guitar and I wished that I had spent the time learning how to sing! I was sat one man, one guitar playing songs and I could not for the life in me sing them. My range was terrible I could not sing along to my favorite records as I was scared. I hid behind the guitar and whenever I went to a jam session they would try and push me to sing and I hated it with a vengeance. Really sickened me to the stomach at the thought of it. I would get the shakes, panic and I even made excuses and left several times. All my life I have been an entertainer, performer, talker and confident in all social situations. Ask me to do that and BOOM I fall flat like a quivering leaf. About two years ago I decided I was going to learn to sing, not in public just for me. I decided that I was going to practice my singing, Paul Shirley (fellow mentalist and amazing guitar player/ professional singer and muso) pulled at me to show him what I could and couldn’t do over Skype. I was nervous and that made me sound really bad and I think Paul humored me but he didn’t ridicule me. He told me what to focus on when singing and what to forget. I then just started singing on my own in my room practicing all the time. Whenever I got a spare five minutes I would sit and sing, in the car when I was on my own I would sit and sing. One night out I got really drunk and ended up on karaoke and sun ‘Wonderwall by Oasis’ and even though the singing was sketchy people sang along with me and hid my imperfections. I honestly had a good time and realized that people don’t care.
A few months later I went to see a band and the singer was horrific, but knew she was horrific – I never made a point about how bad she was but we got talking after the show and after a couple of drinks I asked her how she became a singer and how she got the confidence to be able to sing in-front of people. The answer she gave me was the real secret and I think that secret ties over so well here. “If you have something you love and you want to share, share it. Fuck anyone that doesn’t like it, you’re not going to like everything that they do”. I didn’t like her singing, yet there I was sharing a drink with her getting on like a house on fire and she felt good. I realized that the confidence to do it was all that I was missing the rest would come later. Sure I was not going to be perfect and I would be out of tune at times, but how would I ever improve the bits where I was out of tune if I never knew I was out of tune as even when I was singing to myself I was singing very quietly. I decided to adopt her attitude and just go for it. I started in a very small way, just singing around people that I knew and spent a lot of time with and when I started singing I played songs that I knew we liked and then I found they sang along with me – Just as badly as I did! But it didn’t matter I felt liberated. I started hearing the bits where my voice didn’t work, learnt my restrictions and strengths, what keys I could sing in and what keys I couldn’t and then looked at the way I constructed the phrasing in songs to make them my own. I started singing around the house, in the car and even sang at jam sessions and I have managed to fool people into believing I can sing! – Well some people. The key is the way I broke down the girl’s advice. I didn’t think to myself, fuck everyone and not try to improve. It was nice to know that people don’t care and people won’t really think any worse of you as a person if you cannot sing. Plus singing is something that not everyone can do. I broke the singing down, what key could I sing comfortably in, what phrasing works what doesn’t, what songs can I sing and what songs should I avoid these were all points I focused on and approaching people in mentalism is no different. Remember no one (based on probability) is going to be able to do what you can do, therefore they cannot judge you anyway – In this way it is the same as the singing the only people that are going to judge you are going to be people that can perform and do perform. The rest are just happy to be seeing something outside the norm of what they are used to seeing. What approach works for you? That is a key question, if you run in telling people you are a mind reader and people do not believe in such things then you are starting your performance on the back foot. If
you interrupt people when they do not want to be interrupted then you are going to create a bad rapport. Work on the introduction, how do you get the conversation to naturally flow towards what it is you do? How do you tell people what you do, do you let them coax it out of you and therefore they are a lot more forgiving with you being slightly nervous – This is a key ingredient, you act as though are nervous because you don’t want people to judge you, this will look why you will look nervous NOT THE PERFORMANCE. Paint the being nervous red, tell people that you are nervous because you do not usually share that part of your life and have kept it a secret for a long time. This will also give you an air of credibility because from the off you are not saying that you are a performer. Another way to approach this is the confident approach, tell people you are a performer but with the confident approach you have to be able to handle your shit. Remember there is always the ‘alpha’ in the situation that thinks that he needs to act like an asshole. Make sure you are prepared for every possible outcome. One thing I can tell you is if you use the lines – “I’m a mind reader” The first response you will get back is, go on then what am I thinking now. I have covered the response to this questions many times in the past and won’t waste page space by talking about it here. I will however share something else that you might get some fun using, On a business card look at the group that you are approaching, if it is a group of two/ three this is perfect. On a business card write one of the person’s rough description and then follow with Will ask me, what am I thinking now? Write a card up for each of the peoples descriptions. If you wanted to go the extra mile and you are sat before approaching and you happen to catch any of the people’s names add the names to the cards also. If any of the group decides to be smart and use the aforementioned line, hit them with the prepared business card. Then after you get the reaction whatever it is move into a piece of hard hitting mentalism. You will find that what works with one group may not work with another group and that is where you just need to do it enough times to learn by the way the conversation opens up what approach works. This is the same as the phrasing in the music changing it to fit
you and then there are some groups where you know that a performance is just not going to work. That is the same as me deciding that I am never going to sing some songs because there is no possible way to sing them (for me) so I will just enjoy them. Imagine that approaching someone is an effect, if you have a friend that is confident at that sort of thing you could utilize the third party introduction and have him sing your praises and you create some intrigue. Ensure that your friend is an interesting person also though as you don’t want to make your friend feel un-comfortable by outshining his or her company – This one took me a long time to learn. Always make everyone else’s qualities shine through. Ask the people you are approaching what they like to do, what hobbies or interests that they have and if it is something like singing ask them if they get nervous when singing around people. That way they will understand the pressure you are under. It is all horses for courses, you will get used to feeling your way around an introduction in order to be able to smoothly open the floor to perform for someone. Each part of a performance from start to finish counts, in social situations let it naturally veer towards that. Focus on what you are socially strong at and what makes you come across as odd, cut out the oddities, focus on what is getting a nice reaction and what is causing problems and just bend accordingly fix it.
The shakes This is probably the easiest fix of them all, depending on whether you have the shakes when you talk regularly or not. I found that on camera a lot of the performers that I consult for get red light fever as soon as the camera starts to roll they fidget and move around a lot. Then they look awkward and start to lose their confidence, the advice I give to combat this is talk to the person you are performing to for a minute or two. Take the time to really get to know them and the moment you feel comfortable then move forward with what you want to show them, this way when you hit your comfortable patch that is the zone that you will be performing in. I often found that by talking to your audience you also find things out about them and come across as a more likable performer. A lot of performers the first few moment they walk out on stage are shaking, it is a nerve wracking experience and the opening line is so integral to seeming like a good stage performer. If you do get the shakes during a performance and you get them really bad, my advice would be (in a stage context) to open with a routine that seems like it has an air of risk. Like smash and stab. Notice I said SEEM like it has an air of risk, I am in no way condoning actually performing a routine that has risks.
That way when you are shaking you are shaking because you are nervous because of the possible outcome. By the time the shakes have left the first routine will be over and if anything it will just add to the dramatics of the piece as a whole.
Forgetting what to say/ people’s names This is something that happens to all of us, it’s not something that is entirely possible to combat but something that we can learn to avoid and work around. The real secret when you have forgotten what to say is to have back up scripts. Stock scripts that you can slot into a performance to make you seem interesting until you get back on track. Learn facts about things you perform that way when you lose your place in a performance you can quickly and comfortably either replace a chunk of the script with a fact that is congruent or consistent to what you are doing or get yourself back on track. Learn how to talk about nothing for a few seconds and make small talk, you do it every single day in every other context it is just the same in this context.
Forget me not Every once in a while, no matter how professional and tight our show/set or memory is, there are times when we all make the mistake of forgetting someone’s name. I believe this is the worst mistake a performer can make for several reasons. One, any rapport you have created between you and your participant will be gone after this moment. It will seem like you are impersonal and don’t care enough about your participants to remember their names, and if they have remembered your name, it makes you seem really impolite. Not only that you read minds! If you can’t remember a name how do you frame it as though you cannot remember a name? I do have a remedy for this, but as this book is about getting to know me a little bit, let me tell you where this idea was born. This fits in consistently with the aforementioned analogy of me and my music and I have also shared a couple of photos so you can see just how different I look.
The first photograph is the Manville arms, Halloween night. My guitar decided that it was going to die and I couldn’t afford a spare so I just bossed my way through it with the mic. The second photo is me performing at Gasworks.
I used to be a session musician during another part of my life that very few people know about, and during this period of my life (which was years ago), I was in a band that used to tour. Obviously, being in a band meant I enjoyed a drink after my set, and that led to Dutch courage, Dutch courage led to socializing, socializing led to meeting girls and meeting girls sometimes ended in fumbling. (Not that I am here to brag about that period in my life, or think the things I did back then were something to be proud of. I genuinely am not proud of that time in my life, but glad it happened to make me appreciate things now. There is a point to this I promise.) A lot of the time after a booze-filled evening, I would go home with a girl, and when I awoke the next morning, I would not remember anything, not even her name. You think forgetting someone’s name during a routine is bad, this is the worst situation you could ever expect to be in. So I remedied it just in case it ever happened, just to avoid awkwardness the next day. The night I met the girl, I would take her number (storing her name in my phone). She would invite me to her place or ask to come back, and the next morning if I didn’t remember her name, I would pretend to lose my phone and ask her to call it. I would find it down the front of the bed, see who the missed call was from and POW! I also feel I should point out that in the area I lived in in England, the girls were often the ones that wanted to go back. They are far worse than males! I was young and stupid. Looking back, I am glad that I got it out of my system early on in life, and now I can enjoy a more responsible lifestyle. I am a fairly intricate personality type, and therefore the things that most people take as not being relevant or important I tend to find solutions for. So naturally I would like to be prepared for something as small and forgetting someone’s name. Here is a little subtlety for asking a participant for their name “again” without seeming like you forgot it— “again” being the operative word. Touch the participant on the arm (which seems really natural). It not only creates rapport, but lets the participant know you are talking to them. Performer: “I will share with you a really interesting fact. I don’t know if you know this, but our names can give away so much about us. “They can indirectly tell us about our heritage, therefore telling us what background we come from, and at the same time via inheritance help us deduce someone’s characteristics and physical attributes. “For example, if your last name is Smith, it would suggest decades ago your family would have been a family of blacksmiths or locksmiths. “This would mean someone with the last name Smith would have certain traits that are passed down through their family tree.
“Let’s look at a blacksmith’s characteristics and physical attributes. “They are obviously strong and articulate with their work, which would make them focused and detail oriented. “They would pass their skills on father to son, father to son, which meant they were secretive and traditional in their thought processes. This would happen until fate intervened and one member didn’t follow tradition, which would be disturbing as they were creatures of habit or routine. “The one anomalous family member would still have inherited certain genes/mannerisms from a long line of predecessors and would pass it on to future offspring. “This would mean I could by default get a fairly accurate impression of someone’s characteristics and traits based on their name. “What is your full name?” What you have achieved is created a logical reason for them to tell you their full name. I always feel a good logical justification, no matter what the circumstance, can get you out of some real situations. Now you have the name, you need to give a reading based on the last name. This is where you need to be quick on your feet. Take the last name, and look at its qualities. Here is a random one: Greenwood. What could I make up about this? Ok, this person is the keeper of a small patch of private forestry, somebody responsible for the game in said woods, and the person in charge of ensuring the woods were presentable and in bloom when people visited to hunt. Based on what I made up, what do I know about the person? Outdoors type, clean, meticulous, organized, watchful, patient, responsible, secure, physically strong, intelligent and adaptive. These are all things that can be used in a situation for a reading. Let’s do this one more time, and then I will leave you with a last name and you can try it. The last name Lee. Well the first thing is that this doesn’t depict a job, so you can’t use that to your advantage. You have to think quickly. My initial thoughts would be that this person has escaped having to work because they are of bourgeois descent. They are titled, which means they are bold, decisive, strong, leaders, small family, secretive, business minded and constantly evolving.
Notice how all of the terms I used to describe the person were complimentary. Most people are willing to accept a compliment and reject anything bad said about them, unless, of course, the bad thing or thing that needs changing is eased in gently amongst several compliments. So here is the last name I want you to try this with: Turner. Take your time and don’t rush this. This is just like anything else: it takes practice. Once you have this down to full speed you can do it instantly. You would not believe how interested people are in hearing about their heritage. The reason they are interested is because it is about a part of them that they did not know themselves. This is a quick sure fire way to get the information from the participant and it also is a way to give you credit for nothing. These are all subtle ways to improve your overall look as a performer, these are not things that you are going to pick up overnight. I got to have a little glance at my new penguin lecture the other night, and I smiled just a little bit at the noticeable improvements I have made. It has taken me a hell of a long time to get into a groove and I know I will improve every single day. I have been my own worst enemy, I push myself all the time to improve and I will continue to make mistakes and then refine those mistakes in order to be able to better myself.
How to construct a story I am going to outline two stories that I know most of you will have heard me share in the past and then after sharing the stories break each down to tell you how they were constructed. The story from Isabella’s star The performer addresses the participant, Performer: “As far as you know, you have never met my granddad correct? Let them respond. Performer: “Therefore nothing in my granddads life ever had an effect on yours. (Let them confirm this) My granddad was an antiques dealer and before I was born he moved to Romania. Being an antique dealer, he met people from all walks of life and frequently traded with the local gypsies. While visiting the local gypsy camp, my granddad met the eyes of a beautiful gypsy and he instantly fell head over heels. He smiled at her, she smiled back and then she fled. To us that smile means absolutely nothing (wait for acknowledgement) but to him it was a life changing experience as it gave him the courage to make her fall in love with him. Several months passed and they fell in love and moved back to England; she was called Isabella. My mom was born shortly afterwards and some years after that I was born. I used to love visiting Grandma and Granddads as a child as he would always share with me random fats and trivia that was based on logic and she shared many stories; beautiful tales of seeing
dreams and reminded me before I left every single time that our lives were mapped out for us in the stars. They were complete opposites, my granddad led his life based on logic and my grandma instinct and feelings. I think the reason that opposites attract is that they fill the void that is missing from each of the others heart and soul. My grandma and granddad certainly brought balance to each other’s life. Years passed and my interest for the stories dwindled to the point where I completely forgot about them and stopped asking my grandma to tell them. My granddad was taken ill and shortly afterwards died of cancer and it really took its toll on my grandma. True to love bird theory she started to fall apart. It wasn’t long before she herself was on her death bed. I remember peeking in the room and she asked me to come in, we sat and we talked and she didn’t look worried at all. She told me that even though her and my granddad won’t be around on the physical plane if I ever felt that I needed them all I had to do was go out and look up into the night’s sky and they would always be there watching. She took my hand and finished with “never forget that we start our existence as a star and the moment our life fades we become the brightest star in the sky”. What I took from that is that life is the biggest mystery of all and all the small things we don’t pay attention to and give absolutely no relevance suddenly became relevant. Even though you never met my granddad all of this started with one simple smile, it led to me being in this (Name place) in (Name area), talking to you right now. If my granddad had never smiled at my grandma I wouldn’t be here right now and if I wasn’t here, neither would you and it really shows you how the smallest things in our lives have the biggest effect on someone else’s somewhere else. When you are feeling that you don’t make a difference just think of this and remember the power you have at your fingertips.
Breakdown It is really strange to break down what makes this story what it is, I am going to explain it as though I am breaking someone else’s story down. You will of course notice that I changed some bits of the story and I do not tell the story now how I did back then when the routine first came out as there was massive parts of the story that were missing that I felt could have been better and made the overall feel of the story more connecting and worth listening. The first thing is that this story ha a lot of different elements running through it some of it soaked in truth other bits of it I constructed for the effect and to effect the listener. One thing that I do with a lot of the stories that I tell is adapt a very Alfred Hitchcock style way of presenting them. The beginning is the end, this brings everything full circle. My favorite type of effect has always been like that, the kicker to the story has been facing you the entire time but we just don’t see it as we have to move forwards to go backwards. It also means the story feels complete. The problem when telling a story in performance is that is very
easy to make the story feel incomplete and the point that you are trying to make with the story gets missed because the audience are still too busy trying to work out the story. Another thing that is important in story telling is to find a way to connect with your audience and let them feel the key points in the story so they become invested in it. This is the most difficult thing to do of all. I am of course going to break these categories down further – have a spinal structure that is an overview to build around. Use powerful words and sentiments. Don’t be scared to act or sound like a child. Learn when to smile and when to be sad. I have briefly outlined some of the things that I focus on, almost thinking out loud so let e break these points down and explain the logic.
The circle This is the art of making everything come full circle, I start with a question that seems so simple and logical, and a question I know that they will answer wrong, but not wrong in the sense of me overtly pointing out that they got it wrong. I call this process baiting. I give them a hook and the bait and let them take it. I then move into the story and the very last line in the story addresses the first question I asked and instead of saying “Nope, you were wrong” I’m implicitly saying “let’s look at how amazing this is that it defies logic” without actually saying it. By making the start the end and vice versa you have a simple point to aim towards in the story. When writing a story if the story is open ended then it’s hard to find a solid point to end on – hence my cheekiness applying the Hitchcock theory. I then start by introduction the story. When you look at an advertisement for a house or a car the first picture you will always see is what I call a wide. A view of the outside of the house or the car before it gets down to the nitty gritty/ finer details. This is no different. Set the scene, let your audience know what and where the story starts. Not too long but gives people an insight into everything the story encompasses. Mine is simple, Who? My granddad. Where? Romania. What’s he doing there? He’s a salesman. What’s the story about? A love story.
Why? To remind everyone that it is the smallest things in life that count. I have an outline and then I fit the bits around it that are factual and relevant. This helps me share the emotion and feelings from within the story. Then I look at the story and I find the bits that are missing and fill them with the filler. The filler is the bit that I focus the least on – That is not to say the filler is not important remember not everything you talk about is going to connect with your audience. The bits that seem the most irrelevant to you might just be the bits that are the most important to your participant’s as they relate to it much more than the spinal structure of the story. Every aspect of your story needs to be carefully constructed to elicit a specific response. Decide who the foot notes are in the story, don’t let those people choke the story, you have to learn to ‘cut the fat’. You have to learn most of all not to be precious with your stories – Which sounds counter intuitive, but the secret to a good story is to write it an refine it and then read it back from the perspective of another writer. While reading it from the perspective of another writer then be the hindsight writer if this wasn’t your story what would you cut out? If you struggle to do this, send the document to someone who will cut the fat out of it. It is sometimes nice to hear other people’s opinion, just be careful who you pick to do this task, ensure that their thinking is similar to yours. With that in mind let’s take a look at another story that a good number of you will be familiar with. This story starts down the road from me at the Bradshaw tavern, whenever any friend of mine comes into town there are only a couple of places we can go to escape one being the Crown and the other the Bradshaw tavern. The Bradshaw tavern is always the best on a weekend as it is only ever frequented by Pensioners. I am sat in the bar and at the time I really didn’t know how to jazz with cards – It was round about the time that I had come up with ‘Trust your instincts’ and was raring to share the routine with my friends and I remember the bar being a lot quieter than usual. The usual smell of the creamy mash potatoes, meat and gravy drifted through the air. The music was on very low, so low it could only be described as a hum. The people around us were eating and drinking and mostly engorged in their own little world. Whilst jamming with my friends I noticed a little elderly lady sat on the next table up to our own glancing over and then quickly looking away as though to not catch our attention. It was too late, she was hardly the most conspicuous of people as I had noticed that she had looked over on more than one occasion. Sat next to the elderly lady was an elderly man who had just finished his half pint of ale and was wiping the remainder of the cream off of his top lip. He asked the elderly lady a question, I don’t know what he asked or what she answered as I was trying to not to pry. I can only assume he was going to the bar to get a drink as he stood up and left.
The moment he left the elderly lady gingerly looked over and as soon as my eyes made contact with her she said “Excuse me love are you a psychic?” I paused for a second, then gently responded that I was not. “What about a magician?” Was her follow up question, I looked her in her eyes and responded “I am somewhere in between being a psychic and a magician”. She smiled at me and said “It’s me and my Husbands 50th wedding anniversary and we would love it if you could show us something”. I usually wouldn’t socially perform in a bar unless I am really feeling it, or if I have something that I am excited to share but who am I to refuse someone a gift on their 50th wedding anniversary? The elderly gentleman returned and sat at the table, the situation was explained and we all became acquainted – In my head I was saying to myself “What effect would be great enough to share with this couple on their wedding anniversary?” I decided and produced a deck of cards, I had the male take the deck under the table go through the cards facedown and bring one card out placing it on the table. The elderly lady repeated the same task and I shared this story – this is somewhat a legend in North Carolina set in a town called Durham. At the duke university were two students John and Joanne. The couple were just your average teenage couple, both studying at the Duke University. Both of the student’s worlds collided and they fell madly in love with each other to the point that they moved classes to be together. In the couples spare time John was a poet and Joanna was a photographer. Several months into the relationship the couple were lying in bed, when the rain started to tap on the window. The couple were hidden under the duvet in the warmth of the indoors when Joanne snuggled up to John and whispered in his ear “I love you”. John reciprocated by holding Joanne tightly in his arms and telling her he loved her more than life itself. Joanne fell asleep; John as he did many late nights felt inspired. He rolled over reached into his bed side drawer and scribbled something onto a piece of paper. He took that piece of paper and sealed it inside his wallet. After putting the note back into his pocket he fell asleep forgetting all about it. Several months passed and the couple did everything they could do to consciously make each other’s life easy. After a night at a driving movie the couple climbed into the car and started to make their way home, John sensed an uneasiness he looked toward Joanna to try gauge the situation, after a few moments of trying he outright asked Joanne what was wrong. She looked at John teary eyed “Can you please pull the car over?” She took John’s hand when they pulled over “I have tried and tried to hold onto any love for you that I had, I think we have moved to fast and I have slowly started to resent you. You will always have a place in my heart but I can’t do this and I think that we should part company” She said as she looked away from John. John reached into his pocket, removed his wallet and from the wallet he removed the sentiment he had wrote some months early, he handed the piece of paper to Joanna as a small tear rolled down his face The very moment John handed the paper to Joanne, a drunk driver swerved off of the road and crashed into John’s side of the car killing John instantly and Injuring Joanne.
The next morning Joanne awoke, she as still holding onto the paper as though her life depended on it. Opening the note she discovered it said ‘When I lose your love, I will lose my life’. The story of the couple and the note quickly spread around campus like wildfire and fell upon the ears of a professor there named Joseph Rhine. Joseph Rhine was well known for his research into the subconscious mind and quickly deduced that perfect relationships did not work based on conscious effort but a subconscious connection shared between two people. Unbeknown to most, Joseph was fairly unlucky in love himself and this discovery ensured he would be able to find his perfect partner. He thought about this long and hard and it is even documented that his work in other areas suffered as a result of his research in the connection of couples. He designed a test, Joseph Rhine’s test consisted of separating a couple into separate rooms and seating them at a table. Each member of the couple were handed a deck of playing cards, asked to place the cards under the table, bring one card out of the deck and place it face down. If the cards were mates then it proved that the couple had a connection that was not comprehendible in a logical sense. This is where I stopped telling the story and looked at the elderly couple, I think they had realized that they had involuntarily taken the test that Joseph Rhine had created. I asked the husband in the relationship to reach down and turn his card over, it was the 3 of diamonds. I asked the wife to turn her card over, it was like everything was slow motion as she slowly reached down, and she held onto the card for what seemed like an eternity and then flipped it. It was the 3 of hearts! It was one of the most beautiful things that I have ever seen, then something happened that I can only describe as truly magical. The old man leant over that table and wrapped his arms around his loving wife and said “It’s me and you babe”. My head was spinning, this was far more impressive than anything that I could ever performed. It was one of the only conversations I have ever struggled to finish I was welling up, it gave me hope that I could find my soul mate. They tried to thank me and to me it was almost offensive, I thanked them and took away a memory I will never forget. I have purposefully left a space after the story to ensure that I don’t spoil it. I really feel guilty about pulling this story apart to be honest, it’s a story I am precious about and I honestly wouldn’t pull it apart if I wasn’t as precious about these monthly volumes. The story of the elderly couple is entirely true. The entire story of the couple in North Carolina is false. It’s one of the only times that I feel I have written something and sat back and read it and felt like I couldn’t have created something nicer. Sometimes I struggle to put thing across on paper.
The truth is, I was not the best writer. I still aren’t. I am sure the people with the most analytical eye have screamed in agony reading some of the things that I have written. I have always tried my best to look over the pages of anything that I write and correct it to the best of my ability. Anyway when I wrote this story down read it back and the moment that I hit the power line I was like WOAH! It is very rare that I am complimentary toward my material with this is just felt right. So for the purpose of this month’s edition let’s pull it to pieces. One of the first things that I mention, in the story is the place, this sets the scene but not only that it gives me the excuse to cut back to it later in the story. I set the scene much like they would in a movie, usually if there is a cutaway in a movie that happens for no reason then usually that cutaway is going to be important later on. It is the same in this story. I then think of things to I love to fit into the story, things that I know are universally loved - the rain tapping on the window is something that I love so I fit it in the story it’s something so small but for me there is nothing more beautiful than the rain hitting the window when I am in bed. I could listen to it for hours, the rain tapping on the window coupled with hugging up to someone – I don’t think you can beat that. I also mention how they do everything on a conscious level to make the relationship work. This again is so I can cut back to it later (a lot like setting the scene) I mention the line “Joseph realized that if s relationship didn’t work on a subconscious level it would never work on a conscious level. I also try to make both of the characters likable characters and John slightly more likable because the moment his world falls apart and the audience are feeling the most for him this is the moment that something tragic happens to him. This doubles the impact and drops the mood of anyone hearing the story, once that has happened and the audience are the most emotional this is where I drop the bombshell the double kicker – ‘The power line’ – “Without your love I lose my life”. When telling the story when it comes to this line I would pause to let the moment really sink in. This enables the audience to really get a feel for what Joanne was feeling when she opened the note. I take inspiration from everywhere when writing a story – Just a quick one for the readers, if you read the drawing duplication pdf I expressed in there that I haven’t had much of a social life since travelling writing and consulting. I also missed a date while writing that document as time slipped away from me. I have met a really cool girl, we both went to Whitby together on a date and shared a few stories – I shared with her my story “What if?” and she proposed a twist on the end that completely changed the feel of the story – Even though I am not going to fit it into that story as I feel it doesn’t add much to it the twist was so clever that it inspired a story all on its own. Of course I never told her that I wasn’t going to use it!
Syphoning songs This is another little secret that I have kept close to me. As I have mentioned numerous times in the past music is something that inspires me massively and because of that it is not surprising that sometimes I use lyrics in my work. Here are a couple of examples – “It only takes one tree to make a thousand matches, it only takes one match to burn a thousand trees” – Kelly Jones. Take a look at that line, it’s a thing of beauty, the way I have perceived it is that it takes a lot to build something and something so small to ruin it. If you took a reputation for example, someone can work for years upon years to build it and then it only takes something small to ruin it. There might be a situation that arrives while I am chatting to a person I am performing for that has started a new business and has started building a reputation. There is a very clever thing that I can apply here – I can seem very philosophical by quoting the lyrics and then explaining the meaning – Reminding him how easy it is to ruin something that is good. Ensuring he fully understand what it is I am saying. I let him go on his way. This is why it is so clever, no one is ever going to ruin their own reputation on purpose it would be stupid – Therefore if he believes in your ability years later he will share your sentiment with an elaborate story of how you shared the secret to success. If however he ruins his reputation, your sentiment becomes a prediction of sorts as you said that it could happen if he didn’t follow your sentiment. Either way you were right – Not that it is pleasurable taking a hit from someone’s misery that in this situation happens via proxy. Another set of lyrics I really like and have heard again recently are definitely something that are going to go into my work – “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end” – Semisonic I won’t let out of the bag how I plan to use this sentiment, but I love these lyrics. I hear lyrics that inspire me and then write down those lyrics, I break them down and focus on what I feel that they mean to me. Then when I find the sentiment behind the lyrics they are so easy to remember as I remember the song, if I am ever in performance and a situation arises that reminds me of that sentiment I instantly remember that part of the song and then I can reiterate the lyrics and the name of the artist (not the band – Unless its only credited to the band) and the meaning behind the lyrics.
Think about that for a few seconds, by doing this you instantly have a peg system to banks of information. The likeliness is that you have already committed to memory the songs you love the most anyway just because of the amount of times that you have heard them. Using music to create readings and little sentiments/ stories is something that I have used throughout all of my work.
BIG Fish This deserves an entire chapter to itself – If you haven’t seen this film, if I could make one request and you follow through on the request – WATCH THIS FILM! Watch it right through to the end as the ending is so incredible. The film was so inspirational for me as it solely helped me find myself. I have always had an imagination, always had a colorful life some of the stories I could tell are totally none believable. For example the tale of “The Hen, the Dog lead, the cushion cover and golf course” sounds like something out of an Enid Blyton book. The story itself is worthy of me writing it up just because it is so crazy. I instantly felt a kinship with Edward Bloom, his stories and his outlook on life and the way that he shared his stories were so incredible and heartwarming. Even though it was just a film, when it came to the end I was so engrossed in the story and attached to the character that it moved me in a way that I cannot describe in words. It inspired my books “Biggerfish” and “Biggerfish 2”, it inspired me to be who I am today and it inspired me to be a better person. I never thought that reading a book, watching a film or listening to a piece of music could ever do that – But it did. I am so happy that I gave it a chance, I was going to pass it up I remember asking my sister if she had any DVDS that I could borrow as I was writing and I wanted to put something on in the background. I went through my sister’s collection of DVDS and there wasn’t much that caught my interest there. I took a couple of films I had already seen for easy watching, I remember picking Big Fish up and putting it back down and then for whatever reason just deciding that I would watch it. I put the film on and most films/ music I can just let play out in the background as I am writing away, stopping to look up from time to time. I watched five minutes of the film to get a feel for it and I was hooked. Something as simple as picking this DVD over the other DVDS in the collection changed my life and I hope it inspires a few of you. If you want a lesson in writing stories just look at this film, I promise you that it will open your eyes –
Finding your character This is something that I cannot give you a massive amount of advice on simply because when each one of you find your character (assuming you’ve not already) it will be different to anyone else. I can however share with you a few things I have found in order to help you effectively find yourself. Firstly I have already mentioned this in this volume but believability is a massive factor. I read a book by Steven Banachek which briefly discussed the right age to perform mentalism – First reading that I didn’t understand what it meant. Let me share with you what I have found about age in mentalism. I am not going to start with a controversial statement like ‘mentalism is an old man’s sport’ as I find that statement to be one banded about far too much. I think when deciding your character you must take into consideration your age. If you are a young mentalist then portraying yourself as an expert psychologist is obviously never going to be believable. If you are young you have two options (in my opinion) the first option is to claim what you are doing is a trick and negate having to have a character or and this is where I feel a lot of people will disagree with me portray to do it for real. But do it cleverly – Don’t tell people you are the real deal as then you are the one that is blatantly lying, play to your strengths you are young and therefore people expect you to be slightly naïve – I DON’T MEAN THIS RUDELY. I would pretend to have no clue how I do what I do, that I just get a feeling and I follow it. Let your audience tell you what they think that it is you are doing. Don’t claim to be reading body language, don’t claim to have studied psychology and don’t claim anything. You have to decide which of these two options is going to be the best for you, I know there are not many options open to you – without being patronizing when you get older then you can either change your character or pretend to find yourself – If you have documented/ promoted your naivety long enough and then you discover yourself people will always just assume that you simply understand your ability. I would class myself as just below middle age, I think a lot of older performers still think I am too young to portray myself the way I do – I agree to an extent, I have found my character but maybe I have found it a little early. I am very philosophical in my approach, without a proper context into my background it can be very easy to think I am far too young to talk about the things that I do. Hence the extent – Maybe I have not been in depth enough with talking about my background. I am constantly trying to find ways to improve myself and what it that I do/ portray. I look at myself, I am covered in tattoos and no one is going to believe that I am an expert in psychology, a professor or someone who reads boy language. I have accepted that and I never even attempt to approach things from that angle.
Be critical, look at yourself and think what am I not – What you are not is far more important than what you are. Be very critical and start to build yourself from there. If you are middle age, never proclaim to be all knowing. Let’s take the psychological/ body language approach – don’t claim to be an expert in that field, be humble tell people you are still learning and show some of the things you have learnt. If you are approaching things from an esoteric view point talk about just getting to grips with trusting your feelings and claim you are unsure about your abilities fail from time to time this is excusable IF you are claiming to just be getting to grips with your ability. If you are an older gentleman/ lady then the world is your oyster, you can be philosophical, psychological and because of your life experience you can portray yourself however you wish. As long as you stick to the rule of playing to your strengths by focusing on your weaknesses. One thing is very important to remember, don’t let anyone tell you, you can’t don’t it or you are too young or that what you are doing is wrong. There is no right or wrong, mentalism is totally a subjective art form. Don’t worry about anyone else’s opinion of you, you can’t please all of the people all of the time this is something I have had to learn. I no longer read reviews as a good number of them are unproductive.
Performing for family and close friends This is something that I have not talked about in the past, it is pretty self-explanatory but it is sometimes overlooked. You can never be anything other than a son/ daughter or a friend to the people you know. They are not a good audience to perform to, they will always try to catch you out and never act the way that a real audience acts. It is the same with wives and girlfriends, they are not good to perform to, they know you in a way that no one else knows you and therefore they feel they can get away with being the asshole spectator. If you feel that you need to practice on these people, then do by all means please don’t let me stop you doing that, just remember that it is never going to be an accurate representation of what it is going to be like when you perform it for someone that you don’t know.
Key sign One thing I am very proud of is the difference in the way that people act towards me when I am performing. I used to struggle when performing for people because it seemed that I was being questioned all the time and people were making guesses as to how I was doing the things that I do. I realized that my effects weren’t what made me believable they are only a representation of me. When I perform now I get asked “were you born with your abilities?” “How long have you had this gift?” even the bigger skeptics say “It’s very clever how you are reading reactions and body language”.
I have learnt what to say and when to say it and more importantly what not to say – Letting your audience decide, who and what you are is key. The way people act towards you is key to understand how much of an effect you are having on the people around you and how much you have come on as a person
A few other notable books that have inspired me Enid Bylton – The enchanted wood/ faraway tree series Enid Blyton – The secret island Roald Dahl – The wonderful tales of Henry Sugar Roald Dahl – George’s marvelous medicine Brother’s Grim Fairy tales Enid Blyton’s Secret seven series There are a ton of other books that have inspired me but these are the books that always sit on my bedside table.
Conclusion We have reached the end of this month’s volume, it is with a heavy heart that I close this volume and thank you for reading it, this volume has been more essay heavy. It is very rare people have time for reading essays and I now prefer reading them to reading actual effects. I think that I have had more fun writing this volume that any other and I know that I have said that a few times but this one I really felt I shared something. The trick with this volume is to look between the lines and read it over and over again. Thank you for being a part of my story,
Peter Turner
The end
