The presentation of a magic effect is linked to many aspects, from the personality of the performer to the type of audience, to the type of show to be staged. Mentalism is only a pretext, it lends itself better than other spells to the discussion, especially on the definition of the character, the construction of the story, on the revelation. What we will analyze is not only useful for those who want to be a mentalist, but it is a stimulus to the realization of any magical effect and to improve one's communication process, with anyone on any subject. It's a mini-course in communication/NLP in disguise.
The need arose a few years ago; the son of a close friend was completing his thesis (jurisprudence; investigative techniques, interrogation specialists, body language. The dualism lies - truth, always present to us mentalists, lent itself exceptionally well to that structure. The thesis was very successful and I found myself with a lot of technical material which I integrated and modified over time.
The technical content was good, I added a lot on the aspects of mentalism, on performances, on the different methods of revelation: an interesting "tome" came out of it. Still the friend from Milan, he had me invited by a magical club in those parts to talk about communication and mentalism; the fact is that, over time, the ideas have been refined, the structure has taken an important shape and the "conference for magicians" version is ready.
The common thread is very simple: it starts with a provocation: sales techniques are essential for building a background as a communicator!
Let's analyze a very tasty (and intelligent) scene from "Life is Beautiful, by Benigni", to analyze the similarity between the sale of a product and the sale of an effect, a performance, or a show.
A brief excursus on the types of communication and its three components (verbal, non-verbal, paraverbal), a short journey into the world of NLP, followed by simple NLP experiments, applied precisely to illusionism. From NLP to forcing the magician, the step is not so long, and then Vernon, and then Cassidy.
At this point, another analysis begins: who is the mentalist, and what does he do; the mentalist reads your mind, how? And from here another phase of study on the powers of mentalists and the modalities of revelation, passing through extrasensory perception, spiritualism, and psychics, personal abilities. To then conclude the performance on the stage: the character, the entrance on the scene, the choice of collaborator, the conduction of the effect, and the final revelation. And then some tutorials on the different types of characters and the different "cheating" techniques:
- FORCE IT
- FILL IT IN (WRITE IT AFTER KNOWING IT)
- FIND IT OUT (FIND IT OUT, NATURALLY WITH DECEPTION)
- FAKE IT (PRETEND YOU KNOW AND, BY DECEPTION, MAKE IT TELL)
An in-depth and compact work: it has the sole pretension of sharing the path I have followed with my colleagues, intending to be useful to someone.
1st edition 2023, PDF 43 pages.
word count: 6032 which is equivalent to 24 standard pages of text