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Post by chriswible on May 4, 2016 14:35:09 GMT -5
Finding mentalism fans must be harder than finding someone willing to watch a quick card trick. Where do you folks find people who are up for some mentalism? I've been thinking about trying a couple pieces at an open mic night but I don't know... I'd like to find solo participants for a little while to practice stuff first. Not being very social, I don't have many party invitations on my fridge. How would you say I could find people to practice with?
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E.E.
New Member
Posts: 3
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Post by E.E. on May 4, 2016 16:49:01 GMT -5
Ask a friend to videotape you when you approach people out in the park or whatever. Tell them you are a performer and are recording some footage for your promotional video and ask them if you can show them something. They will usually say Yes. Unless they are busy or just don't want to be interrupted. Rejection is very common, get used to it Best, Ever
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Post by Ben Blau on May 4, 2016 20:11:20 GMT -5
I perform for my friends, new acquaintances I meet in social settings, my adult-age college students, work colleagues, strangers at coffee houses and bars, and wandering customers at my local magic shop.
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Post by rezamikhaeil on May 7, 2016 8:41:12 GMT -5
I usually caution against performing for relatives, particularly if they have watched you evolve. Many people go to their spouses and try a mental force, then when it doesn't work they think that it doesn't work, when in reality it doesn't work under those conditions. Sean Waters, Michael Murray, Derren Brown, and many others have methods that rely upon bold methods (such as psych forces) that I have found will only work if you do what Robert Greene suggests in his book "The 48 Laws of power" and that is to EMBRACE THE CHAOS. Sean Waters (who endorsed Ben's book) has written a lot on this subject and is worth your money to purchase his ebooks. A lot of people I hear say that they can't get Sean's methods to work, and I have heard that with propless card divination like COG by Ben Seward too. COG is my favorite piece of propless card divination and it has always worked well for me but I have never had a back-up plan if it were to go wrong either. Either it's a huge success or it didn't work in which I would give a reading and then move onto the next piece (the next being something more sure fire). I usually begin with a piece of mentalism that could fail and if it does, then I go into "Creepfest" by my good friend Ben Blau that is surefire. My daughter did a mind reading bit for her talent show on Wednesday and got a direct hit but in the two performances she did prior, she failed to divine the word but that only served to increase her credibility so when it did hit, people assumed that she was doing it for real.
Even with Ben Blau's methods that are surefire, you could have a mishap that goes wrong but if you learn to embrace it, then it will only serve to increase your abilities and it's best to do this for strangers because they will be objective, honest, and will forget you if you were to fail. This is the reason that psychics are successful, they are willing to take risks and when they fail, nobody remembers - THEY ONLY REMEMBER THE HITS. If you don't have Michael Murray's brilliant book, "A piece of my mind" please get it, because there is a routine in there that teaches precisely how to do this.
I didn't really answer the question so here goes: I am as nervous as the next person but I have learned to overcome that and just go up to strangers in places like Burger King and say, "May I please have a moment of your time..." and go into something. What's the worst that can happen? They say no and you sit down and finish your cheeseburger. Usually I go into it in such a way that after supper, someone asks me what I do for fun and my wife says "magic" and people want a demonstration. I always need to be prepared for those moments and that is what I love about Ben's impromptu methods. Even though Creepfest is not truly "impromptu" it can be done with a borrowed deck and I can easily get prepared for it in a moments notice and the method is as surefire but disguised as I have ever saw before.
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Post by chriswible on May 8, 2016 13:57:42 GMT -5
Some wisdom in there I'll have to digest over time. Thanks!
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Post by sipapu23 on May 10, 2016 8:51:48 GMT -5
Open mic is not a bad idea. I would try a coffee house open mic rather than a comedy club (at first at least). You know the people are there is see/participate in something. May not be Mentalism, but it is probably better than another crappy cover tune by some wannabe Jewel.
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Post by chriswible on May 11, 2016 18:14:36 GMT -5
For years I frequented coffee shop open mic nights as a musician. Small crowds, often kind of bored but patient people. I think that, for now, an open mic night would be a lot of fun. Scary, but fun.
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Post by jeffawesome on May 15, 2016 17:05:57 GMT -5
chriswible , This is a wonderful question. I do quite a bit of traveling for my job and I've found its doing something interesting. Its forcing me out of my comfort zone. Eating dinner alone at a bar isn't something I particularly enjoy doing, but its forcing me out of my comfort zone. My motto has always been... if its not awkward you're not growing. So what's the point of all this? Well... duh.. Be Awkward. No i'm kidding.. kind of. Forcing yourself to learn how to approach complete strangers and just carry on a conversation is a wonderful skill to have. If you can pick that skill up, approaching people with the intention to show them magic is so much more wonderful... and easier. One last thing, when you are approaching someone about your magic let them know you're a human being who isn't perfect. You want to try something out that you've been working on for the past six months. It makes you human but also makes whatever you're about to show them much more respectable than just showing them a "trick". P.S. Take everything i've said with a grain of salt. I'm still working on the first part. The second part i've found has actually helped people take me a bit more seriously while performing, but as I myself grow things will change.
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