Do’s and Dont’s of a great mentalist

Mentalist and Mentalism Show are most sought after entertainment options in the modern world. But there are very few mentalists who do a show which looks and feels miles better than their contemporaries. A great mentalism show takes courage and conviction to execute direct mind reading acts. An average mentalist will look for simple automatic methods to do a mentalism show. Average mentalists perform more mental magic and call it mentalism. Following is the list of do’s and don’t of a great mentalist.

  1. They use minimum props and accessories
  2. They don’t take an assistant to the show who will help them secretly
  3. They don’t use much electronics item or phone apps in their show.
  4. They use bold psychological tricks and techniques and not a sleight of hand
  5. They don’t use stooges or paid volunteers during the show
  6. They don’t edit their performance videos before putting it on social media platforms
  7. They perform more and talk less while presenting the act
  8. They don’t claim to have super natural powers to read minds

– Amit Kalantri (Mentalist & Magician)

Different types of mentalism performances

Most of the people who come across mentalism first time get totally impressed and influenced by this art. Their primary belief is that mentalism is just a mind reading performance. But mentalism consist of much more than just mind reading performances as listed below.

  1. Mind Reading
  2. Predictions (Precognition)
  3. Telepathy
  4. Telekinesis (Psychokinesis)
  5. Clairvoyance
  6. Hypnosis
  7. Divination
  8. Mediumship
  9. Mind Control
  10. Memory Feats
  11. Deduction
  12. Rapid Mathematics

– Amit Kalantri (Magician & Mentalist)

Different names of “Close Up Mentalism Show”

In close up mentalism show or in close up magic show artist performs standing close to the spectator. In a stage show mentalist or magician performs standing away from the audience. Close up show is quite popular format in the business of mentalism and magic. Across the world close up show are known by different names. But they all mean almost same thing. Following is the list of some of synonyms of close up show

  1. Close up Show
  2. Strolling Show
  3. Table Hopping Show
  4. Table to Table Show
  5. Mix and Mingle Show
  6. Street Show
  7. Freestyle Show
  8. Walkaround Show
  9. Up Close Show
  10. Micromagic or Micromentalism Show
  11. Intimate & Interactive Show

12 Funny one liners for magicians

Following are collection of few humorous and witty one liners you can use to interact with the audience. Hope these one liners inspire to create your own one liners.

1) No response: Is this an audience shocked, or is this audience a jury?

2) This is a trick deck; all the cards are different on one side,
and all the same on the other

3) My first trick this evening is impossible, so now lets do the
second trick!

4) You will notice that this box is absolutely empty. In fact you
must know that it is empty, or I wouldn’t show it to you.

5) I used to cut my previous assistant in half. She now lives in
Boston and New York.

6) I dropped these cards because I need the exercise. It’s the
only exercise I get.

7) Being a magician has its advantages. What other profession
lets you cut up your wife into halves and get away with it?

8) Maybe that wasn’t so good… but at least it shows I’m friendly.

9) Jumbo cards: I did this trick years ago. Of course the cards
were much smaller then.

10) Magic is doing the impossible. Now if I were to borrow a
$100 note from someone here tonight… that would be magic.

11) If you drop something: It’s all part of the act folks. That’s the
part I didn’t practice.

12) I would like some gentleman to select a card. A gentleman who is
used to making decisions. Is there an unmarried man
present?

– Amit Kalantri (Mentalist & Magician)

What makes a good mentalism show?

As a beginner mentalist you get fascinated by viral mentalism acts like unlocking stranger’s phone or figuring out the name of first love, first crush of a stranger. Well these are definitely great acts to be a part of mentalism show but these acts or similar acts do not make a good mentalism show. A good mentalism show consists of much more than few selected popular acts.

The fact is, any established professional mentalist will not publish his best mentalism acts online. They keep their content protected and exclusive for live audience. These acts are much more mysterious and miraculous than what you see on YouTube or similar platforms. I performed and seen several mentalism shows and following things were common in all good mentalism shows that I found.

– Mentalism show should not just contain mind reading acts, it should contain variety of other acts like predictions, telekinesis, hypnosis, mind control acts, stunts etc

– A good mentalism show must contain acts which involves more than one volunteer per act. Its good to read one mind, but when you read multiple minds at once it is something special.

– Each mentalism act should be presented with an impactful story and unique presentation

– A good mentalist will create his own unique character, he will not copy and perform other mentalist’s act as it is.

– A good mentalist will create and invent new methods to perform mentalism acts. He ensures no one in the audience knows his secrets completely.

– In a good mentalism show audience gasp more in shock than they applaud. Mentalism acts should create that awe factor for the viewers.

– Mentalist certain comes out as a hero at the end of a show, but audience feels equally inspired and confident that they have seen true miracles.

Hope this blog helps you to design your own mentalism show. If you want professional guidance, you can join our professional mentalism course. Click here

8 Myths and 8 Facts about learning mentalism

Mentalists are one of the most sought after entertainers in corporate industry. Many people are in love with the art of mentalism and they admire all the professional mentalists they get a chance to watch. But mentalism is one of that rare hobby where people not only just want to watch, but also want to learn how it is done. Following are some of the key points you should know before you pursue the mentalism.

Myth 1: Mentalism is a scientific or academic subject

Fact: Mentalism is not a scientific or academic subject, mentalism is a performing art just like dancing, music, singing etc

Myth 2: Mentalists need to have expert knowledge of body language reading, face reading etc.

Fact: Having the prior knowledge of body language reading is just added advantage in mentalism. Even if you don’t know anything about body language reading, you can still learn mentalism accurately and comfortably.

Myth 3: Learning mentalism requires many years of practice

Fact: No it doesn’t take long practice hours and doesn’t take several years to learn mentalism. Of course the practice is required to learn anything well. But you don’t need to burn yourself to practice mentalism. In fact, some of the mentalism acts can be accurately performed after a practice of few minutes.

Myth 4: Mentalists also need to do meditation to activate special spiritual energy

Fact: No, Mentalism has nothing to with meditation. Even if you never practiced meditation for a single minute in your life you can still be a great mentalist.

Myth 5: Mentalism is real mind reading

Fact: Not exactly, mentalists creates the perception among the audience that they can really read the minds, but in reality mentalists use deceptive processes, psychological hacks, clever wordings and tricks to do their mind readings. There is no real mind reading in mentalism

Myth 6: Mentalism is nothing but magic tricks

Fact: Magic tricks require several sleights of hand and some long and serious practice to be good at it. However, mentalism doesn’t require sleight of hand. Mentalism is mostly based on psychological tricks. Magic and Mentalism both are related, but from the audience’s point of view they are not same.

Myth 7: Mentalism is difficult to learn and perform accurately

Fact: Not at all, mentalism is very easy to learn. Once you learn the secrets of mentalism, your mentalism act won’t fail unless you do a silly mistake. All mentalism acts are ultimately are clever tricks which people can’t catch, anyone who knows its secrets and how to apply them can perform mentalism accurately with any kind of audience.

Myth 8: Mentalists don’t teach or share mentalism secrets with others

Fact: Well mentalists who just wish to be a performer may not be willing to teach mentalism to others, but other professional mentalists who wish to see the art of mentalism grow and become one of the mainstream entertainment choice would teach passionate people the art of mentalism and mindreading, so that more people can perform it and thus more people will be entertained and amazed at the mentalism and mindreading shows.

To know more about our mentalism classes and different mentalism courses click here.

Benefits of learning mentalism

Mentalism is one of the unique, significant and impactful skill to pursue in today’s time. Because mentalism is a mysterious art, its professional secrets are not easily available, so most of us think its difficult skill to master. Good news is, learning mentalism easy. It is easier than learning to play guitar. The best way to learn mentalism is to join mentalism courses, mentalism classes offered by professional mentalists. Following are direct and indirect benefits you can derive after learning mentalism.

  1. Be a professional mentalist and earn good income in entertainment industry
  2. You can use the mentalism tricks in your own professions
  3. Mentalism improves your speaking skills
  4. Mentalism enhances your presentation skills
  5. You possess a truly unique skill to engage, entertain and impress people at anytime, anywhere
  6. You understand the psychology of people and know more about people
  7. Mentalism makes your thinking and mind smooth, sharp and smart
  8. You can be a youtuber and start your own YouTube channel
  9. You acquire a special hobby that makes you truly unique like one in a ten million
  10. You can be a counsellor
  11. You can motivate and inspire people with mentalism acts
  12. Mentalism is a great way to connect with people in networking events, business meetings, social parties

Applications of mentalism

The art of Mentalism mainly got popularity through mentalism shows that are performed with the objective of entertaining the audience. It takes considerable time and practice to be a professional mentalist. If you don’t wish to be a performing mentalist, but just wish to use mentalism in your life in some way, consider following applications of mentalism. Mentalism can be used in following ways with just a little effort and time

  1. In the speeches of motivational speakers to inspire the audience
  2. In the networking events to connect and influence other parties
  3. As a icebreaker in corporate townhall meetings, corporate training sessions
  4. To launch a new product in creative way
  5. To use mentalism acts in the training sessions of NLP practitioners
  6. Mentalism can be used in numerology and astrology
  7. As a engaging activity in business outings, family outings etc
  8. To improve the focus and interest students in academic subjects

Why to hire a magician for wedding event?

1. Magician keeps your guests occupied so you don’t have to

A wedding magician can capture attention of your guests of all ages, because everyone loves entertainment. Sometimes guests are often left on their own and this could be the dullest part of the day for them. Having a wedding magician gives your guests the best wedding experience they deserve.

2. A magician gets the fun started!

No wedding host like their guests being uncomfortable during the slow period before the main wedding function starts. A wedding magician can certainly act in your favor by getting the fun started. A wedding magician will make the awkward silence and shyness disappear by setting a joyful tone and increasing the fun factor, and your wedding event will be much more fun!

3. Magic goes well with other wedding entertainments

Most of the magicians are naturally co-operative, collaborative and good communicators, so they can easily work along with your anchor, band, DJ and any other wedding entertainment to create a balance and make your wedding event much more joyful, unique and memorable.

4. A wedding magician makes things memorable

Out of the many weddings that people attend over the courses of their lives, most of the weddings are similar and they forget the experience. A stunning and touching magic of a wedding magician will register your magical wedding in their memories and they will speak about it with energy and enthusiasm for decades to come.

5. Having a magician at a wedding is truly unique

Most people have never seen a professional magician live and up close. The first experience with magic makes a lasting impression on them. A wedding offers the best opportunity to allow them to experience something they will remember forever. And whenever they remember the magic, they also remember your wedding event.

6. Magicians are great value for money

A wedding magician is one man show and can be comfortably accommodated in the wedding budget. You don’t have to spend anything extra on logistics since close up, walkaround wedding magician requires nothing not even a mike. You just get the magician to the venue and he will take care of the rest offering an excellent return on investment!

7. Magicians can design personalized magic

A unique thing about wedding magicians is that the content of their magic are full of variety. A good wedding magician will be flexible with his acts and customize his presentations to blend in facts about groom and bride, your theme, ensuring that it is the right fit into your magical wedding.

Harsh truths every magician must accept

  1. You can not master all the great magic tricks in one life time.
  2. You won’t be able to catch all the magic tricks of other magicians, so enjoy their performance.
  3. There is no such thing as best magician in the world, so don’t try to be one. Just try to be best at what you perform.
  4. Perform few magic acts perfectly than trying to perform more magic acts incompetently.
  5. Even if you professionally fool people, you are not the smartest man in the world, you are only smart on the stage.
  6. You won’t be able to get all the shows, your fellow magicians are as great as you, so don’t envy them.
  7. You cannot judge other magicians based on your experience because you know secrets of magic.
  8. Expect hecklers during the shows and learn to handle them.
  9. Don’t waste time to create effects to fool other magicians, create effects to entertain the audience.

15 questions magicians get asked in interviews.

  1. What inspired you to be a magician?
  2. What was the first magic trick you learned?
  3. When did you perform your first magic show?
  4. How long you have been performing magic?
  5. What is your favorite magic act and why?
  6. What is magic, is it science, art, trick, or reality?
  7. Have you ever broken unsaid magician’s rules?
  8. Do you create your own new magic acts?
  9. Have you ever goofed up during the performance and what did you do?
  10. Why keeping a secret is paramount in the art of magic?
  11. Who is your favorite magician?
  12. What is your purpose in following and performing the art of magic?
  13. How challenging it is to make a career in magic?
  14. What is your advice to people who wish to be a magician?
  15. What are your future plans with the art of magic?

Difference between NLP and Mentalism

NLP (Neuro Linguistic
Programming)
Mentalism
NLP is a pseudoscientific approach to communication, personal development, and psychotherapy.Mentalism is a performing art mostly used for entertaining the audience.
Practitioner of NLP is called as NLP MasterPractitioner of mentalism is known as mentalist.
To do NLP techniques accurately may take years of learning and practice.To do limited acts of mentalism accurately don’t take longer time and it easier to learn mentalism than NLP
The basis of NLP is neurological processes, language, behavioral patterns and observation.The basis of mentalism is psychological tricks and techniques, illusionary tricks, suggestions and dual reality.
NLP can treat problems such as phobias, depression, psychosomatic illnesses, learning disorders etcMentalism cannot be used to treat any patients, it is used for entertainment by creating
psychological experiences for the mind and imagination.

29 alternative names for the mentalist

Following is the list of some fancy names for the profession of mentalism. You can identify yourself with one of these names or you can use these names to add extra flavor to your pitch or profile description.

Psychological Entertainer
Deceptionist
Mind Magician
Psychological Illusionist
Perceptionist
Mind Reader
Psychic Entertainer
Intuitionist
Thought Lifter
Clairvoyant
Thought Reader
People reader
Brain Hacker
Cognitive Illusionist
Mind Meddler
Observationist
Psychonaut
Mind Detective
Psychomancer
Thought Sculptor
Mind Manipulator
Reality Twister
Braintertainer
Brain Burglar
Memory Maven
Head Hacker
Brainalyst
Hypnotist
Skullkicker

Essential Card Moves You Must Know

If you have been wanting to learn and perform magic, card magic is the first and easy step towards your wish. There are so many mind blowing card tricks which are easy to perform. With some basic sleights you can perform jaw dropping card tricks for people. within a matter of few days. It don’t take knuckle-busting moves or hours of intense practice to perform impressive card magic. We advise you that you must learn following card moves.

Amit Kalantri mentalist

1) Cull: To arrange the specific cards at the top or bottom of the deck in the action of spreading the deck into hands.

2) Double Lift: In this move magician appears to take a one card off the deck but in fact two card are lifted off.

3) Glide: A card sleight that lets the magician switch the deck’s bottom card for the card behind it.

4) Hindu Shuffle: Cards are moved in small blocks creating the effect of shuffling but retaining the bottom card

5) Classic Force: A spectator is forced to select a particular card in a genuine looking way

6) Pass: In a pass you shift the two half of the deck very fast. It can work as a control where you place a card in the middle and then you can pass it to the top without the spectators knowing about it.

7) Double Undercut: In this move cards are cut twice to transfer the center card to the bottom of the deck

– Amit Kalantri (Magician & Mentalist)

Be a process oriented magician not goal oriented magician

amit kalantri blog

We have been taught and trained to set a goal for ourselves in order to be a successful in any profession. I won’t comment about other areas, but being a professional magician I can responsibly say that a magician should be process oriented and not goal oriented. Imagine at the current state of your preparedness you set a goal and start working towards it. In reality, you have limited the possibilities for yourself by setting a goal.

You can set a goal only on the basis of your present knowledge, skills, perception. You have not experienced all the scenarios in the business of magic. Even if you are a skilled magician you may have set ambitious goals like to be the most famous magician in the world. When you reach to it, you may realize that you could have been the most famous artist in the world leaving behind actors, singers, musicians etc had you taken some steps in the past.  But you missed those steps in the process, you kept your eyes only on the goal and now you are sad in spite of achieving your set goal.

Let’s say you want to grow oranges, orange is your goal. But is the orange going to appear by always thinking of oranges, no it won’t. To grow oranges you will need orange seed, soil, sunlight, manure, water etc. None of these raw things taste like orange but eventually they give you orange, this is also a magic. You take care of the process to grow orange and oranges will come.

Similarly, imagine you want be a professional magician, so your priority should be the process of being a skilled magician. You learn right sleights rightly, you research rightly, write right script, buy right props, you practice right, do right marketing. When the opportunity arrives you will give the best performance like a seasoned professional magician. You need absolutely devoted to the process and need not think about the goal.

Your ability to enhance your magic business is possible if you are undeniably committed to the process. Watch the people we call successful, look at their faces and you will be surprised to know that hardly anybody of them is joyful. They probably achieved the goal they set it for them, but now they realized it was a meager and insignificant goal so they disappointed. Those who couldn’t achieve even the small goals are frustrated because they avoided the process. What is the point of being a man of this kind.

When I just started into professional magic, I set the target of doing 50 shows in a year. To get my first ten shows it took little time. It seemed to me I will not be able to fetch 50 shows in that year. Then I realized, I was not making significant impact on the audience and also that I was not marketing myself enough. I changed some of my magic effects, I updated my scripts, I learned the sleights I was afraid to do  and I added more acting and drama to my performance etc. During this process change I had forgot about the target of 50 shows in that year. After I enhanced my process, my leads enhanced and I got more and more shows. At the end of year I had performed more than 100 shows in that year.

Initially as per my understanding I was good enough for 50 shows, but when I dedicated myself to the process of learning magic, I surpassed my own expectations. So don’t worry about result, target, goal. Just take care of the process and just like magic everything will fall into place.

– Amit Kalantri (Magician & Mentalist)

Why you should hire a mentalist for a corporate event?

With entertainment, mentalism show also creates an amazement and sense of wonder among the audience. Your guests won’t remember the skill of a singer, musician, dancers. They won’t remember the jokes of stand up comedian or catching skills of a juggler for a long time. But a mentalism show, they will remember it forever and they will also remember that they have seen a mentalism show at your event forever. Making your party a truly memorable event of their life, and that is your ultimate goal. A corporate audience is not bold like college audience. Corporate people are always trying to maintain their reputation, so they get shy when asked to dance, sing or play in an event. A mentalism show gives corporates the respect they deserve by involving them in the acts without asking them to do any funny things. Following are some of the reasons you must hire a mentalist for your next event.

best mentalist in India

Best corporate entertainment show

1) Mentalism show is definitely the first time experience for most of the audience, so you give your guests a new experience first time in their lives.

2) Mentalism show is the most suitable entertainment for adults which makes it a right choice for a corporate event.

3) It is a comprehensively interactive show, mentalist basically invites and involves the guests to present his skills.

4) Mentalism show is a strong, impactful and creative form of entertainment.

5) Appropriate for varying size of the crowd from few people to large gatherings.

6) Mentalist requires limited logistics, as a client you can save considerable money and efforts on arranging logistics.

7) It has more entertainment factors comprising storytelling, humor, mentalism skills all in one show.

8) Greater Flexibility with respect to the size of the venue. A mentalist can perform on the stage or he can go to your guests and perform strolling mentalism at their table.

9) Having a mentalism show makes your event unique and different.

10) Mentalism show makes your event a truly memorable experience.

11) Apart from entertainment it silently adds an inspiration to people’s lives and that is an invaluable thing.

– Amit Kalantri (Magician & Mentalist)

6 sure-shot ways for magicians to be more entertaining

A performing magician must understand that he is performing for general people and not for the group of magicians. The general audience is going to judge you from the total entertainment you offer and not only from your clever sleight of hand. Two magicians can make silk disappear, one uses TT prop other uses the retractable reel. But for an audience, it is the just same thing that silk gets disappeared. They are going to decide who is a better magician on the basis of which of the magician gave them more entertainment in terms of humour, story, surprise, drama etc. The magician takes significant efforts to perfect the skills, but he also needs to give equal importance to perfect the script. Following are six tried and tested ways to offer more entertainment to your spectators.

Use Humour:

Let it be a movie or a magic show, absence of humour is an absence of entertainment. A magician need not be as humorous as a  stand-up comedian, but he definitely needs to be humorous. A stand-up comedian delivers rehearsed comic script, but magic show being an interactive form, a magician needs to the have presence of mind to produce quick comedy punches. Mentalist should be even more concerned about humour, because most of the mentalism presented is goes without humour and with a complicated script, which unknowingly belittles the performance and reduces the entertainment.

Apply Simplicity:

“Simplicity ain’t simple” as goes the quote. The clean, clear, simple effects brings much more wonder and amazement than complicated tricks. For example, doing a mind reading effect with swami gimmick makes greater impact than doing it with centre tear method. Don’t use methods which looks different than the common course. Using an unusual method will make some
people from the audience suspicious and after your cliamx you won’t fetch full applause because those people who sensed fishy move will not give you limited applause.

Art design:

If you host your own show, then design the stage as beautifully as possible. Your stage should look inspiring and captivating. Use the new and beautifully built props. Let your audience see the things they have not seen before. I use round (circular) cards for one of the card trick I perform. As soon as I spread my round cards, people widen their eyes with wonder before I even start performing. Because round cards are something most of them never seen before. These little things which they see for the first time entertain them implicitly.

Storytelling:

David copperfield is a billionaire magician because of his skills and storytelling ability. A magician who is a good storyteller takes his audience to a different world and this feeling of sensing a different world adds to an entertainment value of your show. So build a relevant story and then deliver it like a dominating actor while performing magic tricks.

Build Drama:

The reason we remember and follow actors is because they give us visual entratinment with their expression and voice tone. It is good idea to change your voice tone and facial expressions like an actor as per your script in your magic performance. As you manoeuvre your voice and body language, audience’s feelings get hightened and it gives them augmented entertainment.

Play Music:

Just like having a background score in a movie when characters are talking is important, same way having a background music for few magic tricks can create a great impact on the audience. Because music itself is such an entertaining entity that blending it with right magic tricks will work wonders for you.

– Amit Kalantri (Magician & Mentalist)

7 challenges professional magician encounter

Challenges_Cover_Yourstory

1) Getting the right price

The entertainment industry is swarming with all kinds of average artists at a cheap price. Though average in their performance these artists still serve the purpose of entertaining the audience. Your clients don’t know much about the difference between an average magician and an exceptional magician initially, so obviously, they go for a magician with low price and you get rejected only for quoting the high price. Because of this an exceptional magician who charges high struggles to get the more shows in starting years.

2) Getting the full attention of the audience

Even the extraordinary magicians performing for a private party goes through a scenario where all people don’t pay attention to magician’s performance and disturbs the whole surrounding with their chatter. After this kind of shows, magicians don’t feel good about themselves even if they get the good money for the show.

3) Waiting for the show to start

As a professional magician you value the punctuality and reach to the venue on time, but guests arrive late sometimes too late. Client requests you to wait more and more till maximum guests arrived. The result is you get exhausted and your time gets wasted which could be put to good use and client don’t pay you extra for waiting time. Because your show begins late, you may also have to curtail the performance time to accommodate other sequences of the party.

4) Cancellation of the show from client

You prepare and plan your week for the next show and couple days before clients inform you about the cancellation of the event because of unavoidable reasons. This is annoying for the magician because he must have denied other leads which came from other clients on the same day, same time because your date was already occupied. This is a straight loss to the magician because he don’t get paid fully and he loses the performance at both the shows which may have fetched him future shows.

5) Cancellation of the show from magician’s side

Sometimes even the magician needs to cancel his performance for the event because of an emergency situation like severe sickness, family issue, flight cancellation etc. This is an unfortunate situation and nothing makes magician feel bad if he himself had to cancel. This puts clients event in jeopardy especially when your performance was the only entertainment activity planned for the event.

6) Managing back to back shows

A magician wishes to perform every day because he loves doing magic and it gets him good money. Sometimes a magician gets lucky and he gets two shows back to back with a time gap of an hour in between. But reaching to the second show on time is challanging because most of the times your first show will start late and that puts magician under pressure because he had to reach the other show on time especially if the client of second show is ready to start the show on time. If magician reaches to next show late, it spoils his reputation.

7) Maintaining a sense of wonder for himself

Magic creates instant wonder, a solid surprise and a delightful mystery for the spectators. This wonder was the primary reason why you became a magician. As a professional magician, you know many secrets, techniques to achieve the end result of a magic trick. Even if you watch other magicians perform you tend to be less surprised. This feeling of not experiencing the wonder may force you to question the purpose and meaning of your work and you may feel that you are not doing enough.

– Amit Kalantri (Magician & Mentalist) 

Why “sleight of hand” is the most important skill in magic?

These days many magicians keep looking for easy to perform self-working magic props. They keep on buying most of the automatic magic props which hit the market. It is possible to be a good magician using only props along with good storytelling and showmanship skills. But it is not possible to be a great magician without being good at sleight of hand. A magician who is good at sleight of hand not only satisfy the people with entertainment but also satisfy himself with his skill. Following are some worthwhile reasons why you should practice and get good at sleight of hand.

1) You can truly perform impromptu magic tricks anytime anywhere

2) You can perform magic tricks with borrowed objects

3) At the end of sleight of hand magic trick, the magician is clean, spectators can verify everything

4) Sleight of hand is not easy to catch using eyes and logic

5) You need not buy expensive fancy props, so ultimately you save money

6) Because of fewer props, you can pack less, travel light and still play big in the show

7) Sleight of hand magic makes you look like real magician

8) Sleight of hand makes you respectable even in the magic fraternity

9) With original sleight of hand moves, even magicians won’t be able to catch you

10) A magic trick which is performed with original sleight of hand moves does not get copied easily unless you reveal the moves

11) Once you get good at particular sleight and stop performing it after few days, you will still be able to recall it quickly when required in the future.

12) With enough sleight of hand moves, you can repeat the magic trick without getting caught.

– Amit Kalantri (Magician & Mentalist)

 

7 most frequently asked questions (FAQs) about mentalism

mentalism

1) Is mentalism real, can mentalist really the mind?
No mentalism is not real, most of it is a bunch of great sleight of hand, misdirection, and psychological tricks just like magic tricks. It’s not possible to truly read the mind of others accurately at all times.

2) Difference between magic and mentalism?
Mentalism is an extended version of magic. Magic and mentalism are closely related. It is not possible to learn mentalism without knowing the techniques of magic. A good mentalist is also a good magician.

3) Is mentalism complex and difficult to learn?
No, it’s not. In fact, the art of mentalism is easy to learn as compared to the art of magic. To be a good magician you need to spend considerable time mastering the art of misdirection and sleight of hand. But to be a good mentalist you need to know basic magic techniques.

4) What does mentalism consist of?
Mentalism consists of various types of performances like mind reading, mind control, hypnosis, telepathy, clairvoyance, divination, predictions, psychokinesis, mediumship, memory feats, deduction, and rapid mathematics.

5) Do all the types of performances need to be learned to be a mentalist?
No, it’s not required to know and perform all the above performances. In a mentalism show, most of the performances are of mind reading, mind control, predictions.

6) What are the advantages of learning mentalism?
Entertain and impress people using mentalism routines. Develop your presentation and showmanship skills. Understand how other people think
It boosts self-confidence, dexterity, and develops lateral thinking. Enhance social skills, you become the center of attraction in social gatherings

7) Is there professional coaching available to learn mentalism in India?
Yes, you can join professional mentalism classes run by mentalist Amit Kalantri in Pune (India) to learn the art of mentalism. Both classroom coaching and online coaching available. Visit mentalism classes for details.

– Amit Kalantri (Magician & Mentalist)