Magic shows are always fun, at least if you’re working with a competent performer. Magic displays to people the impossible and can create great reactions and memories. At the end of the day, most of the audience will be saying to themselves, “I don’t know how he or she did it, but there’s got to be some kind of trick.”
Mind reading and mentalism is different. How? Well, the difference between mind reading and magic is that people don’t try to figure out mind reading. On some level, many viewers are willing to accept, at least, the “possibility” that mind reading just might be real. While I never claim to have any real psychic powers in my show, I often get audience members approaching me after the show saying things along the lines of, “Is that mind-reading stuff real?” I never seem to get this type of reaction from a magic trick. In magic, the reaction is generally, “Whoa, that was incredible!” But there’s never a doubt that some sort of trickery was not involved.
It has been said that Mind-Reading is Magic…for adults. This is because it can be difficult for adults to suspend their disbelief, at least as much as a child, within the confines of a magic trick. Mentalism or Mind-Reading, however, is somewhat believable and tends to generate much more powerful reactions, at least from adults, than a magic trick does.
For this reason, my shows tend to combine a mixture of comedy, magic and mind-reading. The combination of all three appeals to many senses and allows for a show that is both more memorable and fun.
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