This essay is actually an exert from an ongoing project I’ve been writing up over the past year, which is all the routines and tools I have come up with over the years that I still use. This isn’t a tease, as I have no idea when it will be released, but there may some points of this essay that refers to itself being within a book so I thought I would avoid the confusion by adding the disclaimer here. So with that being said please enjoy:
I am a firm believer in “Right place right time” Mentalism. I know this sounds like common sense and something that doesn’t need to be said, but there seems to be a misconception that for mentalism to be hard-hitting it also needs to be emotional. Now whilst I agree that having the spectators emotionally connect to the effect will make it easier to yield more promising results, however there is a right amount of emotional burden to put on people depending on the atmosphere you are performing in.
A good example of this, and this is something I am sure you have all seen on Social Media, is when a Mentalist approaches someone on the street and gets them to think of a deceased loved one, just so they can reveal it later to show that they can read minds. In my opinion this is not only lazy, for reasons I will touch on in a second, but also extremely insensitive. Considering us Mentalists portray that we are able to read other people’s emotions and thoughts, I find it interesting that they don’t pick up on the fact that maybe the person out enjoying their day, or having a drink at the bar, doesn’t want to think about the passing of a loved one or re-living a potentially traumatic experience just for entertainment.
Now of course there is a time and a place for the aforementioned effect, where there is an understanding that certain sensitive topics may be brought up, and this is the right time to use those more emotionally taxing effects. Which can make the whole experience rather cathartic if done correctly. This does not however, mean you can’t achieve the same sense of amazement/belief/astonishment (insert where applicable) with an effect that in the grand scheme of things is trivial to the participant. In simple terms, you should be able to make a performance of mind reading as entertaining and relatable with trivial information as you can with information which is emotionally relevant to the spectator.
The middle ground between trivial information and extremely emotionally charged information (for example a deceased loved one) is personal information, such as date of birth, star signs, names of partners and family members. All of these are information which, for the most part, people are happy to share and talk about with little emotional burden or concern. This is why most Mentalism effects touch on the above topics or ones of a similar ilk. It makes it emotionally relevant and with little presentation can still yield impressive results.
Generally this is good, this is the equivalent of a good balanced meal which you could eat everyday without much effort and you would be able to live happily, but what happens when you want something better? Something that will curl your toes and taste out of this world? Well you add other ingredients. You add heavy cream, spices, herbs, usually high calorie ingredients to take it to the next level. What is the Mentalist equivalent of this that is easy to achieve? You guessed it, making the effect more emotionally charged…add a bit of grief, some longing for a deceased loved one and of course a sprig of anxiousness and you are on to a winner (not).
Obviously there are other, and dare I say better, ways to improve your effects. Such as improving the scripting, revisiting the presentation and even taking a look at your character to see if that could be improved. These would all improve the effect greatly but let’s be honest, for most Mentalists this is the boring work that we just don’t want to do. So we choose the lazy option and target something that is more emotional, because as mentioned earlier we believe that “More Emotion = Stronger Mentalism”.
Unfortunately, because of this we receive stronger reactions without actually developing ourselves or our performances. So what ends up happening is we ride the dopamine rush of the great reaction and when we go perform something that isn’t as emotional we get the old reactions which don’t quite hit as well as we would like. We know we can do better and we NEED to hit that rush again, otherwise we aren’t improving. To make sure we constantly get that reaction we are looking for, we think it’s best to make sure every effect we do is extremely emotional which leads us into performing extremely emotional Mentalism for those people who aren’t in the correct frame of mind or just simply don’t want to participate in such an effect.
This, I believe, is bad for the art and will do nothing but create a group within the community who don’t understand that the current mental state of the participant is one of, if not the most important factor in deciding what effect to perform. They will just perform effects without the consideration of the spectators, which will likely lead to the majority of their performances affecting the spectator in a negative way.
What is annoying about this is that it stems from something that i believe effects a large portion of the community – which is laziness. Im not going to get into that now as it may be its own essay in the future, but the reason people increase the emotional involvement in their performances is because it requires no extra work. You just pivot to a category that evokes stronger emotions without thought and you will get more emotional reactions. And i know you may be thinking that what im talking about doesn’t happen, but i promise you it does, more than i’d like to admit for a community I care about. Like earlier in the year there was an app brought out with the purpose to let you divine someones deceased pet…like what the fuck.
I can’t believe I have to say this, but making someone cry doesn’t make you a good or even a competent Mentalist. I doubt this book will reach enough people, but if this is you or someone you know, don’t take this as a personal attack. There are plenty of ways to improve your performances and get better reactions without making it more emotional. Developing your character is one, another is making it relevant to the spectator and their surroundings. For example if they are in a bar, why not use your mind reading abilities and order them their favourite drink. If you are performing Mentalism on the street, talk about advertisements and how it is designed to influence shoppers, before performing an influence focused effect.
Both of these examples take into account the environment you are performing in and what mental state you spectators are likely going to have at that current time, which makes the effect more relevant and in turn will lead to better reactions. Having a bunch of routines for different settings will mean that you are always equipped with the best tools for the job and will hopefully stop the temptation of asking someone to think of their dead Nan whilst waiting at a bus stop.
If you love what we’re doing here at MND//SET, please like our content, leave comments sharing your perspective and opinions, and share this with your magic buddies!
Until next time,
Daniel Sutton
-28th,June 2026.
P.S – There is an incredible magician named Perseus Arkomanis who talks about making sure your magic has meaning, but he also discusses how this commonly gets misconstrued for making sure your performances are emotional. It’s very easy to think they are the same thing, but if you actually think about it, there are many ways to give your performances meaning without creating an emotional burden for your spectators. I won’t butcher Perseus’ thoughts on the matter, so if it sounds like something you want to hear more about, go purchase his Mosaic books and/or his 2026 Blackpool Lecture. Actually, go follow his magic company’s page on Instagram, “Orion Magic Productions” – where he is doing a series called Unscripted, which is his thoughts on various aspects of magic! It’s honestly brilliant, so do yourself a favor and go give it a watch.
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