Cards and mentalism don't mingle..

I will make it short.
Most mentalists seem to suggest that the presence of deck of cards in a mind-reading effect/show seem to suggest the idea of trickery in the entire event.
Well,what about thought-of-cards?
What about something super clean and direct?
What if I ask you to merely think of a card and than I blurt out:"The Five of Clubs.." and I'm right?
Is that still a trick?
What if I do a long distance mind reading effect but the only deck is in your hand on the other end of the line?
What if there is a deck of cards but it is sitting untouched on the table during the show?

T.A.Waters on Mystery

I thought I will share with you my favorite quote from T.A.Waters's Mind, Myth and Magick:

""...status of a special and unique individual...
...Mystery, you see, is supposed to be rare and special; that's part of what makes it mysterious.
For you to be special as a mystery performer you must be-or appear to be-unique. You must do your best to make them think they have never
seen anything like you before, and accomplishing that is worth whatever effort it takes.
You won't always succeed, of course, nobody can.
If you keep trying, though, you'll move closer to that enchanted boundary - and you'll feel better about your work both as artist and professional performer.
And if you DON'T try, you're wasting your audience's time-and your own.

...If you are the only one around who can do this stuff - you're special.
If you teach it to your friend Bill, so that he can do it too, you are now only half as special...
...as i've said elsewhere, mentalism is SUPPOSED to be miraculous.
A miracle that a lot of people can do is no miracle at all.

...Magic and mentalism supposed to be special-which means, on the most elementary level, that your audience shouldn't be able to move their lips with your patter.
You should be a new experience for them, some-thing they have never seen before, no matter how many magicians or mentalists they have
seen."

It is not what you do it's who you fuck

It's been saying over and over in the literature that it's not what you do, it's what you are and what people THINK that you do.
Well, here is a little proof to that saying.
Presented here a quote fron an 1976 article:

"No matter how stimulating the conversation, after any longer than an hour of sitting still, X could barely contain himself. 'Can we just take a short break?' he'd blurt. Not waiting for a reply, he would then shoot to his feet and dart in another direction: sometimes to write a song or two, other times to dash off a painting. In one instance, he ended a session by asking for a random list of 20 items. I gave it to him. He studied the list for ten seconds, handed it back and recited it from memory. Backward and forward."

The interviewee?
David Bowie

I guess you don't have to make the statue of of Liberty disappear in order of impressing someone...

Test yourself:are you James Cheung?

Please answer the following questions with a yes or no answer:
1 - The only thing you write about in your blog is Yaniv Deautsch
2 - You have read anything and everything by Bob Cassidy and other mentalists but never paid a single penny thanks to file sharing programs.
3 - When, thank god, you do perform, you are nervous and lost for words.
4 - You are a member of Mentalists Asylum and WonderWizards but never posted anything of value to those groups
5 - You keep calling The Wizard is Dead shit despite the fact that it got rave reviews all over the place.

My new blog

hello there and welcome to my new blog.
Here I will share my thoughts and opinions regarding the so called 'the world of mentalists and magicians'.
Feel free to contact me any time.