for anyone who doesn't know: mentalism is a form of magic where the goal of the trick is to make the performer look like they have mind reading powers of one form or another. almost always bringing an audience member on stage, having them pick a number, a letter, a color, a word, [doing something], and then revealing that you know what it is. the reason I hate mentalism is that it is fundamentally about telling you what will happen, and then doing it. the [doing something] step is where the magician injects their personal style into the routine, but the beginning and end are always, always, always, always, always, always the same. I don't care what quirky thing you do in the middle, I don't care if you pretend to get it wrong the first time, I don't care if you tell a little joke. the performance is the same
mentalism is the magic equivalent of a joke where the setup is telling you the punchline
"knock knock! hey, is someone crying on the other side of the door?"
"who's there?"
"boo! I swear, I hear someone crying!"
"boo who?"
"aha! I was right! you sound like you're crying!"π
that's what mentalism. and the most frustrating part for me is that I truly have no idea how it works, ever. I need to learn the principles of mentalism so I can be more smug about how much I hate it
