Certified Mentalism
Nope, I haven’t been carted off in a tight fitted jacket just yet!
That would make me:
I’m not that advanced!
So where have you been?
I haven’t been around for a few weeks because I’ve not been a tall well, so whilst feeling sorry for myself, I decided to catch up on some reading.
Certified Mentalism is a book written by the intrepid explorer Mr Paul Brook (no e and definitely no s!)
Explorer you say?
Don’t get too excited; His middle name’s not Dora and I don’t think he’s searching for the lost ark.
Ok, so what’s he exploring?
Really?
No, now bugger off and let me get on with this review!
Certified Mentalism is a 280 page book which is packed full of great workable routines. Pauls charisma jumps right off the pages and slaps you in the face harder than Will Smith!
The book is sub titled; Practical effects for the real world.
Basically, what that means is; Paul doesn’t use electronics or any crazy processes to achieve EFFOMS.
This book was written for the performers that use everyday items to achieve their mentalism.
This is mentalism that works every time!
Certified Mentalism is home to no less than 21 amazing effects, there’s some close up stuff in there although I would say the majority of the effects are best suited to a stage environment and that makes perfect sense as Paul does seem to do a lot of stage work and he is quite probably the busiest mentalist in the corporate world today.
That doesn’t mean to say you can’t incorporate some of these effects for close up or walk around. In fact whilst reading this book, my mind was buzzing with ideas of how I could adapt some of these effects to suit my preferred style of mentalism which just so happens to be close up.
I won’t list all 21 of the effects in this book as I’d probably wear out my fingertips and you’ll likely get bored of me.
So I’ll just share with you my best bits…
Wooah cheeky, not those bits!
These bits:
Remember the grey elephant in Denmark?
Well Paul completely flipped it on its head when he created Sans Loxodonta. This came about after Paul found himself in a sticky situation with another semi naked man in a sauna. Sans Loxodonta is the devilishly clever principle of increasing the power of a method by taking something away. Now I know exactly what you’re thinking:
How big was the Elephants trunk?
Oh, you want to know more about Sans Loxodonta?
How silly of me to think otherwise! Well I’m unable to discuss Sans Loxodonta in great detail, due to signing the official secrets act but I can tell you that this is a very powerful principle, only limited by the 26 dimensions of closed unoriented bosonic string theory.
A little word of caution:
With great power comes great responsibility–Fleshlight sales assistant
Paul’s discovery of the Sans Loxodonta principle gave birth to:
The Copenhagen cover up
This routine perfectly utilises the Sans Loxodonta principle.
The performer takes the participant on an imaginary holiday anywhere in the world but misfortune strikes the performer and their luggage arrive in a different country than the desired destination. All the choices are made by the participant, yet the predictions made by the performer match exactly.
This right here is an
Hands up if you like drawing duplications…
Well you’re in for a real treat as Certified Mentalism has four (could be five but I’m undecided) drawing duplications, each with its own special flavour. The two I like the most are:
Sharprediction
A brilliant drawing duplication routine that proves you influenced the participant to draw their freely chosen design but that’s not all, the participant has been holding the object that influenced them right from the start. This is the absolute definition of
Connect the dots
A pad of paper is handed out into the audience with the instruction to randomly place thirty dots on the paper. Once this is done, the pad is passed to another member of the audience who then randomly numbers each dot. Another audience member connects ten random dots with straight pen lines. Using those lines as inspiration, a mental image is created. The performer is then able to correctly replicate the image that the audience member is thinking of. Without a shadow of doubt another
Have you ever wanted to appear on a gameshow? You have? Then you’ll love
Psychic countdown
The performer hands out a bunch of blank business cards and a pen to the audience. These are to be passed around and a letter of the alphabet written on each card until there are no more blank cards. The cards are then mixed by a member of the audience and placed into two piles. The audience now choose which side the business cards are drawn from, nine cards are selected and displayed. The audience generates the largest word possible from these letters and it perfectly matches to a prediction that was handed out at the start of the routine.
This routine seems like it would be really good fun. C’mon, who doesn’t like a good gameshow?
Move over Kasparov, there’s a new game in town!
Chess in the hand
Chess is the ultimate mental strategy game of the ages. A person is asked to name any chess piece and say if it is black or white. The performer’s hand, which has been in sight the entire time, opens to reveal the named chess piece in the exact colour.
Special edition material
The Certified Mentalism Special Edition contains four of Pauls most treasured routines in full detail. My favourite is The sneaky rogue.
This is Pauls take on the classic sneak thief routine.
Everyone in the audience is asked to think of something bad they’ve done in the past. A paper ball is thrown out to select five random audience members. They join the performer on stage and while the performer looks away, they each draw the bad deed they were thinking of. The drawings are all mixed up so the performer doesn’t know who drew what. The performer now plays a game of lie detection to reunite the first four people with their drawings/bad deeds. The performer correctly guesses the final persons bad deed but there’s a kicker: The paper ball that was thrown out to the audience is opened to reveal a prediction of the final persons bad deed.
So there you have it, my top of the Certified Mentalism pops.
I would have loved to list everything in the book but honestly I’d probably run out of bandwidth and at least now when you buy it, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Fragmented Thoughts
If you’re looking for fresh, new material or just in search of some inspiration then look no further than Certified Mentalism. It’s absolutely bursting at the seams with EFFOMS!
I give this book my highest recommendation and you can get your copy directly from Paul at:
Have a great day and remember:
Swiper no swiping!
Stay Weird
ЯYΛП MΣПƬIƧ
International Man of Mischief