This week, we have a very interesting thinking approach from one of the forgotten masters, Robert Nelson.
This quote comes from his wonderful book "The Encyclopedia of Mentalism and Allied Arts"
What I love about this perspective in the differentiation of Magic and Mentalism, is the fact that in Mentalism the "mis-direction" (which I prefer to label as direction as Tommy Wonder said or even better "focus", taking the psychological concept of Daniel Goleman) is compared in importance with what he calls the "mis-belief".
We can facilitate a space in performance to let people change their belief if they desire, and our work also is to make them desire that.
That new belief must be attractive, interesting, desirable.
What is the belief that you are proposing in your performance?
Any act that we do, communicates something. A belief does not just allude to something mystical or spiritual in nature. If you are a psychological performer, and you are detecting lies with your acute observation, you are also installing a belief about the plausibility of that interaction.
Our central emotion is Mystery and Mystery Performers, so everything what we do has some level of Mystery, even the most credible demonstration (solving a rubik´s cube, doing the magic square, etc) has some level of mystery that can create interest in people.
So, we dont need to move the focus of your audience as a Magician does to cover his secrets, but maybe, if we are conscious about what BELIEF we are moving, we can focus in the real important aspects of our constructed outer reality. People are not stupid, and they feel whenever they are "distracted".
Dont distract people, dont be focused in your inner reality about letting people "forget" moments. Every moment in your outer reality must be interesting to experience, and that can be possible if your move their belief.
Dont mis-direct yourself, and have an awesome week!
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