This week, we have this piece of knowledge and wisdom from one living legend of Modern Mentalism, Lee Earle.
This quote comes from his book "M.I.N.D." (Mentalism in New Directions), from a small essay about the differences between Magic and Mentalism.
Lee is known as a proponent of Modern Mentalism, without the past tendencies of superiority, understanding that Mentalism must be carefully constructed with credibility in mind. His approaches are light but deep at the same time. His clear understanding of an interesting narrative and credible premise in your performance will allow you to impact your audience in exciting manners.
You can realize from this quote, how realism in Mentalism must be part of the experience, thats the appeal! Dont be confused, we dont need to convince anyone, but we can facilitate the space in which they can believe in your premise if they want.
If you study Lee work (I recommend you his Penguin Lectures as well), you can observe the importance of ascending credibility in the structure of an act. This is a crucial aspect to communicate the overall credible premise that you can offer.
We need to be careful with the balance between being credible and incredible, so it doesnt becomes no-credible.
Also, we can observe the first word that Lee uses in this quote..."Cleanly"
How can we do Mentalism cleanly?
Is he referring to the Inner Reality of your method?
Being "clean" after using a gimmick?
I dont think so. I think that he refers to the Outer Reality, to the actual experience that you are creating for your audience. Mentalism is a PERFORMANCE experience, not a rational endeavour of secret executions.
Also, we can observe the word "feeling". At the core, Mentalism always is an emotional experience. From that emotion of "potentially being real", each member of our audience applies their our reason and understanding of reality to come up with their own conclusions.
Some people will experience it as real, others will understand what you do just as a dramatic performance, others will just trivialize what you do as trick.
Please, dont be the one that does that trivialization. Work hard to achieve excellence, not for your own ego, but in service of the experience of Mystery.
So, be real and enjoy the inherent mysterious nature of Mentalism.
Have a REAL week!
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