Jay

Some cool tech for nerds and theatrically-minded mystery performersOne of the things I decided to do in order to increase the “theatricality” of the mentalism show I was putting together was to add background music to many of my routines. That has now expanded to music, sound effects, and pictures/videos to most of them.In looking for the tech needed to handle that, Jeff Peterson pointed me toward an app called iQ Pro Show Control that could control all that stuff from an iPhone or iPad. (That previous link leads to the app store, this link leads to the iQ Pro…

Why I switched to Dyment's DAO stack...When I got back into magic as a hobby after a 30+ year hiatus, I decided to focus on mentalism and went looking through the three boxes of props and books that I’d carted along over the years for anything in that realm. I pulled out Richard Osterlind’s Breakthrough Card System that I’d never really learned and decided to “get good” at it. Discovering the “behind the scenes” info that allowed the stack to work was inspirational — I can only imagine how Osterlind felt when the pieces fell into place and he had…

Give readings based on someone's cell (mobile) phoneI’m working on a new way to give readings. You may know I’m a big fan of Lo Shu Numerology readings and have given a ton of those over the last few years, but I stumbled on an idea and have spent the last few weeks fleshing it out into Cell Oracle.What is Cell Oracle?You can give people psychic/personal readings based on tarot cards, lines on their palms, the date they were born, etc. But now with the Cell Reading System you can also give them a reading based on something that’s very…

Timestamps for the four discsFollowing are the timestamps for the set of tutorials called Jermay’s Mind. These timestamps are from my DVDs that I ripped onto my hard drive, so it’s possible the times will be off a tad depending on where your videos came from.Jermay’s Mind Disc 1 TimestampsFull show performanceExtended Tossed-Out Deck Performance (00:00)Connected Performance (07:08)Touching On Hoy Performance (13:48)Spectator as Mind Reader Performance (21:44)Q & A Performance (27:12)Extended Tossed Out Deck Explanation (40:02)Connected Explanation (54:15)Jermay’s Mind Disc 2 TimestampsTouching on Hoy Explanation (00:00)Touching on Divination Explanation (31:05)Q&A Discussion (47:17)Mind Museum Performance (1:48:09)Mind Museum Explanation (1:53:50)Jermay’s Mind Disc…

Another look at cribs...This is kind of an addendum to the Spinning Marc Paul and Cribs articles to talk about the idea of cribs that aren’t hidden — they are right out in the open, although to the audience they don’t look like a cheat sheet.The first part of this is especially pertinent for people who perform Marc Paul’s Emotions effect, from the Anywhere Act, but the ideas can be used elsewhere.Emotions Becomes CarnivoraciousBecause the theme of Emotions didn’t appeal to me, I dismissed it at first, but quickly realized the method could be used for a routine I’d come…

Maybe -- check the licensing!Note: The software I talk about in this article I know works for iOS since I’m an Apple Zealot (Class of 1984!) and I just don’t have knowledge of the Android world to know whether there are versions for that platform.Back in the 80s when I was performing magic full time I typically started my shows with a 10-minute routine set to music (dove productions, manipulation, etc.), but that was the only music used in my entire show.In the last couple years while putting together routines for a mind-reading show, one of the things I wanted…

What can we learn from other performing arts?Just a quick note…I found this guy on YouTube and spent a weekend recently watching a bunch of his videos.Andres ColinHe’s a musician, not a magician, but he does a lot of the same stuff we do. Packs up his stuff and travels to the venue.Unpacks and sets up his stuff wherever they want the “stage” to be.Performs his effects (songs) well to entertain the guests.Packs up and drives home when it’s all over.Except for songs vs effects, a lot of everything else is the same things we do. I watched his videos…

Word of mouth is all you need! (Bzzzt! Wrong answer...)Probably the worst piece of advice I received when I started performing professionally was, “Do a good show and word of mouth will keep the bookings coming.” The first half of that is valid — I had a good show (and still have a stack of testimonials as proof) but within a few years I burned out and gave up — I was barely making an existence, much less an actual living.This was back in the day way before the internet, so no way to look up info on marketing, and…

A fun parlor/stage mentalism routineThis routine is inspired by “CB Mentalism” from the book Larry Becker’s World of Super Mentalism. Unlike CB radio, drinking is something that will be around forever! ;)Effect:The mentalist shows cards representing five drinking establishments, each showing their signature drink, such as Martini or Old Fashioned. The cards are placed face up on a table on stage.The mentalist now invites three random spectators to join him on stage and explains that the participants will play the parts of folks embarking on an imaginary pub crawl.Because nobody knows how wild this night is going to get, each…

Print Your Own PropsBelow is a PDF file so you can “Print Your Own Props” for The World’s Easiest Chair Test from Marc Paul’s Anywhere Act, which is available from The 1914 — see the following link for more information:https://the1914.com/collections/mentalism/products/anywhere-actThe download file is NOT the chair test effect itself, but just printable props that can be used if you know what the routine is, so don’t bother grabbing it unless you already have the Anywhere Act from The 1914.Worldseasiestchairtest Pyop2MB ∙ PDF fileDownloadDownload(I mean, you can download it if you want, but it will be fairly useless without Marc Paul’s…