After going thru material from books and developing ur patter I would like to know how long I could continue with the act.Reaching the climax too early would be foolish and dragging the act/routine too long ud make the audience loose interest.There is a running time with every routine .How can I or any mentalist decide or does it come with practice.For example if have to reveal a mentally chosen word from a book should I hurry with the force and take my time on the revealation or do the reverse?Or shud I spend an equal amt of time with forcing the book and then forcing the word and then the revelation.Shud the revealation be instant or shud I pretend about difficulty in getting the word etc and crack a joke ( about some peoples minds).Some performers diffuse the tension they have built and then go on to another climax.
Are there any sucker tricks in Mentalism(like the torn and restord napkin used by many magicians)
How about some kind of fire effects or light effects like the good old atomic lamp of the 1950 s.Can levitation be included with mentalism(esp small objects)Dr.Subroto mukherjee

Hello Dr. Subroto,

There is no set time limit for a specific act or effect. The only rule is that however long you take, make sure it's entertaining for your audience.

It is generally not a good idea to make the revelation instantaneous. You are reading minds, and to make that believable, you need to show some effort. If you make it look easy, you take some of that mystery away.

As for types of effects: there are standard classifications of accepted mental phenomena -- telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, telekinesis, to name a few. But at the bottom line, i think you can really do ANY effect provided you can convince your audience that it is accomplished through psychic ability.

Making an elephant disappear may be difficult to sell this way. But if you like fire, you can certainly make something burst into flame if you can convince your audience that it's done using nothing but your mental concentration. Ditto for moving small objects (levitation may be pushing it). Just remember that whatever you do, make it believable.

Best of luck,
Neil

I must thank Neil,but you didnot mention any thing about sucker effects.Tony Corrinda does take a step in that direction and almost reveals how it is done and reaches a dead end climax ,so that the audience does not know whether to believe the mentalist or not!Personally I dont think that is a very good idea but I would like to knoe the opinion of others.Thamks again Neil.Signing off ,Dr.Subroto Mukherjee

I'm not a big fan of sucker effects generally, as "I fooled you" isn't the message a mentalist should generally be sending to an audience. In the comedy mentalism genre, however, there are a few good effects. One of the best is by Corinda: Powers of Darkness. It isn't pure mentalism, but it's an excellent way to explain how easy it is to deceive the senses in a darkened room like spirit mediums -- then, after the laughs die down, go into a spirit effect.