You are right. Magicians who have made their living performing in restaurants share this belief. Are you sure you are speculating

10min is a long time to perform for a table waiting for their food. I rarely perform that long. 3-5 mins is the norm. So thats 2-3 effects that make up you're routine. Your opener should have something magical in it within the 1st 5 seconds and I prefer not to open with cards. The basic rule to follow is that every effect should be good enough to close with. If the food gets there during you're opener, finish the effect, thank them for watching, then leave. Only continue performing if they ask.

Mentalism tends to be less visual. However a strong mental effect can have a knock out effect on the audience. If you open with a mentalist effect, you're story must capture their attention. I have a mentalist opener I use all the time, within the 1st 5 seconds they know what to expect and I deliver. Its interesting to note that Richard Osterlind, who is a world renowned mentalist, loves an effect where rings link on a pencil in close up environments. He also has an amazing impromptu card to pocket effect. The point here is to perform what you love well enough that is brightens the day of your audience. Why limit you're self when magic is all about doing the impossible.

Once again I'd like to reiterate that I never said the op shouldn't do mentalism in a restaurant. What I said (or at least meant) was that an amateur mentalist would not be as good as a professional mentalist at holding the audience's attention with a mentalism routine. Mainly for the reason already noted, that mentalism is less visual than other types of magic. However, if mental magic is performed (say things like the invisible deck presented with a mentalism feel), the amateur will have a much easier time keeping his audience's attention. The second point I was trying to make was that once the amateur was seasoned enough from performing mental magic, he/she could start performing mentalism alongside mental magic to see how well it works for them, and possibly incorporate only mentalism into his/her routine. Hopefully this is more clear.

Okay okay no ones wanting to tar and feather you. But isn't an amateur anything not as good as a professional anything when it comes to holding an audiences attention. By amateur and professional I mean skill not profit, if that's what you mean that is.

Well that's a mistake in your definition and has no bearing on what bucky is talking about. Professional means that you are getting paid.You are talking about skilled versus unskilled. Since we are referring to restaurant magicians I think we can assume that all, or at least most, are indeed professional. Thus, bucky is referring to the varying skill levels of the professional performer. Even more to the point he is referring to a performer’s skill level with Mentalism. I have just recently started studying mentalism and I know exactly where he is coming from and why. Mental magic is a great way to get your feet wet in mentalism. When you make that final leap into pure mentalism presentation is everything. I have been taking the PMM class with Luke Jermay. I have performed a few of the effects he has covered, one of which was inspired from one line in the book. The method is clever, simple, and brilliant. When Luke performs the effect people are just dumbfounded. When I perform it people think....nice trick. How did you do that? It's all in presentation and it will take me a lot more practice (specifically performance practice) and a lot more work on my scripting before I could "captivate" a table full of strangers with the effect. Thus, if I wanted to do mentalism in a restaurant I would start with mental magic until I felt confident enough with my character, people skills, and my scripting.

So summing up...what bucky is saying sure sounds like good advice to me.

I'm finding myself completely agreeing with what you summarized. It tends to be a trend here between me and you... I tend to completely agree with whatever it is you say (even if it's not just agreeing with me). Thanks for being a real-life example to what I was talking about.

Actually, thank you! Your advice is quite valuable to those who are just beginning to explore mentalism....at least to those willing to listen to what you are saying

Well, does anyone have any knowledge of the skill level of the original poster, I think we may be assuming things that may be untrue.

Acebrawler was more of a card man if my memory serves me right. So I think more than anything he was just curious as to what people's thoughts on the subject were. This could be because he wanted to incorporate some mentalism into his routines. However, it is hard to tell his thoughts on the subject cause he rarely visits penguin anymore.
And I am not assuming things about anyone. Remember again that I never said anyone should stay away from mentalism, just that an amateur shouldn't do full on mentalism right away. I realize your probably not trying to find holes in my advice, but right now it sounds like it.

Forget the rule book, do anything. Just make it a powerful, memorable mystifying experiance.

Paul