Hi everyone,
Just thought I'd say a quick hello, as someone who's been trawling this forum over the past month or so. Thank you for providing a great deal of useful advice and information to someone who's just begun to develop an interest in magic, mentalism and memory.

I decided in early 2011 to improve my memory and to read more. Having been through a couple of Dominic O’Brien titles, I then went on to read Derren Brown’s ‘Tricks of the Mind’, followed by Mark Wilson’s ‘Complete course in Magic’ (which I am plodding through, slowly). For my birthday in November I got Corinda’s 13 steps to mentalism and have been really enjoying learning about these fantastic subjects.

I was absolutely delighted when I memorised my first deck of cards a month ago and have got the time down to 3:55 now, which I’m really happy with. I’ve been concentrating on card tricks (all of which I currently execute to a shambolic standard).
I recently (yesterday) tried out an open route/perfect square of the Knight’s Tour on a friend. His reaction was confused bemusement – not exactly the amazement I’d hoped for!

I couldn't find any general guides in the FAQs for this site so please do shout if I contravene any etiquette - really don't want to do that.

So… hello! I wish you well, and look forward to learning more and hopefully sharing a few laughs. Loving your work!

Anyone got any good recommendations on what to read next, or what you wished you'd known when you started out?

Greetings! I hope you enjoy your stay here. It's kinda slow, but we're all very friendly.

Thanks, kindly - slow suits me fine! I'll just busy myself mining through the wealth of posts on here...

Cheers!

I immediately like that you're not bringing back topics from 2002. I too welcome you to penguin, hope you have fun with some of the mentalism side of things. It's where I permanently reside in my practicing now... that is, if I ever practice anymore... been sorta dormant lately with learning new things.

Thank you - I'll endeavour to use the search function as often as possible before posting. I'm like a kid in a sweet shop at the moment, and don't expect to contribute much other than a lay person's perspective for a while!


Very interesting to observe that - mentalism seems to be striking a real chord with our generation. For what it's worth, my theory is that feats of mental power hold real appeal to an audience convinced of its own near-perfect advancement / superiority. The brain is the final frontier...ZZZzzzzzzz. Sorry, didn't mean to send you to sleep there with my pet theories... (stealth hypnosis tactic).
Mentalism always reminds me of a quote from 'Leon'...
"The rifle is the first weapon you learn how to use, because it lets you keep your distance from the client. The closer you get to being a pro, the closer you can get to the client. The knife, for example, is the last thing you learn."

Thanks for the warm welcome.

Welcome to penguin. Glad to see someone new is joining the forums.

I'm Flappy, and I mostly hang around the Off-Topic section ever since I lost interest in magic (although it comes back on and off).

Anyway, glad to meet you dude, look forward to...I dunno, you.


So tell me about memorizing a deck of cards, that's really interesting to me, I want to know more.

Oh, and I'm so glad to see someone else who cares about their grammar on a forum. It's like a breath of fresh air.


Also, if you don't mind me asking, what sort of other hobbies do you have aside from magic?

Flap, memorizing a deck mostly consists of the peg or link systems of memory. In which certain numbers are given letters or words to associate with them. Same goes for each card's value. Then all you do is combine the two of them into a crazy image, and you can usually rattle them off with a bit of practice.

It is well detailed in Derren Brown's book "Tricks of the Mind" if you're interested in learning it. Actually, with about 10 hours of practice you should be pretty good at it. That being said, you do have to keep at it for a while to retain the skill. I stopped a couple of times and always had to re-learn the whole process.

Hi Flappy2 - thanks a lot for the welcome, good to meet you too. Glad my grammar hasn't failed me... yet

The system I use for memorising cards is similar to what Bucky described. It's called the Dominic System, after Dominic O'Brien, who invented it.

I basically picture a character (and associated action) for each card in the deck. To memorise, I travel along a journey with 52 clearly defined steps along the way (e.g. petrol station, traffic lights, shops). At each step I imagine the character interacting with whatever's at each stop, and performing their action. Once complete, you just revisit the journey in your head and then decode the characters into the correct card. E.g. - I might picture Adam Sandler (=Ace of Spaces) battering a traffic light with his golf club, screaming loudly and kicking the post.

Learning the system took an investment of time (probably 2-3 weeks before I was semi-fluent) but I'm now at a stage where I can use it pretty quickly. I've also applied the memory techniques to help me learn / develop in other areas and have found it incredibly useful. It's a great way of remembering numbers, and encourages you to use your imagination to remember things which you may otherwise perceive as mundane. If I get good enough to warrant it, I plan to use a similar process to remember tricks in a routine.

I'd recommend taking a look at How to Develop a Brilliant Memory Week by Week by O'Brien if you want to learn more. If you prefer not to spend the money, MentatWiki is a really useful site too.

Outside of magic, I’m interested in running (got round the London marathon this year), gaming, reading, cooking, wine and squash. I also have a 1 year old and my lovely wife to keep me busy. I live in the south of England.
I'm loving learning about magic. I just love the idea of creating and sharing astonishment, enjoyment and fun. Plus the challenge of becoming skilful really appeals.


Love it!