Thinking Allowed

Tabula Mentis
by Jon Thompson

After the success of the July meeting, organiser Dr. Todd Landman, and Israeli-born Roni Shachnaey, decided to put the idea on a firmer footing. In the intervening months, they formed Psycrets – the Society of British Mystery Entertainers. So, Tabula Mentis was also the first meeting held under this banner.

The room chosen for the day was large, with an area for lectures and performances at one end, and a large kitchen at the other. Despite having 1500 square feet at our disposal, the room still managed to feel full – a good sign.

The day began with Dr. Landman’s keynote “icebreaker”. He explained briefly about Psycrets, membership of which will in time lead to special offers and invitations to exclusive events. Todd is also very keen to “federalise” the organisation, thereby allowing local chapters to spring up. He then outlined the structure for the day, and gave a demonstration of his style of mentalism, including his book test, “Cogito Ergo Sum”. He also hinted that a very special guest would be joining us, more of
which later.

The first lecture of the day was by Colin McCloud. To illustrate his ideas on dual reality and the usefulness of exploiting naturally occurring psychological effects, Colin performed a great routine that had at its heart some very clever and deceiving billet work. Afterwards, he explained his techniques, and we got a glimpse of just how much clever thinking goes into producing a routine of that quality.

Next up was Phil “Mitox” Smith. He performed an unusual new book test-style routine in which he folded and cut a large sheet of newspaper into nearly three dozen pieces, shuffled them, had them distributed amongst as many spectators as there were pieces of newspaper, asked each person to select a word on his or her piece, and divined it. The odd miss added to the naturalness of the piece, but the explanation was even better. It’s a very ingenious method, as he demonstrated after the performance, and one I think many mentalists will have a lot of fun performing if he releases it.

Despite apologising for a limited English vocabulary, another Israeli mentalist, Lior Manor, then gave us much to think about on the subject of mentalism in corporate shows. Lior specialises in big promotional shows for clients including IBM and Xerox. His use of audience interaction, competitions and presentation technology left us thinking big about the possibilities. As part of his presentation, Lior showed us a wide range of effects including a comedy poker routine using jumbo cards to prove that the spectator simply could not win even when he chose his own hand.

Next came a lecture from Matthew “Malchat” Schouten, from Utrecht in the Netherlands. Malchat’s subject was close-up mentalism, and he performed an unusual but very interesting routine based on the smell of rosemary oil as a trigger for memory, ending in the spectator performing an OOTW-style effect. The central theme to his talk afterwards was an impassioned plea for mentalists to think outside the box. He asked us to look at what everyone else does and to make it our own, not just parrot back someone else’s presentation, and to defy accepted wisdom. This
advice is rapidly becoming vital to established performers and newcomers alike, especially with a generation of youngsters beginning to make the transition from performing card tricks to mentalism, and posting tutorials on YouTube. The advent of “Phenomenon” and issues of nationwide exposure make Malchat’s advice even more vital.

Next up was Daniel Young. He began by asking everyone on the front row to call out a different two-digit number. He then announced that all were wrong, but the closest to the number he’d been thinking of was a guy called Steve. Steve had been two off in predicting Daniel’s number. Proof? Daniel asked Steve to stand and open an envelope that had been in plain sight all along. Its contents read, “Steve will be off by two”. Daniel also performed a similar word divination routine and finished on
his controversially named c.a.n.n.a.b.i.s effect. Later that evening, Daniel showed me this effect again and it really is very strong. He also has a set of lecture notes outlining his philosophy, but says he has no plans to release them generally yet. Having read them, it’s clear that he has some very interesting ideas.

The next speaker was Alan Jones, with his talk about pre-show work. His central premise was that it’s not a dirty word, nor should it be. In fact, any preparation you do before an effect or a show is technically pre-show work, he told us. There comes a point, however, when too much preparation detracts from the performance. It’s important, he said, for the audience to see you go through some form of tangible process, and not just pluck thoughts cleanly from people’s heads with scalpel
precision each time. To do this, he said we should think carefully about the premise of each effect, and the process we want the audience to see us apparently go through, each step of which should have a clear and logical reason for its inclusion. Thought provoking stuff indeed.

Next up was Barry Cooper with two subjects: pendulums and hypnosis. First, he explained how pendulums can invoke ideometer responses in subjects, and gave us a convincing demonstration. We all stood and allowed our bodies to rock slightly backwards or forwards in response to asking ourselves a question, the answer to which was either true or false. This was an interesting experience, but his use of a pendulum and a volunteer to show the effect more clearly was nothing short of
impressive. It even prompted me to go out and buy my first pendulum!

Next, Barry talked about stage hypnosis. I was a little disappointed (or was that relieved?) to hear that he wouldn’t be putting on a full show, but what he did do left us all with much to think about regarding the nature of suggestion. He performed several group and individual suggestibility tests. Being too interested in the techniques themselves to get into the moment, I seemed to be immune to his influence. Watching the people around me, however, I seemed to be in a tiny minority. During a handclasp test, in which the outstretched forefingers were slowly
willed to slowly come together, I saw both my neighbours’ pairs of fingers slowly do as they were bid.

My small contribution to the day, a talk about the development of my “Naked” approach to mentalism, was next. The room was stiflingly hot by now, and I could see one or two heads nodding as I took to the stage, possibly due to us all tucking into the fridge full of free beer in an attempt to keep cool. The idea behind Naked techniques is that there’s no physical method involved. Instead, they blend memory, psychology and statistics to emulate the powers of a real psychic – but with
dramatically improved results. But as much as I love discussing and exploring ideas within Naked mentalism, there was an excellent reason for me to finish up quickly and not ramble on answering too many questions.

If you remember, we’d been promised a very special guest and we were not disappointed. During the course of the early afternoon, the door to the studio opened and in walked none other than... the legendary psychological illusionist, ex-president of the Magic Circle and paranormal investigations committee chairman, David Berglas.

David, who retired fifteen years ago, very kindly held an extended question and answer session about a highly successful career spanning over forty years, but it was far more than that. Each answer was peppered with tips culled from a lifetime’s experience of creating and performing, making the whole thing a goldmine. Each answer had illustrative anecdotes, such as the time when a young Phil Goldstein
(now the very accomplished Max Maven) read David’s mind in a hotel lift, but immediately ruined the effect by blurting out the method instead of waiting for Berglas to wrack his brains trying to discover the method overnight, finding him in the morning and asking how it was done.

Beginning his nationwide career in radio, Berglas would ask for feedback from listeners, and soon began receiving several thousands of items of fan mail a week, such was the popularity of his show. On moving into television with the show “Meet David Berglas” in 1954, he quickly recorded the highest UK TV audience, a feat not beaten until the arrival of the massively popular comedy duo Morecambe and Wise in the 1960s.

Though professing to never attending such meetings since retiring fifteen years ago, David’s unique and very welcome presence at Tabula Mentis was down to his friend and fellow attendee Marc Paul, to whom I think everyone attending owes a big debt of gratitude.

Other than meeting David Berglas (and the shock of him name-checking my work on Naked methods at the start of his talk!), the highlight for me was finally meeting Ian Rowland during the lunch break. I’ve been a big fan of Ian’s “Full Facts of Cold Reading” for some time, and I took my tattered copy along for an autograph. Imagine my surprise when he presented me not only with a pristine copy, but a copy of his 2007 lecture notes, too. And now I understand why his web site also bills him
as a fridge magnet!

By early evening, the delegates began to thin as trains departed and people left for prior engagements, but the core of about fifteen of us who were lucky enough to stay were treated to a number of interesting demonstrations of both finished effects and works in progress. One macabre piece in particular was Roni Shachnaey’s rather worrying Russian roulette routine, done using cans of car paint potentially being sprayed by a spectator into Roni’s open eye. Four tins wouldn’t spray, one would, but which was it? Eventually, Saturday night sobriety got the better of us all, and we sloped off to find a pub.

All too soon, it was Sunday morning, and as I stood nursing a hangover on Euston Station, I looked through my notes and began to realise that they simply don’t do justice to the sheer breadth and depth of knowledge and experience assembled in one place. Even now, little details of the day keep emerging, but there’s simply no time to write them up. Too much happened.

I estimate that there were well over three hundred man-years of performance experience at Tabula Mentis, of which I probably constituted less than one percent. It was a pleasure meeting new faces, getting re-acquainted with old ones, and hearing about some new and exciting developments in the world of mentalism. Some last minute cancellations were inevitable. Looch, Drew McAdam and several others couldn’t make it for reasons as diverse as performing and car trouble, but it was great catching up with people like the Big Blind Media crew, Todd Landman,
Iain Dunford, Malchat, and Dale Shrimpton, who’s working on an idea for an act I think we’re going to hear a lot about over the coming year.

Tabula Mentis is still small enough to have an intimate feel, but I just know it’ll continue to grow. The first meeting saw just thirty of us pack into a tiny, hot, downstairs meeting room at Treadwell’s esoteric bookshop in Covent Garden. Now 1500 square feet seems small. The next meeting is in the spring, and it doesn’t take a precognitive to realise that it’ll be even bigger. Thanks go to all those who spoke, especially David Berglas, but ultimately to Todd and Roni for organising the event
and for making it such a successful day.

Jon Thompson