The Mentalist on CBS became a household name in the United States and in fact everywhere around the world. While just a year ago nobody even knew what a mentalist is, today every little boy wants to grow up and become a mentalist. But how come this art of the mentalists, which is called “Mentalism”, became the hottest trend on TV these days?
Mentalism is basically the ability, that specialists such as the well known mentalist Ehud Segev have, to induce the illusion of a number of spectacular actions which include precognition, mind control and mind reading, psychokinesis, and others by mastering special attributes such as hot and cold reading, mental acuity, stage magic important principles, and of course the power of suggestion. In short, this is the definition of mentalism and the actions of any professional mentalist. While mentalism is not something new, there are a number of factors which have contributed greatly to the growing success of every mentalist out there. For one, we have all seen the great stage shows which have brought global recognition to the entire phenomenon.
“After the success of the Mentalism stage shows and great mentalists such as Kreskin and Dunninger”, corporate entertainer and mentalist Ehud Segev explains, “the era of TV mentalism shows arrived bringing us the art of the mentalists into our own TV screens via great shows such as “The Mentalist” on CBS and the series I was featured in: “Phenomenon” on NBC”.
The secret behind each and every great mentalism show you have ever seen is presentation. Any great mentalist has to completely master his presentation. This is the most special aspect and is completely vital to the success of any mentalist. Mentalists such as Segev have an almost supernatural ability to capture the attention of their audience and directing that attention to any direction. In this case, people tend to call Mentalism “a different kind of magic”.
“Many people have the tendency to think that mentalism shows are not that different from magic shows”, Segev continues, “but in reality the most accurate description is that a mentalism is a display of the spectacular abilities of the human brain, more than anything else.”
One of the first displays of mentalism was the spoon bending effect, which was brought under the spotlight by the world renowned mentalist Uri Geller. This trick involves bending a regular dining spoon only with the powers of the mind. When you first see this trick performed by a mentalist you cannot help but be impressed as your brain cannot come up with any logical explanation for what you have just seen. Although mentalism has had quite some success before it had started to die down a little. However, things have changed for the better since the appearance of ?The Mentalist? TV show in 2008. The show has had a tremendous role in the rebirth of mentalism by educating its viewers as to what a mentalist really is.
The show is considered to have provided an unanticipated growth for mentalism. This fact has been recognized even by the best showmen in this field, such as Ehud Segev, a mentalist who had already met great international success by participating in hit TV shows such as “Soiree de letrange” (in France premiere channel TF1), and ?The Successor? (in Israel premiere channel 2 – a show that received record ratings in Israel and numerous countries from all around the world), the NBC hosted show ?Phenomenon? and by performing on stages and TV shows globally. Nowadays, mentalist shows have also become a hit with some of the largest companies from the US and world-wide, which choose to include mentalist shows in the corporate events they host. The bottom line is that in terms of showmanship, nothing can beat a truly professional mentalist who will come into a room and leave everyone with their completely mind boggled.
“The Mentalist show is probably a great way to promote our art of Mentalism”, Segev announced, “and I hope that sooner than later, when someone will approach me and ask me what I do he will smile at me and say: ‘Oh, a mentalist, I know what it is’! This will be a great change as now I always receive the same response: ‘A mentalist? what -for crying out loud- does a mentalist do???’, or worse: ‘Oh, you’re a mentalist? But what do you do in REAL life???’”
For more resources please visit http://www.mentalizer.com
