Magic vs Mentalism - The Differences

Many years ago, I read something Lloyd Barnes shared online: you either die a magician or live long enough to see yourself become a mentalist. 

I don't know where the phrase originated in its magical incarnation. It is, of course, a play on Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight line: You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

There is this trope in magic in which people get into magic, perform magic tricks, and then slowly but surely transition into mentalists.

Why does this happen? Is it a good thing? And are there lessons to be learned from mentalism that magicians can build into the ways they perform their tricks?

Magic Vs. Mentalism

Honestly, I sometimes struggle to put into words the differences between magic and mentalism. It certainly seems easier to define mentalism. In fact, if there were no such word as a mentalist, we'd likely allow every mentalism effect to get categorized as a magic trick.

Even the word mentalism sounds weird to me. I once sat down to write an essay for One Ahead readers all about how mentalists should be calling themselves mind readers instead of mentalists. I thought that surely more people know what mind reading is than they know about mentalism.

In my own experience, I've had a ton of people in television production crews, and even commissioning rooms ask what on earth mentalism is. They wouldn't ask the same question if I had simply called it mind reading.

But when I sat down to write about it, I did some research, and the data I found seemed to contradict my personal experience. While the term mind reader is more intuitive, more people understand that mentalists are performers who create the illusion of mind reading and predicting behaviors. When looking to hire or see a mentalist, people are more likely to search for one with that term.

For this article, we'll define mentalism's effects as predicting, influencing, and reading human behavior. Magic, on the other hand, tends to be much more visual and can exist with or without spectators.

Why Start With Magic

Nothing travels quite like magic. If I ever do visit YouTube and look at the trending reels, I often see non-magicians performing magic tricks there. There's no denying it: magic is surprising, visual, and engaging, regardless of what language you speak and whether you are or are not sitting watching it on the loo.

The same cannot be said for mentalism – it is rarely visual, requires a spectator, and almost always involves the written or spoken word.

It's easy to see how magic is able to read hundreds of millions of more people each day than magic. This is why the first argument for why most people begin with magic is that most people discover magic long before mentalism. It is not the case that they are aware of and decline to learn mentalism before learning magic.

Magic is the gateway.

There's also something rather unique about mentalism, which we'll touch on later, but it's good to raise now, too. Mentalism is believable in a way magic never entirely can be.

When you see a clip of Derren Brown reading someone's mind, it's easy to imagine either he's genuinely doing it or that it is a skill that is not easy to learn. Often, mentalists appear to struggle to read minds, taking their time and squinting.

With magic, however, when you see a crushed can restore itself to brand new, we all know there's no way that magic like that is accurate, so there must be a secret, and if there's a secret, we might be able to learn it. Magicians always make it look so easy and flawless, so perhaps the trick is easy for me to do, too.

Magic is a "thing," not a skill in the eyes of many. This is why the idea of buying your nephew a magic set or teaching your cousin a card trick feels much more intuitive than buying someone a mentalism kit.

It's more accessible and appealing to buy a magic trick toy prop. You can see what you're getting, you know what to expect, and it's easy to anchor a price to it.

Mentalists buy books. Magicians buy tricks (toys).

By which point, the magic industry's flywheel kicks in. More chewing gum magic tricks sell off the shelves than a book on center tears, and so the magic shop decides to sell more toy tricks – with cans, sharpies, and all sorts of random objects. While there are some great toy mentalism tricks, magic really commands the market for these toy-like products.

So much of the magic magicians perform today is based on demand.

Most magicians demand easy visual toy magic tricks they can perform alone.

This brings me to my final suggestion for why magic tends to be the starting point. Magic is easier to learn, and more importantly, you can perform it solo. You can perform a magic trick on yourself and still enjoy it due to the visual element. And let's face it, most magicians begin their journey of performing and practicing by themselves. Even if they do have the courage to perform for others, they soon run out of spectators, and when that happens – they can practice and perform the tricks for themselves – something I wholeheartedly recommend.

Why End With Mentalism

We can keep this one short and sweet. Magicians tend to end up performing more and more mentalism for three key reasons:

1. Mentalism is more practical: You do not need to worry so much about angles, snapping invisible thread, or pocket space.

2. Mentalism is more varied: Spectators influence the effects, and you often have more freedom in your presentation.

3. Mentalism can get repeated: Spectators and performers are often more willing to repeat the same effect again and again.

As magicians progress from beginners, who spend most of their time practicing magic solo, to performers in front of spectators, the needs placed on them shift.

You'll start caring about all those pesky things like pocket space and angles. You might want your entire show to fit in a carry-on suitcase. You might be bored of performing magic in ways its methods can sometimes make feel rigid.

Countering Its Pull

Mentalism is excellent, and so is magic. There isn't anything wrong with being pulled towards mentalism from magic. I do, though, often see magicians getting pulled in that direction for perhaps the wrong reasons.

Practicality, angles, pocket space – these sorts of considerations are all valid, but mentalism doesn't always need to be the answer.

I'd recommend you pursue core pillars similar to those of comedians like Jerry Seinfeld. He emphasizes the importance of new material and new audiences. The magicians I know who have loved magic and kept going with it the longest seem to have the perfect balance of new audiences and new material.

You won't run out of magic if you don't run out of audiences to perform for.

Suppose new material and new audiences are difficult to come by. In that case, rethink the magic you perform and emphasize finding varied magic that gives you the freedom to improvise and personalize your routines.

We've all seen David Blaine performing Ambitious Card. We've all seen Dynamo performing Multiple Selection. Both of these tricks allow for an incredible amount of improvisation. As a performer, you can even choose to mix up the methods and presentation during the routines themselves. Both plots can feel totally fresh and unique each time you perform them in a way that some magic cannot.

Think about how varied your magic can be, even with a few props on you. When I was young, watching Dynamo perform magic felt so varied. In the space of five minutes, he'd make a coin penetrate through someone's t-shirt, then do a haunted deck effect. If your audiences can feel your magic is varied, so will you.

And then, finally, personalize your magic – or do the exact opposite! The magicians who love magic the longest tend to fall into either end of that spectrum. They've either perfected silent acts set to music, much like a dancer perfecting an artistic performance. Or, they interact with their audiences non-stop and improvise jokes and stories as they perform, making each performance feel unique and fresh.

I'll never forget a conversation I once had with Nate Staniforth. He described magic as an old friend—someone you love dearly but whose strength of presence in your life can come and go over time. Perhaps accepting the give and take of it all is all you need to do.