Paul Draper’s At The Table lecture was fantastic. For those of you who don’t know him, he is a mentalist. Throughout the lecture, he presents practical advice on working gigs, how to prepare, how to present various tricks and interacting with your audience.
Interestingly, he discussed the flaws of mentalism, and why mentalism can be boring…. how you can lose an audience and how you can grab and keep their attention. He is quite a captivating lecturer and his common sense anecdotes and tips can really help a performer reflect upon their own act, even if they are not a mentalist. Draper indicates that most people don’t want to be able to do magic, they want to be able to read minds.
During the lecture, he reviews mentalism gimmicks and toys and spends a decent amount of time discussing the oft neglected thumb tip. Draper demonstrates a few routines with a thumb tip and shows how powerful this $1.99 gimmick can be when used properly. He is critical of how we use the tip and it may make you rethink how you use a thumb tip, or inspire you to dig it out of your closet. Although he does not go into the mechanics of a switch, that is not necessary to understand the big picture he presents.
Draper gives war stories of the early years of his career and tells it like it is. He conveys a somber assessment of how performers can fail in this tough world. He also discusses, reading people, psychometry, the art of cold reading and how he relates to people.
His advice on understanding who you are and finding yourself as a performer is insightful. Although this lecture does not teach many tricks of mentalism, compared to several to several other lectures, it is still an excellent resource and lecture on the topics discussed above.