Hmm.. Maybe it's the cold shower late at night, feel kinda chatty now, so i thought i ll just post something slightly lengthy.. (Hope i don't just stop halfway and just delete the post.. Ha.)

Ok, here goes.

As some of you might know, or non for that matter, i love mentalism, and i've always wondered how you guys normally start off a mentalism act in real life. I mean, for normal magic, maybe you could just take out a coin and just play around with it, or if you are playing cards with friends, well, thats a good excuse to fool them silly..

But for mentalism, its more tough to kick off i guess naturally? One thing i hate is to kick off showing tricks/effects when the situation doesn't flow in naturally.. Machiam forcing people to watch, or like wanting to show off or something..

So anyways.. (So much crap yet not even started yet... Man.. I must be getting old..) I was wondering what are your opening lines or opening situations for mentalism?

One "opener speech" i really like (And thought of recently.) goes something like this..

Do you think you are predictable? Well, the fact that most people think they are unpredictable and have full control of their thoughts and actions, THAT is probably the most predictable thing about human beings.
For example, if i were to ask you NOT to think of a rat.
*pause*
The first image that forms in your mind would have been a rat. Even thou i have told you specifically NOT to think of one.
Why?
For the simple fact that the human brain works in a very predictable and influenced (There should be a better word to replace "influenced" but i felt that controlled or manipulated might sound too strong.) way..
*wink*
If you know how to..

And from there, you could start off with your favorite routine or follow the similar thread of influencing their actions or predicting their moves. I feel that if you follow with a effect with patter that follows/continues the line of thought, it is actually quite thought provoking for the slightly more "thinking" common men. (And women of course.) The more they think, the more it hurts.. Hahaha.

Also, as some of you might notice, the opening i created was actually a mixture of Derren Brown's content (Well of course!) and some other common mentalism literature, so do take note if you were to actually use them. (Just for the record.)