What are Mind Readers?
Mind readers are entertainers who create the illusion of being able to read people’s minds. They do this by making predictions, picking up on what people are thinking and influencing how they are going to behave.
Mind readers differ from magicians in that they claim there is no trickery involved. Instead they assert they are applying skills that anybody can master - such as an understanding of body language, intuition, NLP and using the five senses to create a sixth. Many mind readers will go out of their way to disassociate themselves from magic. They do this by calling themselves psychic entertainers, psychological illusionists, perceptionists or mentalists.
History of Mind Readers
The term mind reader was probably first used around 1890 but only really entered the entertainment vocabulary in the mid 20th century. Its roots sprung from spiritualist and psychic demonstrations which usually involved getting in touch with dead people.
Mind reading first came to prominence as straight entertainment in the US through Joseph Dunninger. He performed mind reading both on radio and on television. When people asked him if his mind reading was genuine, Dunninger would give this cryptic response: “For those who believe, no explanation is necessary. For those who do not, none will suffice.”
In the UK the two person mind reading act, the Piddingtons (Sydney Piddington and Lesley Pope), caused an equal sensation through telepathy (transmitting thoughts from one person to another). Their BBC radio show in 1949 attracted a staggering twenty million listeners. Their way of avoiding the ‘genuine or not’ question was to say: “You be the judge”. I had the privilege of interviewing Lesley Pope for a Radio 4 Documentary called Men of Mystery.
Other prominent mind readers in the UK in more recent years have been:
- Maurice Fogel (1911 to 1981). He was most famous for his version of the Bullet Catch.
- Al Koran (1914 to 1972). He was a great inventor of many mind reading tricks that are still performed by magicians and mind readers today.
- Chan Canasta (1921 to 1999). He had his own television series in 1960 called Chan Canasta is a Remarkable Man. He was unusual in that he mainly did card tricks.
- David Berglas (b. 1926) Ex-President of The Magic Circle. He had his own television show called The Mind of David Berglas.
Mind Readers Today
It is, of course, Derren Brown in the UK who has brought mind reading to its present pre-eminence and reached new heights. Even more famous worldwide than Derren is Uri Geller, who first came to prominence in 1973, when he appeared on a chat show with David Dimbleby. He is best known for bending spoons – and I am a proud owner of one of Uri’s signed, bent spoons!
Comedy Mind Readers
Most modern mind readers take themselves quite seriously – based on the theory that people won’t believe their claims if they are too funny. My own approach is that people want to be amused as much as they want to be amazed. So I perform mind reading type tricks with constant laughs throughout.
“Thank you very much for making an excellent evening at our International Airline Business Sales Conference last week. Your mind reading and humour was both amazing and amusing to a culturally diverse audience. You had several, including myself, laughing so much we cried!”
Giles Grant, Director of Marketing,
Airline Business, REED TRAVEL GROUP
If you want mind reading combined with plenty of laughs, please contact me.
Close-up Mind Reading
Close-up mind reading is performed in similar situations to close-up magic. Going around from table to table during a meal or from group to group at a reception. It gives your guests a different type of performing experience, which in many ways is much more memorable than magic tricks.
“Ian Keable adapted himself to the slightly unusual venue. Comments around the office the next day were all on the subject of ‘those little drawings’ and how he had guessed who had drawn what – amazing! I cannot thank you enough, especially as the general feel after the event was that the highlight of the evening was, by a long shot, Ian Keable’s talents.”
George Kelly, Partner, KPMG
Please contact me if you like the idea of close-up mind reading.
