My heroes in magic (and mentalism)

If you want to know my journey, my path, in magic, I could write it down, but I already gave you why I started in magic in a previous article.

My heroes in magic are very simple. If they amazed me and really show something different from other magicians, then they are my heroes. When I really need to do an effort to understand how their routines worked and they don’t telegraph certain moves, they are my heroes. Here’s a list of my magic heroes and why they are on my list, in no particular order. If they somewhat influenced my path, or jerked me with them on my journey, they are on this small list.

Tommy Wonder

I learned about Jos Bemelman (Tommy Wonder’s real name) when he was already passed away. I saw his 2 cup routine when I was still researching my routine and was blown away. Even when you know the moves, he will blow you away. He is a master of directing attention. I love him so much. I was planning to visit his hometown when I was in the netherlands a lot, but it never came to be. I visited the hometown of his hero though, Fred Kaps (which is Utrecht), he also studied acting there, which is a nice fact to know. I loved the fresh breath he put into plots and moves. He would make several itterations of the same effect, because he wasn’t happy with his previous version. I have the same with the Diary effect. I have researched it so much and have seen so many itterations, that I came up with my own, but I can do now a much easier version, on the spot, with a diary and a normal deck of cards, anytime, anywhere.

Jeff Mcbride

I don’t know if he knows, but he became my teacher early on. He taught me the card spring in one of his manipulation videos but the concept I hate him most for is magician 24/7. After I heard about that concept on his “magic on the edge” series, I never went back to the old me. I liked the old me. I was happy with the old me, but he shattered my magic understanding. He taught me that a real wizard should be ready to perform magic, anywhere anytime. I could never become the old me anymore and my thinking split, I even stopped doing traditional magic because of it. I started mentalism, because mentalism I could do anywhere anytime without much of props. I could carry certain things in my pocket at all times and be ready whenever i needed to be. I also started developing my wizard character, a character I still work on until this day (which is now about 6 years.

Bob Cassidy

Sadly he passed away recently, but off course this man influenced me. He influenced all mentalists of this generation. How couldn’t he not. I remember him best for his discussion with me on the magic cafĂ© about the diary effect and how he, like a real gentlemen, didn’t try to persuade me, didn’t even curse at me, but he let me be, in my own way. I still adhere to my thoughts on the diary effect and how it should be performed, and I never persuaded him, never had my intention to. He also influenced me because he had a beautiful effect, which he taught in a Penguin magic video and which I learned and which can be performed at any moment, anywhere, which huge impact.

Derren Brown

Where would I be on my magic journey without this british wizard? Derren Brown is one of a kind. I have seen snippets of Dynamo. I have seen a few specials of David Blaine, but never have followed anyone as religiously as Derren Brown. To learn more about his effects I have done years of research to find the sources of some of his effects. I have studied his influences, read books, interviews,… everything you can imagine to see how his marvelous brain works. I have watched every show of his multiple times, I have even some on dvd here, for my rewatching pleasure. This man has influenced my style of magic and mentalism not by teaching me tricks, but by seeing how something simple like a needle through arm can be performed like a huge miracle.

I know I leave out so many whom have influenced me, but these are the main characters in my magic journey. I could list all the writers of psychology books I have read to form some of my own psychology theories, which only later have been proven to be correct, like the spotlight theory. I could list so many more, but these will help you understand why I do magic the way I do. In a later post I will scrutinize my way of selecting effects and what constitutes as bad and good magic.

Every post is written first in scrivener 3, which you can get a 30 day free trial of here at literature and latte.

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