Short note
What do
guests remember?
The answer first
The part that was about them
Guests rarely remember the programme. What stays is the part that was about them. Taking part explains some of it. A spectator takes part in a magic trick too. They pick a card, but the card could have been anyone's. In mentalism what they bring is their own: the name they were thinking of, or a decision only they know the reason for. That makes the moment personal, and a personal memory is kept differently from the memory of a performance.
There's a well-known line about this: people forget what you said and what you did, but never how you made them feel. With mentalism that feeling comes quickly, and it attaches to something of their own that has suddenly been laid on the table, a name or a memory nobody else knew.
What a memory holds on to
A story with an open ending
Once you've understood something, you put it away and stop thinking about it. A story with no ending won't be put away. Your mind keeps working on it. In mentalism that open ending is always the same one: you don't know how it was possible.
Which is why I never explain how something works. It has little to do with secrecy. An explained trick becomes information, and information is something you look up when you need it. What stays open stays a question, and a question doesn't end when the event does.
A year on
The description is never quite right
Every so often someone stops me who has seen me work before, or I get an email from someone who saw me a year earlier. Their description of what happened is never quite right. The order has shifted, a detail has crept in that was never there, sometimes it has turned into a different effect altogether. What does hold up is the part that was about them. That's what the story has been built around.
In closing
What do you want them to pass on?
Planning an evening tends to be about what happens on the night. The question that only matters afterwards is what gets told, and to whom. A colleague retelling it on Monday morning to someone who wasn't there does more for the evening than the applause did.
Memorable isn't something you can order. What I can do is work close and let people choose for themselves, so that something of theirs comes into play. What sticks from that is up to them.
Answered briefly
Frequently asked questions
What do guests remember from a corporate event?
Rarely the programme. What stays is the part that was about them: a name they were thinking of, or a decision only they know the reason for.
Why does mentalism stick at a corporate event?
Because it's personal and because it stays open. What the guest brings is their own, and afterwards they don't know how it was possible. That kind of memory is kept differently from the memory of a performance.
Why won't a mentalist explain how it works?
An explained trick becomes information, and information is something you look up when you need it. What stays open stays a question, and a question doesn't end when the event does.
Can an organiser steer what guests remember?
Not really. What you can do is keep the entertainment close and let guests choose for themselves, so that something of theirs comes into play. What sticks from that is up to them.
