When it comes to playing mind games, no one’s better at it than Gerry McCambridge.
In fact, he entrances audiences with them every night as they join in the fun at the V Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino where McCambridge, known as The Mentalist, performs his interactive show. But here’s a fact that might blow your mind before you even walk into the showroom – McCambridge envisioned and pitched the original concept for a television series called The Mentalist, sold it to NBC, and actually starred in it! As TV viewers know, The Mentalist, which now stars Simon Baker on CBS, has been one of that network’s most popular shows for several years. And, thankfully, for McCambridge, his experience with network television proved to be much more than just a brain-teaser.
“Back in 2002, I went to CBS, NBC, ABC, and Fox in L..A. and pitched a show I created called The Mentalist,” he recalls. “It was about a kid who loved magic his whole life and whose dad was a New York City detective and the kid mixed magic with detective skills to help his dad. CBS was very interested but because of my connection to NBC – I had performed at NBC President Jeff Zucker’s house in Beverly Hills – I decided to go with NBC. The Mentalist premiered on that network on May 12, 2004 as a one-hour special – which I wrote and starred in.
“From there, I went to off-Broadway and then I came to Las Vegas,” he continues.. “In the meantime, Bruno Heller took my concept, changed it a little, and turned it into a series on CBS. It’s a genie in a bottle – you can take someone’s concept and twist it; you’re allowed to do that. But CBS called me and told me that they were doing the show and that they needed my help and asked if I would help them. I did and, although I can’t discuss the details, I can say that I got paid.”
While he began performing as a mentalist professionally in 1988, McCambridge started on his path as a child doing magic. After executing many of the same tricks repeatedly for audiences, he began to realize that people fall into similar categories where their reactions were concerned. One night he was hired to do a three-hour gig at a Bar Mitzvah in Long Island where there were 30 tables of guests. He performed a trick twice at each table, once at each end. That’s when he first discovered the key to what was to become his future success.
“I started to pick up patterns in people’s reactions,” McCambridge reveals. “I could actually determine how they were going to react before they reacted. Add to that the fact that I was doing three gigs like that one every weekend. To explain mentalism, it’s a form of magic that occurs more in the spectator’s mind. You are mind to mind with someone; there are no props. And it’s a combination of different things. For example, a magician can make a car appear or disappear on stage without you seeing it by using a little misdirection and psychology. I may show an audiences member five ESP symbols and tell the person to focus on one. Most of the time, I have a magic way to figure out which one has been chosen. But I also have ways to make people select what I want them to.”
McCambridge makes the point that unlike ESP, which is a sense used to predict the future, mentalism utilizes all five senses. It is not seeing into the future. After performing more than 2,200 shows in eight years in Las Vegas, he says that he knows what to look for and listen for in choosing an audience member to take part in his show. For example, if he chooses a male of a certain age who looks a certain way, he knows what that person is going to do.
“It’s more entertaining to watch than easy to describe,” McCambridge laughs. “Mentalism involves magic and psychology mixed together. I use my senses to see things the average person can’t. Yes, I have ESP. But I practice my craft every night on stage. Every night I learn something different about people and human nature.”
According to McCambridge, there are not a lot of mentalists and even fewer good ones. He became aware early on that doing a mentalism routine is usually amazing but not necessarily entertaining. As a result, when he was initially designing the format of his show, he began studying comedy so that he could have people laugh during his set-up og the touyinr and then the last 30 seconds, “kick them in the teeth” with the “pay-off.”
So what is it that McCambridge wants audiences to leave his show feeling?
“As kids, we grew up believing in the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, and Santa Claus,” he responds. “As you get older, you lose all the enchantment with that. I try to bring that magic back to people. But I want to go beyond that – I want to being back that sense of wonderment. I want to them to leave asking, was that a trick or was that real?. And I want them to talk about the show.”
You couldn’t have a better “mental” outlook.
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