First time Around the World

Last year I was the head organiser of the 15th European Skeptiks Congress in Stockholm and I thought that it was reward enough. It turned out that the city of Stockholm thought differently. The Stockholm Visitors Board was kind enough to invite me and other organisers of international conferences in Stockholm during the past year to a dinner at Millesgården.
We had a wonderful guided tour before the dinner and as a special treat I had a short performance before the dessert. I did a brand new effect that I have given the name ”Around the World”. Given a number of different cities in the world, some random shuffling and free choices the person involved in the effect ends up in Stockholm as is to be expected for an effect performed for the Stockholm Visitors Board.

Booking is open

Now it is actually possible to sign up for the trips to Prague. Four days in Prague, well perhaps more like three considering the travel from Sweden and back. But definitely three nights at a very suitable hotel for experiencing the magical and mysterious side of Prague.
We leave Sweden on Thursday and return back on Sunday with plenty of time for people that don't live close to an airport to get there and back. In Prague we will see all the historical sights: Charles bridge, the astronomical clock, and much, much more but unlike any ordinary tour we will also learn about the mysterious history of the city. Alchemists, astrologers, and the Golem are all part of the magical Prague (it is even in the tourist brochures). But we will see more, learn more, and experience more, that I can promise.

The special introduction price is 6589 SEK and that include the airfare, hotel, and all the meals except the dinner on Friday evening.

http://euroresor.se/det-magiska-prag/
http://euroresor.se/listtyp/ovriga-destinationer/

A kind of longer status update

I have been in Prague a couple of days (1 week), and it has been kind of hectic. So hectic that this is my first opportunity to write about it.
It was on Thursday that I flew in from Uppsala. (Yes, Uppsala has an airport it is called Arlanda.) Just after getting off the plane things began to feel strangely familiar. I was met at the airport by Ray Salman who is responsible for me spending a few more days in Prague than originally planned. It has been a few years but Ray is a good friend from the old days in Prague and he has been in Uppsala performing with some other of my Czech friends and was a huge success at the Nordic Championships in Magic. We went to a restaurant and talked magic for four or five hours, a few other things as well, but since Ray was going to translate my lecture we talked quite a bit about that. And yes that is why I am spending a few more days in Prague than originally planned. Mostly I visited old friends but this way I got to work a bit as well.
I stayed the first night with Duo Absolon at their apartment witch included me spending a long time talking about magic again with Karel Ocelík. Fortunately I also got to sleep, and I slept very well.
Friday I moved to a hotel and saw nothing of Prague, I got a ride to the hotel and sat down in my room to write. I didn't bring any lecture notes from Sweden, partly because that would have been crazy when you may as well print them in Prague, and partly because I hadn't finished them. So I wrote like crazy looking at the watch. Ray had told me about a print shop at Karlovo náměstí and I looked on my watch on the way there, because either they would close at 17 and I would be without lecture notes or they close at 18 and everything would work out. On my way there I learned two things, that it is very easy to forget subway exits. It is no problem remembering where to enter the subway but to know exactly where you will get up is not easy when you are finding your way out. But I got out where I wanted at Karlovo náměstí and was met by a few drops of rain. And I also learned that if you want to write crime novels it is a good thing to be Swedish judging from the book advertisings in the metro. Unfortunately the print shop closed at 17, fortunately I met the person closing the shop, and she told me about a different place just around the corner. The second print shop managed my somewhat complicated order without a problem as I was waiting. Understandably I felt very lucky when I went back to the hotel in Kobilisy with all my material. And I managed it all on a 90 minutes ticket. Between the metro and my hotel I learned one more new thing buying something to eat, and that was that they have cancelled the 50Kc banknote.
Back at the hotel the evening continued with preparations for the lecture, I had no time for that before since I was writing like crazy. As can be understood I only slept a couple of hours before getting up in the morning.

I came to the venue of the lecture about 45 minutes before it was going to start and I found that people were waiting. I think the seminar went quite well and I finished in time for people to go to the Illusionists. (That's a big magic show that was in Prague on that day.) For some reason I thought that there would only be a performance at 15 so when I missed that one I went to Vyšehrad for my first excursion as a tourist. But after I found out that they had also an evening show I made sure to watch that one. This included getting hold of a ticket and I first tried a ticket office that apparently closed but on the way there I passed Staromětské náměstí and there I saw that one of my magic friends were doing a street performance. It ended up with me going to the O2 arena to buy the ticket there. It was worth the money since I got an inexpensive seat. It was not bad but it lacked the continuity that you get with a more limited cast. And since there were so many performers obviously some were better than others. One thing I liked a lot was that I ran into so many old friends, some that I had seen at the lecture and others that I hadn't seen there. If it wasn't for the fact that it was a magic show I wouldn't have recognised anyone at O2 now I met at least 10 people. But basically I was still working because I made a lot of notes from the show and tried to figure out what I thought worked and what was not so good.
All day Saturday I was carrying with me my umbrella but of course it wasn't raining. Sunday morning it still wasn't raining and I moved from one hotel to another hostel (at least more of a hostel than a hotel). Since it still wasn't raining I left the umbrella at the new place when I went to meet some friends that arrived in Prague the same day. One of my friends were going to give a lecture at the institute of organic chemistry and biochemistry the following day, When I was on my way to the metro there were a few drops of rain but I thought little of it. I still didn't think much of it as I left the metro at Dejvice but it kept raining and when I met my friends and we went to the Hrad in the rain, we also went back in the rain, met with the host of my friends and when went to the Hrad again in the rain, but this time with umbrellas. Went down to Malástrana and had some dinner at a nice vegan place. After we finished the dinner it was still raining and we saw Karlův most, went back to my friends hotel by subway and when I had to get back in the rain again.
Next morning it was not raining but my shoes were still wet, fortunately my room included a hair dryer so when I left that problem was taken care of. I was going to my friends lecture at two but before that I had time to show my other friend a little bit of Prague, we started at the castle once again. We took a different way down passing by the Swedish embassy and when we found our way to Muzeum alchymistů which was quite interesting. The tower named after the famous trickster Kelly was more interesting than the exhibition on the ground floor. We continued over Karlův most and saw the multimedia clockwork at Staroměstská radnice and a few more things before having to get back to Dejvice for the lecture. It was not that obvious to find the way to the institute although I had been there before. In the time I had been gone they put up new buildings along the way. But we got to the lecture in time, and we were not the only ones although the building was technically closed due to construction works.
After the lecture we had to find the restaurant we were going to have dinner in by ourselves since our host and one more Czech scientist would come later. This time it was a vegetarian restaurant and not unlike many such places they had advertisements for things the Czech skeptics might have a few things to say about. After our dinner the host had to go but the rest of us went to Palladium and a Starbucks so that some of us could get an Internet connection and do some work while the rest of us were social.
On Tuesday I went to my old work at the Ústavu fyzikální chemie Jaroslava Heyrovského AV ČR and I got there at a very good time, exactly at the time for lunch. Much looked the same but a few things had changed as well. But the people was as friendly as ever and I spent a few hours there distracting them from their work. One of my Czech friends was performing in a play that evening and kindly booked me a ticket, fortunately the theatre was quite close to another meeting I had that evening. Since I am an honorary member of the Motorlet magic club I wanted to try to see them. On my way to Motorlet I first found theatre Gong and got my ticket. For once I had to practice my Czech quite a lot. Almost no one in Motorlet speaks English, a few speaks German and one of the professional magicians actually know how to say ”hello” and ”thank you” in Swedish. The theatre was of course in Czech as well and since it was a comedy there were a lot of things I didn't get but it was fun all the same.
For my last day in Prague I decided to do some shopping. I was meeting some old friends in the evening but before that I looked for books and DVDs in Czech, I found some short texts, with explanation of grammar, vocabulary and with the text on a CD. I also found some good movies some Czech and others with Czech dubbing. It was the first day it felt like I had some time off and could actually just go around and relax. Taking it easy before meeting my friends at a restaurant in the vicinity of Národní divadlo. It felt a bit strange walking back to my hostel in the evening knowing that I had to leave Prague the following day.
Ray picked me up close to Masarykovo nádraží and kindly drove me to the airport at 11.40 and after a delay (not usual for a SAS flight) at 14.20 I took of from Prague heading back to Uppsala.

Something to read

This will be an exercise in Swedish if there is anyone who follow this blog and doesn't know the language already. The Uppsala Student Union's newspaper have an article about me in the next issue but one can read it online from today.

First post this year

As promised here are some more highlights of last year and what to look forward to during this year 2012.

This time I like to focus on magic and mentalism. By far the most important thing regarding my magic and mentalism the previous year was my appearance in Fenomen, the Swedish version of Uri Geller's fairly successful tv-show concept. It is a show partly focused on finding the new Uri Geller but here in Sweden the focus was much more on the entertainment aspect.

Even though the show happened in 2011 it began even earlier, in 2010 with a phone call regarding mentalism. The first phone call was a bit cryptic since that is the nature of things in the television business when nothing is yet decided nor official. It was Helen Kraver that called me and indeed discovered me. since not that many had heard of me before. She later worked with the props for the show and is most recently known for her work with “Allt för Sverige”.
After the show there were some interviews and try-outs. The final try-out was at Magic Bar and I think that one went quite well, indeed so well that I ended up among the ten mentalists in the show.

Unfortunately I was the first one to leave the show. And although I would of course have preferred to be there longer I was not that disappointed. I had a great time and got to meet some very nice, funny and interesting people. I got my first experience of doing live television and that was an interesting experience. I also got to meet my old friend Ian Rowland who helped out as a consultant for the show.
I think that my stile of mentalism not really suited the demographic of the show but that is not an excuse since I should of course have changed my way of presenting my material. But I am glad to say that following the discussions about the show in different internet forums I didn't find any correct explanation of what I did.

I could make a long list of all the wonderful people that I got to meet but I will not do that because it would make boring reading. Instead I will address a question that I sometimes get. Some people wonder what a sceptic like me did on a show together with Uri Geller as if it would be immoral. But I think that it was far better that there were some sceptics there than Geller without any sceptics what so ever. Also my friend Banachek have worked on the US version of the show and no one can accuse him of not being sceptical enough.

Concerning things to look forward toward there is FISM 2012. That is in short the Olympics of magic and this year it will be in Blackpool UK. I have not bought a ticket yet since it unfortunately coincide with TAM in Las Vegas and I still consider my options. Although I do love to go to TAM I think that this year it will be Blackpool before Las Vegas (anyone that has been to both can question that decision but remember that is not the places that attract me).

I end with a few clips from my Fenomen performances.

Chines whispers

A friend of mine is in China at the moment and after my travels in that country I have an opinion about what to see and what to do. An opinion that of course is not based on a scientifically sufficient material just on my own experiences.
Putting together a few ideas in a mail to my friend I found the web page of one of the best guest houses for backpackers that I have ever been to. Not just one of the best in China but one of the best I been to anywhere. After I found the web page I also found on the page some interesting pictures (3) in the guest house's album. It is nice to see that one makes an impression. I mostly did card magic at that time and not that much mind reading. In addition it was easier to communicate using the cards than the tricks of the mentalist.
If you ever find yourself in Chengdu you should stay at Mix's guest house. Mix is absolutely one of the nicest people I have ever met and his friendliness has become the foundation of his guest house. This is not a Chinese whisper but first hand information about my opinion.

Museidagen 2011 (Museum day 2011)

One aspect of public performances is that you find yourself in the situation that people have come to see you perform. This is actually different from what most magicians and mentalists are used to these days. If you are the entertainment for a private party or the dinner talker at a cooperate event people have not come to see you, they came for some other reason.
I am pleased to say that a number of families apparently came to medicinhistoriska museet to see me today. (For more information of the show see previous blog post.) It was a very mixed audience with regard to age and education and that made it difficult to find a good level. But my first priority was the children and I was told that I found a very good balance in my presentation.
As is often the case in a city the size of Uppsala I ran into some people I know, and also one person that knew me. He came up to me after the performance to talk and apparently we had taken the same course in “vågrörelse lära” (wave theory). But this was a very long time ago, some time in the late 90's. I must say that I am surprised that he remembered me. I must have made quite an impression even at that time.
To be fair it is quite fun to perform for a mixed audience of children and adults. Though I confess that some of the adults probably know how one or two of the effects for the children are done, and maybe some of the children know how some of the effects for the grown ups are done.

Back to work

This will not be much mentalism since the audience is supposed to be mostly children. Though I hope that they will not be too young given that the show is in a museum. But I have a little bit of everything to have something for everyone.

We are memories

I just yesterday bought and read ”Moonwalking with Einstein – the art and science of remembering everything” by Joshua Foer, or to be honest it took me until 3 am. today to finish reading it.

The book takes a look at the subculture of people competing in memory in the US and worldwide. It is not a detailed book about how memory systems work or about what happens in the brain. It is in some ways a typical road-trip story where the author goes on an adventure. In this case he manages to win the US championships after practising for a year.

I liked the book but I also have many friends interested in memory work and can have a use of it myself sometimes. Only a week a go I met Mattias Ribbing who is out with a new book about memory systems where he (according to himself) tries to make them practical and not focused on competition.

The book talks about the science behind memory and also the history and how remembering texts changed from Homer's works that was retold in an oral tradition before they were written down, to today when some believe that wikiepedia makes it unnecessary to remember anything. It is an easy and in my opinion well written book that introduces the reader not only to the memory athletes subculture and to a part of mentalism (memory work) but also to the idea of how important memory was and still is. Because who would we be without our memories?

I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in philosophy of mind, psychology, rhetoric and mentalism, beside of course people that just want to know more about our memory and what it can be trained to do. The reason that it is interesting from a rhetorical point of view is that many of these memory systems were used by the ancients and described by Marcus Fabius Quintilianus and Marcus Tullius Cicero as tools for the orator.

Though not everyone agrees that it is a good book as this review from the Guardian shows, although I think it is somewhat telling that all the comments on the page defend the book.

The hard life of a competing mentalist

It is now Tuesday and I have finally the strength to write about my experiences on the cruise arranged by Magiska Bröderna (a fraternity for magicians) in honour of their 70 year anniversary.
The cruise was on Birka Paradise a smaller cruise ship, between Saturday and Sunday and took about 22 hours. During the cruise we magicians had seminars to attend, shows to watch (the shows were also open to the public), and there was also a competition.

I am quite hesitant when it comes to competing in magic since I think it is difficult to compete in art in general but I made an exception this time since I thought it could be fun and the concept was a bit different. The competition was divided in two parts. First every magician/mentalist walked around the boat and performed for the passengers. The passengers voted for the different artist and the four best got to meet in a final judged by magicians

I really liked to do the strolling mentalism part since I got to meet different people and I had the feeling that the crowed slightly changed over time. Since I performed from around eight in the evening till four in the morning, with just a few brakes to eat and attend the shows and lectures, I got to see all the different passengers, from the families with small children to the younger crowed. I also got up quite early to meet people for breakfast at about seven and get some more votes before the end of the competition.
Any one who wants to know more about the cruise and knows Swedish can read about it at Christer Nilssons blog magi-arkivet.

A few interesting and out of the ordinary things happened during my time with the passengers. A number of people actually recognised me from my television appearance in Fenomen and that was a glad surprise. I also had one person who insisted on trying to wrestle me to the ground whenever he was fooled by an effect, he continued to try that until security turned up and hoovered around. I guess one could describe it as my first experience of having to need security to protect me from my fans. But to be honest the guy did it in a very playful way and had no intention of hurting me.

The same playfulness was absent from the guy who threatened me early in the morning, exactly what he was threatening me with is hard to say since he only said that I would be sorry if I didn't stop talking to this one girl. Even if it was his girlfriend I would not have yielded for such behaviour since I was only doing my “job” but she didn't even know him. The girl herself was not making it easy for me since she didn't know Swedish or English and we had to resort to French as our lingua franca.

There was also another girl in a white mask who had a very confrontational attitude and wanted to control the workings of the effect, handle the cards herself and all of those things that ordinary magicians hate. Unfortunately her friends dragged her away before I had a chance to finish what I was doing.

I know that about four hundred of the 1200 passengers voted for a magician but I have no idea who managed to get the most votes but I know that I got to the final with three other performers. Unfortunately it didn't go so well in the final, maybe because I only did two effects and one of the effects had unbeknownst to me been performed in the dealer show a few hours earlier although with a different method.

Assumptions

Right now I'm on my way to Gotland, though I am not sure when this will be posted. For some reason I assume that I will have some sort of Internet connection during my stay on the island but I have no idea about how and when; we do tend to assume a lot in life.
I am sure I will have plenty of time to post about my activities, planned and accomplished on Gotland later, that is if that Internet access materialize. So now a few lines about my recent performances at Uppsala castle for some of the brightest minds in the world.
I might have exaggerated some but theoretical physicists tend to be sharp and this was an international conference with some of the really well known names. Strings 2011 was actually to be visited by Stephen Hawking but unfortunately he had to cancel for health reasons. If people think that theoretical physicists much be serious and solemn people but that is not at all the case. In deed they were a very good crowed to perform for, but also extremely inquisitive.
As always I never confirm or deny any of the suggested explanations that I get to hear but in a room with scientist you know that some will be try to analyse everything and you can learn a lot from listening to what really intelligent people have to say about your show.
One group in the audience worked through the routines in a very scientific manner. They made some interesting assumptions. They assumed that I was working alone, and since I have no visible assistant that is understandable. In big productions invisible assistants can be very useful. They also assumed that I had not had any time to prepare something with any of the people attending the dinner a head of time. For conferences held in Uppsala this might prove a useful assumption, I will say no more on the matter. The third thing they assumed was that all the effect had to be bullet proof. That what I did would always produce the desired result.
I can not confirm or deny that these assumptions are correct, but I am happy that I got them so that I can take advantage of that in the future; we do tend to assume a lot in life.

P.S.
The blog post above did not start out as a text about assumptions, it was first when I was writing the last sentence that I realised the very obvious theme in the text. Sleep deprivation can apparently lead to interesting effects.

The trick that can be explained

In card magic there is one trick that requires a lot of experience and sometimes technical skill. It is called “the trick that cannot be explained” because well... you can't explain it. Though I understand that non-magicians might find it hard to believe that there might be a trick that has no explanation and want to learn more about it, I would like to talk a bout a trick that can be explained.

A few weeks ago I was recognized as being a mentalist, (it is amazing what a few minutes on national television can do for one's fame) and I had the opportunity to do this effect that I will now explain to you.

As we discuss mentalists and psychic abilities the person I am having the conversation with remarks on how he saw a mentalist on television and the mentalist had asked the audience to look at a person and try to feel what kind of drawing that person might do. Since he was able to “sense” what kind of picture the person on television had drawn he wondered if it really was possible to just look at a person and get such a feeling. He had done so himself but was still not convinced.
I concentrate and I tell the person, right there and then, what he managed to pick up from the person he saw on television. I tell him exactly what kind of object he was thinking of and I don't have him write anything down or choose something from a deck of cards.
After this feat I fight the urge to tell the person how I did it, the sense of wonder he feels does not deserve to be degraded by my mundane explanation.

I can explain the trick to you because I will never be able to perform this effect again and although I might perform many similar effects, that might involve you, this information will not help you the least.

The explanation is quite trivial as many explanations are. To be able to do this trick you need to know what show the person had seen and remember the picture the person on television drew. You also need to do this effect for a person that will rather believe that you managed to read them so well that you can tell what object they were able to pick up on a week ago, instead of just remembering what the picture was. And in my case you also need a person that has forgotten that you were the mentalist on television performing the effect in the first place.

The day before

Tomorrow is the first day of the show Fenomen and it will also be my first experience with live television. At least from the point of view of a performer I have of course seen live television before.
Yesterday I was in Stockholm rehearsing on the set, going through the routine. My good friend Ian Rowland was there, flown in to be a consultant to Uri Geller, he gave me a few pointers how to improve the presentation.
It is unfortunately a fact in mentalism that you never rehearse with the same people as you will perform with (or perform on?). It would sort of take a way the mystery if you rehearsed what people were to think beforehand. The draw back is that you don’t know what will happen, if people will understand the instructions, stand where they are supposed to stand and things like that. But as a mentalist I should of course be able to communicate clearly what I want people to do.
If someone who doesn’t have Kanal 5 wants to see the show it is possible to do that online, either here or here. I am not 100% sure if it is possible to see the show from outside of Sweden but it is possible to see the short clips with presentations of the performers.
Just a warning before you watch the clips, remember that all are expert liars so everything they say may not be the truth. I was actually surprised myself by some of the stories that were told. As can be expected all the interviews are in Swedish and there are no subtitles so either learn Swedish or grab hold of someone that already knows this strange language. I don’t think google have a translation service for audio yet.

Good press before Fenomen

I think it can be worth mentioning on this blog that I am getting some television time soon. Uri Geller is known to a lot of people and in recent years he has been doing this television show with different mentalist competing against each other. It is of course a bit strange that a person who started his career claiming to not be a magician now hosts a competition with mentalists. (Mentalist is the term used among magicians to describe those of us that simulate psychic abilities.) In Sweden it is on kanal 5 that one can see the Swedish version of the show that is called Fenomen (Phenomenon). The first program will air on the 27th March 20:00 CET and it is live television so I can’t say anything here about how it is going to go, at least not without having the power to predict the future. But I can say this, so far I have got good press, only good press, and this is before the show have started.
We had a meeting with the press on Tuesday with reporters from some of the major newspapers, so far I have been mentioned by two. At least that is what I know about.
First we had the reporter from Expressen, she was not very impressed by my friend Peter Gröning who didn’t get the card she was thinking of right away but had to get it on the second attempt, I think that should have been impressive enough. Later she asked Dan Kirsch a very gifted mentalist (not in any supernatural way) to read her mind and he apparently did a mathematical effect that didn’t impress her very much. After all that she was convinced about the non-existence of any supernatural powers. But after that she had the misfortune to meet me. Apparently I managed to impress her with some metal bending, an old Uri Geller speciality. But of course I didn’t have the benefit of supernatural powers so I had to resort to the art of illusion. The article is not online but those of you who know Swedish can read it since I scanned it and posted it here. What I consider the interesting part is this:

När träffen är över är jag övertygad, det finns inga magiska krafter. Men mentalismen (sic) Per Johan Råsmark rubbar min övertygelse när han böjer en gaffel – med minimal muskelstyrka och mig som hjälp. Hur det gick till vet nog bara han.

(When the meeting is over I am convinced, there are no magical powers. But the mentalism (sic) Per Johan Råsmark alters my conviction when he bends a fork – with minimal muscle force and my help. How it was done he is probably the only one who knows.)

At the meeting with the press I also met an old friend Clas Svahn a journalist from Dagens Nyheter (DN) the most prestigious newspaper in Sweden. The article that he wrote can be found online. It is of course mostly about Geller but the only mentalist that is more than just named in the article is me. Svahn who is very sceptical minded and loves investigating different phenomenon and strange stories, writes not only about what I do but also about my involvement in the sceptic movement. The entire article is in my opinion as sceptical as it should be, people will se amazing things in this television show but it will be a question of us mentalists fooling the audience. The only difference between magicians and mentalists is that to us “magic” is just one of the techniques used to fool our audience.
Here are some of the interesting parts in the DN article:

En bit längre bort står en av de svenska mentalisterna och böjer skedar för brinnande livet. Per Johan Råsmark, som jag har haft nöjet att träffa förut, är både välutbildad och kritisk till bland annat det Uri Geller har ägnat sig åt. Som medlem i Vetenskap och Folkbildning är inte tron på påstådda paranormala fenomen något han vill underblåsa.
– Jag har inga okända förmågor men jag vet hur jag ska få folk att tro att jag har dem, säger han.

(A little further away stands one of the Swedish mentalists and bends spoons as if his life depended on it. Per Johan Råsmark whom I have had the pleasure to meet previously, is both well educated and critical of among other things what Uri Geller have been doing. As a member of Vetenskap och folkbildning (the Swedish sceptics) the belief in paranormal phenomenon is not something he wants to support.
– I have no unknown abilities but I do know how to make people believe that I do, he says.)

As a comment I like to point out that as far as I remember I only bent one spoon and one fork during this meeting with the press. Concerning the spoon it was a spoon brought by a photographer for “Aftonbladet” (if I am not mistaken). The spoon was handed to Geller but since he really doesn’t do things like that any more unless he is really sure to get away with it he handed the spoon to Peter Gröning who was standing right next to him. Since Gröning don’t do much metal bending but knows that I do he handed the spoon to me. I used a Richard Osterlind technique and did a good bend before handing it back to Geller, who without hesitation signed the spoon and gave it to the photographer.

Huvudpersonerna är tio svenskar: Claudia de la Creme, Peter Varg, Stefan Odelberg, Claes Danell, Alexander Vasiliou, Dan Kirsch, Riku Koponen, Henrik Silver och Per Johan Råsmark.
Alla duktiga mentalister som kan få våra ögon att inte tro vad som utspelar sig framför dem. Exakt vad de ska visa vet vi inte. Men efter att ha sett Per Johan Råsmark lura skjortan av ett rum fyllt med kritiska kursdeltagare när UFO-Sverige höll fältundersökarutbildning för ett par år sedan är jag beredd på det mesta.

(The main characters are ten Swedes: Claudia de la Creme, Peter Varg, Stefan Odelberg, Claes Danell, Alexander Vasiliou, Dan Kirsch, Riku Koponen, Henrik Silver och Per Johan Råsmark.
All accomplished mentalists that can make our eyes not believe what takes place right in front of them. Exactly what they will do we do not know. But after having seen Per Johan Råsmark completely fool a room filled with critical minded attendees of a field investigator course held by UFO-Sweden a couple of years ago I am prepared for almost anything.)

Just a short comment about the other competitors: I didn’t know many of them before the show but I have got the impression that they are all very nice people and it is a pleasure working with them. Because at the moment that is what we all feel, we are working with each other to make as good a show as possible. It is unfortunate that some of us are going to be voted off the show. Still I miss some of my friends that I would have hoped would have been on the show.

Not another day at the office

Some time ago I had the privilege to perform before a truly captive audience at one of Sweden’s correction facilities. That was quite an interesting experience and the audience was not that different from the kind of crowds I normally meet, maybe just a bit more sceptical.
New Years Eve I also met a different kind of crowd. I performed at one of Uppsala’s student nations. (The organisation of the students into different nations is a long tradition in Sweden, at least in the older university cities.)
It is always different to do a show for students in Uppsala compared to any other gig, not only because there is always some inquisitive and intelligent people in the audience, that you can find anywhere. Not only because students in general are a cheerful crowd that love everything a bit different, you can find good audiences at many other venues. No the big difference is all the familiar faces in the audience.
I have studied for a long time at the university and many different topics so it seems like I always have people that know me from one course or another in the audience. This time I met people I have studied critical thinking, theory of science, rhetoric, psychology, and cinematic storytelling with. Besides old classmates I also met one person originally from the same village as me, and an old acquaintance I actually know socially.
One effect of having that many people that already know you in the audience is that they will be much more likely to remember you afterwards so from a networking point of view it is beneficial. But what I really like with already knowing your audience is that there are so many other things to talk about afterwards so I do not need to be the “mentalist” all the time.
Of course it is still so that the majority of people don’t know me from before and it is fun to get to know new people, hopefully some of them will remember me.

Mind over matter or just an illusion? My recent performance for UFO Sverige 25th October. Photo by Håkan Blomqvist.

I usually do not write about the performances and lectures that I do since I consider it to be something between me and the people that hire me.
About a week ago I did a lecture/show for UFO Sverige (a Swedish organization that studies UFO reports) and I have no problem quoting from what others have written about that event.
Unfortunately for international readers it is all in Swedish.

En av höjdpunkterna var när mentalisten/trollkarlen Per Johan Råsmark från Uppsala körde en nästan två timmar lång kombinerad show och föreläsning. Per Johan, som jag träffade på Missionskyrkan i Uppsala för en månad sedan då han bjudit in mig dit för att prata om ufo, visade sig kunna läsa tankar, böja skedar och få oss att välja de siffror och kuvert som han ville att vi skulle välja. Kul och lärorikt var det!

This was written by Clas Svahn in his report about the conference my lecture/show was a part of. Clas' blog for UFO Sverige can be found here.

Håkan Blomqvist also writes about the conference and my performance.

En fascinerande programpunkt var ett föreläsning/show av mentalisten/illusionisten Per Johan Råsmark. Han visade, med en kombination av psykologi och fingerfärdighet, att man kan lura vem som helst att man besitter magiska krafter, kan telepati, böja skedar med mera. Allt var förstås bluff men vi var många som undrade hur i alla världen det gick till. Onekligen mycket skickligt.

It is possible to read the entire blog entry from Håkan here.

Helping out

I have been away, I have been in Prague. And I choose to be emotional for a moment, I love that city. I feel very much alive among all the history and culture. My Czech still needs a lot of work but it is getting better. Perhaps I should start to look for a well paying job in Prague because that is probably one of the few ways that I could be motivated to get a proper job.

While I was in Prague I met some old friends and some new friends as well. Some of my magical friends are going to do a show in a theater in Prague and we discussed a few ideas about different effects. It will be interesting to see what they will do in the end.

Now I am back in Sweden. I have spent today helping a friend with shooting a tv-pilot with the working title "mentalisten" (the mentalist). I did most of my work in the background. Though it was not all carrying bags, I did do some consulting and had a hand in one very good effect. Unfortunately I am not able to go into details but I am sure no one who watches the show will be able to figure it out, the camera crew were not able to figure it out and they were all magicians.

I actually did more magic today than I have done in a very long time because we had people around us all the time. I even performed on the train back to Uppsala. This day was a good day.