Mentalist Max Maven’s Bermuda Festival performance of ‘Thinking In Person — An Evening of Knowing and Not Knowing’ at City Hall Theatre might be summed up in the words of that great philosopher Elvis Presley: “A little less conversation, a little more action please.”

Mr. Maven billed himself as a mentalist, but the first half of the show was a little too<$> cerebral, especially after a long weekday.

The Maven programme stated that Mr. Maven reads 150 books a month, and indeed, he seemed determined to disgorge the contents of all those books on the audience, whether there was an obvious point or not.

Mr. Maven was a wonderful storyteller, but particular stories went on a bit too long. For example, the tale of Alexander Woollcott went on for eons, and had no apparent relevance.

One intelligent audience member was later heard to remark that he knew there was a point to the Woollcott story, “buried deep, deep in there”. Unfortunately, he couldn’t explain what it was.

In the words of Woollcott himself, “Ouch!”

The stories that were most effective were the ones about Mr. Maven’s own life. They helped the audience to make a connection with him, and also with the particular piece he was performing. So my humble advice to Mr. Maven would be more Maven, less Woollcott.

Although the programme proclaimed this “weird stuff”, it really wasn’t. The “acts of mentalism” were for the most part card tricks and other standards.

That’s not to say they weren’t done with great skill. And it’s not to say his acts weren’t impressive and mysterious. Most of the audience left the theatre muttering, “there must be a logical explanation”, or “that giant card was up his sleeve” or “it’s all done with mirrors”. However, looking at reviews from shows Mr. Maven has done all over the world, it’s obvious that his repertoire includes much weirder stuff than this. One review stated that Mr. Maven could go into the audience, get a business card and tell people where they went on their last vacation.

In another truly weird stunt, Mr. Maven apparently drew what a television broadcaster was drawing several buildings away.

In 2000, Mr. Maven received a ‘Best Mentalist’ prize at the televised World Magic Awards on the Fox Family Network. Which means, essentially, that Mr. Maven claims to be picking your card, not by sleight of hand, but by “reading your mind”.

Two Bermuda Festival-goers decided to test Mr. Maven’s ESP abilities by mentally shouting a special message (not repeatable). We shouted until our minds were hoarse, but results of this test were inconclusive.

Mr. Maven, up on stage, appeared unphased or unaware of our mental harassment. Then again, maybe that’s why he never picked us to go up on stage.

This reviewer actually saw the show twice, on Thursday and on Saturday. If you ever want to get some insight into how magic is being performed, I recommend this. There was little variation between shows. What was different was the audience itself.

There was quite a lot of audience participation in the show, and that made it a lot of fun. Mr. Maven had excellent audience management skills.

He was like a top dance choreographer getting a room full of 200 people into step without them really being aware of it. There did not appear to be any obvious plants in the audience. None of the people called up on stage on Saturday were the same as those called up on Thursday.

Mr. Maven has appeared on many television programmes, ranging from the 1998 PBS documentary ‘The Art of Magic’, and the ‘Secret World’ on the Learning Channel, and was a regular guest on the PAX network show ‘Masters of Illusion’.

He has also hosted his own 12-part series on HTV in England called ‘Something Strange with Max Maven’. He has had starring roles on Count DeClues ‘Magic Castle’ and appeared on ‘General Hospital’ and ‘Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’. He has written or co-written several books including ‘Max Maven’s Book of Fortunetelling’ and ‘Max Maven’s Mind Games’.

For more information about Max Maven go to his website at www.maxmaven.com.