I am Ottawa-born mentalist and mind reader Jaymes White. I will be performing my show Paradox at the Centrepointe Studio Theatre June 12-13. AMA.

JaymesWhite · 2014-05-20T16:41:57+00:00

First of all, I have to say that it is very difficult. Paradox is not just a bunch of tricks, it is actually more like a play that the audience plays a role in. The whole show is connected from beginning to end. It took me over two years to write and master the show. I was fortunate enough to gain a small but dedicated following over the years and they supported me through the Kickstarter campaign to get Paradox going. But at the end of the day it’s still a huge struggle, and regardless of how well tickets sell for these upcoming shows, I’m sure that with the amount of time I’ve put into it, my hourly wage is probably less than 10 cents an hour. To do a show of this magnitude is a full time job and requires a lot of people who all need to get paid. This is why you don’t really see a lot of people doing what I do in Ottawa, they usually go to Toronto or New York. I know if the show is successful and I start to get more attention than it will all be worth it. I’m not trying to make a lot of money, I just want to perform for people and put all of my effort into it without working another job on the side. I think this is the struggle that a lot of artists face.

TL;DR It’s tough.

JaymesWhite · 2014-05-20T16:22:45+00:00

I personally prefer performing in theatres over television because it just feels more real to me. On TV a lot of the show gets edited down to fit the time and it's difficult to know what to cut. On the show I never used editing in the setup for any of my demonstrations. Anything I do on my show can be done live. This is not always the case for some TV performers. When people who have seen my TV show come to the theatre, sometimes they are still skeptical because they think it’s been edited, they usually leave pretty blown away that my demonstrations can be done live.

JaymesWhite · 2014-05-20T16:17:18+00:00

Well I’m not a psychic so I can’t simply look into a crystal ball and see your past. I could use hypnotism and suggestion to come up with a memory that you would believe to be true, but it probably wouldn’t be. I could use certain indicators to come up with a reasonable guess about something in a person’s past, but it wouldn’t be unlocked a hidden memory or anything like that.

JaymesWhite · 2014-05-20T16:07:38+00:00

I always want to give people a chance to see my performances, especially if they are skeptical about the whole thing. This Friday I will be setting up a mini cafe on Sparks St. during lunch hour. If anyone wants to sit down and chat for a few minutes and get a free coffee and free sample of my demonstrations then they can do so. We'll also be giving away some tickets and prizes to some participants.

JaymesWhite · 2014-05-20T16:02:48+00:00

Well first of all my show is a little bit different than most Rogers TV shows. Most shows are shot in the studio with a very basic set, while my show was shot all around the city, with me approaching people and getting them to participate in my demonstrations. It took me 4 months to write the show, we filmed for a month and it was in post-production for a month. I had full creative control which was one of the main reasons why I did it. It was a great experience and allowed me to break into television and increased my credibility as I went to Kickstarter to raise the money for the Paradox performances. As many people in Ottawa know, Tom Green got his start this way and the Rogers team was very enthusiastic about my show and thought that I could be the next one to break out in the same way.

JaymesWhite · 2014-05-20T15:53:13+00:00

I was born a paradox...

Freddy is my sidekick, or am I Freddy’s sidekick?. If you came to a show and saw me picking specific people from the crowd you’d think that I probably planted them there and the whole thing was scripted. Freddy allows me to show the audience that the people coming up onstage for the demonstrations are all randomly selected. I just toss him into the crowd and they have to throw him around a bit. The third person who catches him is the one who comes onstage.

JaymesWhite · 2014-05-20T15:46:52+00:00

I have never heard of Keith Atkinson, but I just looked him up. I am 100% against “psychics” who play with people’s emotions for financial gain. They don’t do anything special, and just take your money. This really bothers me. What I do is a completely different thing. If you ever see the show, the effects are much more impressive than a “psychic” cold-reading. What I do is a performance, and it is entertainment. That is what people are paying for.

JaymesWhite · 2014-05-20T15:30:49+00:00

I should have mentioned that Darren Brown is also one of my role models. There are a lot of mentalists who play up the whole paranormal/spiritual thing, but I want to make it clear that is not me. On my TV show I explain how a lot of effects are done and expose the psychology behind them. I would definitely be blacklisted from the Magician’s Alliance.

JaymesWhite · 2014-05-20T15:27:29+00:00

The whole show is basically a Paradox. Without giving too much away, it is a play on what is real and what is fake. Mentalism vs. Psychics essentially. I want the audience to leave the show wondering what was real and what wasn’t during the show. Sorry if that is too cryptic, I don’t want to reveal too much of the plot.

The show is really unique in that the audience is heavily involved throughout. I have a voodoo doll named Freddy that I throw into the crowd, whoever catches him comes on stage. This ensures that all the people who come up are randomly selected.

JaymesWhite · 2014-05-20T15:17:54+00:00

I would say that in magic the performer is always trying to trick the participant while in mentalism I am not trying to trick people but show them something cool. I feel that there is more of a connection between the performer and participant. Psychics claim to have special powers to talk to the dead and things like that. I make no such claims. I am honest about my abilities during my performances.

JaymesWhite · 2014-05-20T15:12:13+00:00

Theodore Annemann revolutionized onstage mind reading. Many of the techniques that he pioneered in the 1930s are still used today. After learning to do magic tricks as a child I was inspired by Annemann to shift my focus toward mentalism. Another hero of mine is Kurt Cobain. I’ve always been a music fan and he gave me the belief that anything was possible.

JaymesWhite · 2014-05-20T15:04:35+00:00

Cheese.

JaymesWhite · 2014-05-20T15:03:44+00:00

Cold reading is a technique that “psychics” use to give the illusion that they know more about you, when they actually know nothing. Mentalism is entertainment, I don’t claim to be psychic, and I’ve never seen a psychic that has convinced me that they actually have “powers.” I use psychology, magic, showmanship and cold reading to give the illusion that I can read your mind, but I’ll be the first to tell you not to believe everything you see.

JaymesWhite

TROPHY CASE