Mentalism Isn’t Magic But Its Mystery Is Just As Captivating - Larry Soffer

The leading mentalist in Africa Larry Soffer explains the five qualities that make a good mentalist (and we’re not talking of the TV show kind)

When Larry Soffer tells people he is a mentalist, they immediately think he spends his days unravelling crimes and putting offenders in prison, just like the lead character in the American drama television series 'The Mentalist'.

The truth is the only likeness Larry has to Patrick Jane’s character Simon Barker is their passion for entertainment. “Although I have been approached several times to help crack a crime, this is not something I feel comfortable doing. My aim has always been to entertain and inspire,” he says.

The misperception generally stems from the fact that people simply do not know what mentalism really is.

Mentalism explained 

We all know that magic encompasses a whole range of different things, from illusions on stage to close-up magic tricks amongst others. It is a performing art in which audiences are entertained by seemingly impossible feats using natural powers.

Mentalism comes under the ‘magic’ umbrella and could perhaps be best described as the magic of the mind. It is a sophisticated practice and an incredible skill that takes years to develop.

“A mentalist uses specialist techniques to demonstrate their art and skill of mind reading, metal bending, second sighting and predicting the thoughts of others. In truth, it involves anything that reveals the power of the mind and requires the ability to read body language and micro facial expressions. It basically utilises each of the five human senses to create the impression of a sixth sense,” explains Larry.

Done well, mentalism can positively impact the person watching the performance unfold. Not only does it allow the audience to step outside their mundane, everyday life, but it also transports them to a different reality, and inspires them to believe in the impossible to create a better future for themselves. 

After witnessing his fair share of mentalists and magicians perform all over the world, Larry believes these five qualities are what sets apart the good ones from the not so good:

Focus on the audience: Some mentalists perform so that they can feel great, validated, and admired but this makes their performance a one-sided affair. A great performer is able to focus on the audience’s experience and how it will connect with them emotionally. He always tries to give the audience the best experience THEY can have. The focus should always be on them and the feelings and emotions they will walk away with.

Have great intuition:  You can spend years studying mentalism, but nothing quite compares to being born with amazing intuition. Even as a child Larry perceived things that other people didn’t, which is probably what drew him to mentalism when he was studying magic.

Don’t be afraid to take risks: Pulling off scary stunts like putting a spike through your hand, making spoons and forks bend, lightbulbs burst, or broken watches come back to life can be tricky. Imagine having millions of listeners to a radio station for you to predict the incorrect newspaper headlines.

Luckily this has never happened to Larry, but he always pushes himself to do risky things as this has the biggest payoff.  He once performed for the First Lady of Kenya in Nairobi and popped a balloon with a large knife while blindfolded. To add some danger, he asked an audience member to stand somewhere in the crowd with the balloon and used what he calls ‘Second Sight’ to find them. It went down a treat with the crowd.

Eat, sleep and breath mentalism: Mentalism requires you to successfully blur the lines between reality and the supernatural. To do this well, you need to be more than just good at your craft. Only then will audiences believe that what you did was something impossible. You need to get even the biggest cynics to walk away in awe.

Create a memorable impression:  People must remember the experience they had with you for years and years. Only then will you have impacted them with your performance and skill. He once performed at the J&B Met a few years ago and ran into someone that saw him there a few years later. The gentleman came up to Larry to tell him that he kept a spoon that he bent for him for all these years because it reminded him that there was more to life, and this kept him rehabilitated from drugs.

You can never put a price on how this makes you feel!

Larry inspires his audiences to believe in the impossible so that they can achieve their dreams. Follow @LarrySoffer or visit his website for more information at www.larrysoffer.com.

PBS Kids Africa To Become A Pop-Up Channel For Arthur

PBS Kids, the #1 educational media brand for children aged 2 to 8 with community-based programs that reflect and celebrate lovable, diverse characters who serve as positive role models in life will soon be hosting likely a month worth of Arthur.

Based on the book of the same name by Marc Brown, Arthur set in the fictional U.S. city of Elwood City, and revolves around the lives of an anthropomorphic aardvark, his friends and family, and their daily interactions with each other.

The series often deals with important issues families face such as asthma, dyslexia, cancer, diabetes, and autism spectrum disorder. It also encourages reading and relationships with family and friends by explaining that people have different personalities and interests.

Earlier in the year, the series wrapped production in the U.S. after 25 seasons with a total of 253 half hour episodes with reruns still seem on the brand making it the longest running children's show in the U.S. and second longest running animation behind The Simpsons.

As seen this past week, PBS Kids seems to be maxing out their schedule for a months worth of Arthur which might include specials and movies as the channel has yet to air any of those for some reason but the question to Arthur's presence remains a mystery.

Could it have something to do with its 26th anniversary in October or is there something bigger happening especially now that the main feed got a makeover with ones in Africa and Australia expected to follow soon.

The Arthur Bonanza starts on Saturday 3 September exactly at 23:59 which does seem a bit odd of a timeslot but PBS Kids is known for such instances airing stuff when most viewers won't be present so they view repeats.

 

Digital First: Rebranding Of MTV Asia To MTV 90s

Paramount is scheduled to roll out their streaming service Paramount+ in Africa alongside various other markets by 2023 and as seen with Disney+ their streaming service has led to a further cutback in channels with questions regarding Paramount's linear offering.

I know Paramount had stated a while back that they weren't planning to halt their linear offering as seen with The House Of Mouse. But that doesn't mean they won't do it eventually as they make some minor changes to the current offering.

In the UK, BET became a digital exclusive and Nicktoons is seen as music channel (NickMusic) in Latin America outside of that Paramount has been eliminating a lot of channels mainly MTV as they're said to carry outdated content or don't have a lot of viewers following them.

Unfortunately this wasn't the case in Asia as Sky announced the rebrand of MTV Asia which will now be MTV 90s a music channel from 1st September. This comes after Nickelodeon exited South Korea a few months ago and that just builds onto further speculation.

Is it possible that MTV and Nickelodeon's future in Asia will be the same fate awaiting consumers around the world. It's possible as evolution is a constant you had your VCR now there's DVD and not a lot of people SMS as there's social media.

Regarding MTV, I can see many reasons for Paramount to let go off the channel one cause compared to other general entertainment channels MTV holds more original content which a company like Disney would want to put onto a streaming service.

Compared to BET and Comedy Central as there's not much on there I mean you get plenty of original content but it doesn't dominate the schedule as seen with MTV. Not saying there's no chance of them going away but the less relevant a brand gets the more easier it will be to miss.

Adani Acquires 29% Stake In NDTV

Gautam Adani, Asia’s richest man, signalled serious intent for a play in India’s media and entertainment industry as his companies acquired a 29% stake in broadcaster NDTV Ltd and launched an open offer to acquire an additional 26% from shareholders, as mandated by law.

The acquisition capped months of speculation about a potential acquisition that saw the NDTV stock rally fivefold in nine months (from ₹75.55 on 1 December to ₹376.55 on Tuesday on BSE).

Adani Group companies acquired the stake in NDTV indirectly by buying Vishvapradhan Commercial Pvt. Ltd (VCPL), which owned convertible debentures (warrants that provide for the conversion of debt to equity) in RRPR Holding Pvt. Ltd that in turn owned 29.18% of NDTV Ltd. Vishvapradhan acquired the debentures in 2009-10 in return for a loan amounting to ₹404 crore it extended to the promoter holding company.

According to India’s securities law, an entity that acquires more than 25% of the equity in a publicly traded company must launch an open offer to acquire an additional 26% from public shareholders. Adani Group and Vishvapradhan on Tuesday announced an open offer at ₹294 per share (based on Sebi’s takeover guidelines), representing a 28% discount to NDTV’s ₹376 closing price on Tuesday.

The acquisition drew immediate protests from NDTV, which said in a filing to the exchanges on Tuesday evening that Adani group firms had acquired the stake without consulting its promoters.

“The NDTV founders and the company would like to make it clear that this exercise of rights by VCPL was executed without any input from, conversation with, or consent of the NDTV founders, who, like NDTV, have been made aware of this exercise of rights only today."

Adani’s acquisition of a stake in the high-profile broadcaster, although the subject of market speculation even before the Adani group formally announced its entry into media in March this year, dramatically came to light in exchange filings fired in quick succession on Tuesday evening. On Monday, NDTV told exchanges in response to a media query that its promoters were not engaged in any talks for a stake sale. On Tuesday evening, Adani Enterprises first announced its wholly owned subsidiary Adani Media Networks acquired Vishvapradhan from Eminent Networks and Nextwave Televentures—entities linked to entrepreneur Mahendra Nahata.

Then came the announcement that VCPL had exercised the convertible warrants and now owned 99.5% of RRPR Holdings and, in turn, 29.18% of the equity stake in NDTV. Alongside, Vishvapradhan and the Adani companies announced the open offer triggered by the acquisition.

“This acquisition is a significant milestone in the journey of AMNL’s goal to pave the path of new age media across platforms," Sanjay Pugalia, chief executive officer, AMG Media Networks Ltd, said in a statement.

NDTV founders Prannoy and Radhika Roy control 32.2% of shares in NDTV, while the public shareholders own 38.55%. The company posted revenues of ₹421 crore and a net profit of ₹85 crore in the year ended March 2022.

The 2009-10 transaction between Vishvapradhan and RRPR Holdings was subject to regulatory ire as the Securities and Exchanges Board of India (Sebi) held in a 2019 order that the loan agreement between the two entities amounted to a transferring of beneficial interest in NDTV and should have triggered an open offer by Vishvapradhan then. The regulator castigated the NDTV promoters in strong terms, saying they perpetrated fraud on minority investors by entering into this kind of arrangement. The order was subsequently set aside by the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT), which held that just because no interest was charged on loan, it didn’t mean an indirect acquisition as there was no transfer of management control.

In May, Adani Media Networks acquired a 49% equity stake in Quintillion Media, founded by media entrepreneur Raghav Bahl.

El Mataviejitas. The Killer Of Old Ladies

2005. At a symposium on crime in Mexico City, a man from the Department of Justice stands up to give a talk. What he has to say is horrifying. He announces that Mexico is now experiencing “a terrifying and new phenomenon: the presence, now indisputable, of a serial killer. That which happens to us today didn’t happen to us before; happened in movies, in the United States. However, violence and crime have also become globalized—the serial killer of elderly women, El Mataviejitas, is an example of this.”

El Mataviejitas. The Killer of Old Ladies. You could tell from the nickname—from the El in El Mataviejitas—that the police were looking for a man. They were looking for a man because—well, who else could commit crimes like these? Someone was killing elderly women in brutal fashion around the city, leaving them dead on the floor, strangled by things like stethoscopes or phone cables or women’s tights. Sure, witnesses were claiming that they’d seen a woman—a tall woman—around the scenes of some of these crimes, but authorities would not be shaken from their belief. The killer was a man. Maybe a man who dressed in women’s clothes. But a man nonetheless. El Mataviejitas.

Susana Vargas Cervantes has been studying the case of the killer initially known as El Mataviejitas for over a decade. One of the things she noticed was that Mexican police had kind of imported their idea of what a serial killer looked and acted like from their neighbor to the north—from the United States, land of the celebrity serial killer. So when police in Mexico City finally started thinking that all of these killings of elderly women might be connected, they started looking for someone…well, someone like Ted Bundy. Someone charismatic. Brilliant. Psychopathic. And definitely male.

Back in the 1960s, before the killings of old women and before the symposium on crime, a thirteen-year-old girl was being sold to an older man. The girl’s name was Juana Barraza. Her mother, Justa Samperio, was an alcoholic who beat her daughter at every turn. Juana grew up in poverty, north of Mexico City, and had never learned to read or write much, and didn’t know her biological father. But the main source of trauma in her life, it seems, was her mother. Justa would have done anything for a drink. Anything. And so when Juana was thirteen years old, her mother sold her to a man named Jose Lugo in exchange for—some say—three beers.

The exchange was so cruel that Juana thought that the whole thing was somehow…not real. A joke, or a misunderstanding, or a set-up. Jose Lugo took her back to his house and she waited for her mother—or her stepfather, who she trusted—to come and save her. But no one showed up. No one showed up when Jose Lugo tied her to his bed. No one came to save her for the next five years, while Lugo raped her over and over, when she had an abortion, or when she gave birth to a son. After those five years, her uncles finally found her and rescued her. As it turned out, Juana’s mother had been lying to the rest of the family this entire time, saying that Juana had just…left with her rapist of her own free will.

Years later, Juana would weep on camera, under arrest, as she said, “That is why I hated older women.”

Credits: Tori Telfer

Warner. Bros Discovery September 2022 Highlights (Drafted): Heritage Day Reigns In On TNT Africa, Goku Makes A Comeback To Cartoon Network Africa In Dragonball Super And Thomas The Tank Engine Is Back For More Adventures On Cartoonito

TNT:

Morgan Freeman Fan Month
Celebrate Heritage Day
Road Trip Special

Cartoon Network:

Dragonball Super (rerun)
Four years after the defeat of Majin Buu, Goku is seen working as a farmer, and his family and friends live peacefully. However, the God of Destruction Beerus awakens after decades of slumber. Beerus, along with his Angel assistant and teacher, Whis, seeks a warrior known as the Super Saiyan God, threatening to destroy the Earth if he loses to him. Goku transforms into the Super Saiyan God with the help of his friends, battles Beerus and loses, but his efforts appease Beerus, who spares the planet.

Ninjago (new episodes)
It centres on the fictional world of Ninjago, telling the story of a group of six teenage ninjas and their battles against the forces of evil.

Power Rangers Dino Fury (new episodes)
In the present, intergalactic warrior Void Knight accidentally unleashes the Sporix whilst trying to steal them, forcing Zayto and his friend, a cyborg dinosaur named Solon, to recruit a new team of Dino Fury Power Rangers to help in their fight.

Jellystone (new episodes)
The series is a reimagined take on the legendary Hanna-Barbera brand, focusing on a modernized ensemble of its characters as they live, work, play, and destroy the town together with their everyday lives being turned into madcap hilarity.

Craig Of The Creek (new episodes)
In the fictional suburban Baltimore/DC area town of Herkleton, Maryland, a boy named Craig Williams and his two friends, Kelsey Pokoly and John Paul "J.P." Mercer, have their many adventures in the titular creek, described as a kid utopia of untamed wilderness in which tribes of children reign over tree forts and dirt bike ramps.

Stunts: Batman Birthday and Teen Titans GO! Top Talent

Movie Holidays
As part of the school holidays featuring characters from Teen Titans GO!, Regular Show, We Bare Bears and D.C. Superhero Girls.

Boomerang/Cartoonito:

Thomas And Friends: All Engines Go (new episodes)
A younger Thomas the Tank Engine goes on adventures with all of his friends as they work on the island of Sodor.

Scooby-Doo And Batman: The Brave And Bold
The film involves Scooby-Doo and his friends teaming with Batman and other DC Comics superheroes in order to defeat a new villain. It is the first film based on Batman: The Brave and the Bold since the series ended in 2011.