I always get the same question from people "Who is your favourite magician?" And I have to say, there are too many out there that fit this list in their own right. The magic community has such a broad range of different types of magicians with different skill levels that I cannot name any one magician as my ultimate favourite. I will, however, give you the top 5 magicians that have inspired me and have had a huge influence in my own magic career and here they are...

Okay, so they count as two people, but they're twins and always work together so...there!

What they're known for:

• Creators and teachers of magic and popularized card flourishing (cardistry).
  
• First magicians to spark the custom designed playing card trend which launched a whole new industry and community of collectors and deck designers (including myself).

The Buck twins have managed to repel the cheesy stigma of how society sees magicians and have brought a sense of style and class to their brand - "A lifestyle brand for magicians". They have created a whole style of their own through curated, high quality productions for their online products. I truly love what they have done for the community and they deserve a top spot on any magician's list. And more importantly, they are excellent technicians of the craft.

Watch this...

What he's known for:

• Master and teacher of card mechanics
• Award winning magician
• And he's blind

I have no excuse for my own short comings as a magician. All I can say is WOW! Known as "The Cheat", Richard Turner has inspired me for years! What this man can do with a deck of cards, most magicians can't do in a lifetime. Turner has proven himself against all odds. He has turned what seems to be a negative and has taken advantage of his keen sense of touch to perform some of the  most mind blowing skills anyone has ever seen.  There is a movie about him called 'Dealt' coming in 2015. Can't wait!

Watch this...

What he's known for:

• Coined the term "Street Magic" and single-handedly revitalized the magic industry
• Modern-day Houdini with a long list of physical endurance stunts including: standing in a block of ice for 3 days, hanging in a box for 44 days, in a tank of water for 7 days, held the Guinness World Record for holding his breath underwater for more than 17 minutes, the list goes on...

For me David Blaine did something very smart. He took staple tricks that almost every magician has in their repertoire, brought a camera along and walked around New York performing tricks on the street. The result was a huge serge of interest in magic again, both within the industry and in the public. Many thought that this was some kind of new style of magic, when in reality it was some of the oldest tricks in the book. And because of Blaine, it opened the doors for me to be able to showcase my own style of magic on TV as well. Thanks for being so clever David!

Watch this...

What he's known for: (he needs no explanation, but for the sake of continuity...)

• Hmm let me see...made the Statue of Liberty disappear, walked through the Great Wall of China, floated across the Grand Canyon, made a jet plane disappear... I could be here all day...
• Award winning Broadway and TV shows
• Wind blowing his hair

The photo above, to me, is what started it all. I remember watching his first TV special on ABC and it was my first exposure to magic. Since then, Copperfield has always been my #1 stage illusionist of all time and in my book, no one else comes close. He defined my kind of magic when I first started my career. David Copperfield set the tone and a very high bar for the rest of the magic community and is still a huge inspiration to many young magicians today. 

Watch this...one of my all time favourites! Simple and elegant...

What he's known for:

• Mentalist, hypnotist, mind manipulator and all around mad genius!
• Hypnotized a nation, made people into assassins and bank robbers, made a girl kill a cat, played Russian Roulette with a real loaded gun on live television.
• Way too long of a list...you just have to watch him!

Derren Brown is on another level entirely. Though he started out as a magician, he has evolved into something much... scarier. And I love it! This madman has become such an inspiration to performers like myself and he too has set the bar high not only within the industry but for audiences around the world. 

I leave you with one of my favourite shows of Derren Brown in its entirety because everything about it is just amazing. Enjoy...

Yeah?... No?....ok...

Thanks for dropping by! :)

If you're a fan of the hit TV series Sherlock, then you will be familiar with his special ability to remember and recall specific pieces of information that are tucked away and stored in his mind. He had a name for this special "memory storage" - he called it his Mind Palace. Many of you may think that the Mind Palace was some clever fabrication by the writers of the TV show and you would be wrong. The Mind Palace is a real place.

Before it was popularized as the "Mind Palace", it was more commonly known as the Memory Palace or the Loci System. This memory technique dates back to the ancient Romans and Greeks as early as 85 BC. And despite it's long history, these memory techniques have never become mainstream and are still regarded as esoteric practices to this day. Thankfully, with the help of some of my friends and the growing popularity in the sport of memory, these memory techniques are finally getting the attention they deserve.

The Mind Palace is a place in one's mind where he/she stores information. The skills I will be sharing here is not much different from the skills that Sherlock would apply when retaining specific information. But I know what you're thinking  "Sherlock is a genius, how could I possibly be that clever!?" Maybe you think that you don't have a good memory to begin with or that it takes some sort of special photographic memory or that you have to be born with it. Not true at all! 

I consider myself to have an average memory…maybe sometimes below average depending on what I had the night before. Never mind that. The point is that anyone can learn these techniques and to prove that, I've asked my son, Simon (10 years old), to do a little demonstration of how the Mind Palace works in the video below. 

But before we begin sharpening your memory skills it is important to understand what exactly it is that you're sharpening. The real skill that is being developed here is called Mnemonics. This blog entry will be the first of a series of entries that will cover the many stages and techniques of mnemonics in hopes that it will help build your own Mind Palace. Enjoy learning!

Mnemonics is a study and development of systems for improving and assisting your memory. The great thing about mnemonics is that you've probably already practiced it without you even knowing it. It is essentially associating one thing to another thing. This is usually an association of visual imagery, but it can be used by the other senses as well.

For example, think of something or someone that you have a specific memory of and you will find that you unconsciously associate that thing or person with an image, sound, smell or even taste. This is the basic principle of mnemonics.

Mnemonics uses these associations in a system in which you can recall specific information. You can use these techniques to help you remember pretty much anything - lists, names/faces, directions, articles, serial numbers or even speeches. 

Lets take the first step into building the foundations of your Mind Palace with a simple technique called the Number Rhyme System. 

This simple and yet effective technique will help you create vivid and imaginative imagery for your mind to recall. This technique is also great to use in remembering short lists. By the end of this exercise, you will be able to recall a list of 10 items in order, as well as backwards and even randomly. Lets begin. 

STEP 1 - The Mnemonics
This mnemonic technique is called the Number Rhyme System because you will associate each number from 1-10 with an object that rhymes with that number. Here are the rhyming objects:

Study this list and get used to these objects associated with each number. You should be able to say these objects in order easily because of the number it rhymes with. As you start to recall each of these objects, try to create a vivid image of each object in your mind. Once you are familiar with each rhyming object and the number it is associated with, we move on to Step 2.

STEP 2 - Make A List
Lets make a list. For this exercise we shall use the list below, but you can create your own lists to practice your mnemonics. Before moving to Step 3, try to memorize the list below as you would normally and then try to recall it by writing the list down. Some may find this list easy to recall, but for most it will be a bit difficult. See how many you were able to recall. If you got them all correct, congratulations, you're a natural. But if you missed a few, no worries. The next step will help you nail this list or any other list with ease.

STEP 3 - Encoding
Now that you have your list, it's time for you to encode each item in your mind using the Number Rhyme mnemonics in Step 1. 

For example, number 1 - imagine using your cellphone as a gun or you can imagine shooting your cellphone and seeing it explode into pieces. Number 2 can be an image of a shoe made of pizza or your favorite shoes stuffed with pizza. Number 3 can be a big arm chair hanging from a tree or a tree that looks like a bunch of wooden chairs as branches. By now you're getting the gist of the technique. Continue on to the rest of the items and make sure that each image that you create is vivid. It also helps to make these images as outrageous and exaggerated as possible. 

Once you have created vivid images of each item on your list, you'll be able to recall each item simply by thinking about these images. Moreover, you will now be able to recall each item backwards and in random order. Ask a friend or family member to call out numbers in random and you will now be able to recall the items with no hesitation. By using this simple technique you will be able to remember lists like groceries, things to do and other short lists.

Congratulations! You have now built the foundations to your Mind Palace. 

The Number Rhyme System is a simple technique to help you get used to creating vivid images for your memory recall. Here is where we begin to build your Mind Palace and believe it or not, its very easy to do. In fact, your Mind Palace already exists. 

Imagine the place you live in right now. Maybe it's a house or maybe it's a condominium or maybe it's in a basement apartment. Regardless of the style of home you live in, you must imagine a starting point. If you live in a house, you might want to start at the foot of your driveway or if you live in a condo, you might want to begin at the lobby entrance etc. Now slowly walk through this space, make note of certain areas as you move towards your front door. Open your front door and move through your home. Try to visit each room of your home in a specific and fluent order and then find an ending point. This is your Mind Palace.

In here is where you store your information. By becoming familiar with your Mind Palace you will be able to store specific information in certain areas for quicker recall. Much like the Number Rhyme System, each area or room in your Mind Palace is like a number. When you create vivid images of items off a list, you can place these images in specific areas in your Mind Palace. 

The Mind Palace can be used for many different applications like remembering articles, speeches, presentations (which I've done many times), meeting new people, lists of words, lists of numbers, memorizing a deck of cards, learning new skills and even learning a new language. The whole premise to the Mind Palace is that it gives you a place to organize and recall information either at random or in order depending on how you've encoded the information. 

For example, when I encode a presentation or a speech into my Mind Palace, I take each stage of my presentation and create a vivid mnemonic image. Then I place each image in order starting at my Mind Palace's starting point. Then every succeeding image is placed in a fluent order throughout my Mind Palace. I can now imagine walking through my Mind Palace and seeing these images in a specific order. This technique has allowed me to present more casually and with more confidence without any notes or cue cards. You can already begin to see the possibilities. 

I hope that after learning the Number Rhyme System, remembering a short list of 10 items seems to be pretty easy now. But memorizing a shuffled deck of 52 cards is a bit more challenging and requires a slight change in technique. This is where the Mind Palace flourishes. 

In the video below, my son, Simon demonstrates the very principles of the Mind Palace. His technique can be broken-down into three stages:

1. Developing the mnemonics system
2. Encoding the information
3. Information recall

In the video, you will only see Simon perform stages 2 and 3, because he has already developed his mnemonics system months ago and is merely applying the techniques while memorizing the deck of cards. 

It is important to know that Simon has been practicing mnemonics for only 3 months. His first attempt in memorizing a deck of cards took him 30 minutes. Today, he is averaging approximately 6-7 minutes and his time is constantly improving everyday. I'm very proud of him.

In my next blog entry I will share Simon's techniques in detail so that you too can memorize a deck of cards as well. And I know that you're probably asking "Why would I want to memorize a deck of cards?" Well, the short answer is, because that would be pretty freaking cool not to mention very impressive! 

However, aside from that, there is a growing community of mnemonists around the world and mnemonics has become a highly respected sport. Memorizing a deck of cards is just one of the many challenges in the World Championship of Memory. Who knows, maybe mnemonics will spark an interest in you. 

Until next time, enjoy exploring your Mind Palace. I wish you the best of luck in learning these fun techniques and I hope it's made even a small difference in your life. Thanks for dropping by. 

When thinking about what to call this blog, I first thought about what I wanted to feature in it. What would I talk about? What would I be sharing? I had such a broad scope of ideas that I realized that it was just a reflection of my own quirkiness... and then it hit me... Manarisms... yeah...Yeah...YEAH!!

I ran with it without even thinking about. I liked it and that's the title I wanted to use. Naturally, I thought this was such a clever discovery unique to myself. I mean, who would ever use "Manarisms" in this way, with this kind of spelling, in this kind of context and in a blog no less?? 

Psshh no one of course...

Her name is Manar. And it appears she beat me to the punch seeing as this website has been floating around since at least 2008. My original breakthrough title wasn't so original after all. :(

I discovered this website when I decided to register the domain name. There is a kind of excitement when buying online real estate. I have my own little portfolio of domains, but thats another story. Anyway, as an after thought I realized I should get the domain. 

So here I am, all excited to register a domain that of course no one would ever have. I'm about to register my new domain that is totally unique to me and I'm such a brilliant guy for thinking of it...

WAIT! WHAT!? WTF!?!? Let me type that in again. There must be some mistake...

WHO THE HELL WOULD USE THAT STUPID TITLE!?!? 

*Enter Google*

And there it was! It was a slap in my face... MANARISMS...

Who are you? WHO ARE YOU!??

I started clicking every button on the site. Reading through posts and investigating and trying to find out who the person was that stole my title before I even thought of it. How dare he/she? I wasn't sure at the time.

Immediately from the home page my first impression of this person was that of a political activist. She had videos of the civil unrest in Egypt, feminist articles, voting rights etc. This was a pretty serious website. I then started looking at the rest of her posts and the type of content she posted. Some of the posts where written in Arabic so I didn't understand, but the videos that she posted were clear. These were her political views, serious views.

Oh man. How do you compete with that? I cannot discount this one person's personal political views to make room for my own whimsical topics. Who am I to do that? My only connection to this person was that we both wanted to wake up the world in our own little way - to show people another side of life, but the only thing is... we were both at opposite ends. Her showing the dark harsh realities of her world and me wanting to show the lighter fun side of my world. 

My anger left quietly.

It then occurred to me to look at her last blog post - February 10, 2012. Hmmm. Inactive? I searched for contact info. I clicked the Facebook link and lead me to Manar's Facebook profile. She appeared to be a happy person with a smiling profile photo. Last activity was in January 2013. Hmmm.

I decided to send her a message as a courtesy to her. I wanted to let her know how I came up with this very same title, that it was completely coincidental and that I felt it was the right thing to do to inform her of it. I also wanted to find out what her plans were for her website, seeing as it has been inactive for over 2 years. How does someone who was very active and passionate about her political views suddenly stop? I didn't want to speculate. I just hoped to reach her. 

It occurred to me that I made a rookie mistake when it comes to creating a brand name. I didn't research the name until it was too late. I had already posted my first blog post using the name. Friends liked it and I was proud of myself for cleverly thinking of it. Now what do I do when I eventually find out that that name is not original and some one else owns it? Naturally, I should blog about it and tell the world of my fumble.

So in light of my recent fail I shall share the lessons I've learned on what I should have done in developing a brand name. 

1. Slow your roll homie!
I just thought of the most clever title for my blog! That's it! I'm done! I need not look or think any further! WRONG! Slow down! Don't be so impulsive. You may have thought of the most awesomest name on the planet, but how awesome is that really when you find out it's already taken? Don't just take the first name that pops into mind. Write a few names down. Think them through. 

Your brand name must stand out. Having said that, it doesn't have to be some ultra cryptic name that no one understands. Keep it simple and sometime less is more. You have to keep in mind several things - Is this brand name memorable? Is it catchy? Is it relatable? Will people understand it? Can they spell it? How will this look graphically? Can this translate into a website? Does the name match the end product?

For me, I felt using "Mana" and "mannerisms" together was a great play on words. A trait that us Filipinos exploit to an extreme degree. It was perfect! The problem lies in the fact that I felt that any other name failed in comparison to Manarisms simply because I thought this was too good already. Was I really that clever and lucky enough to have thought of such a unique name at my first go? Clearly no. Should I have thought of others anyway just in case. Absolutely.

2. Check yourself before you wreck yourself!
Research! This is kind of a chicken and egg thing. Many times, I check for domain availability first when thinking of a brand name. It's usually the deciding factor of whether or not I pursue the name at all. If the domain name is not available or I'm stuck with certain domain extensions like .biz or .org. It's not worth my time to pursue the name. An online presence is key and if there are other brands out there with the same name you're probably better off thinking of something else. 

You finally narrowed your choices to a couple of names. Now do your research. Check out sites with similar names. Check out competition. Can your brand name be confused with other brands? Weigh out all the pros and cons to your potential names and then decide which one will give you the best recall and online presence. 

3. "It's nice...but..."
The last thing you wanna hear, but it's probably the most important thing you HAVE to hear. Ask family and friends to help you decide. Get some input and opinions on peoples initial reaction to your brand name. Testing your brand name in the real world is far more effective than it is in your imaginary world. Everything sounds so nice and perfect in your head, but how will other people react to it?

Bounce off ideas with people you trust. You never now when the next wave of brilliance comes hitting you on the head. Your best idea is only as good until your next best idea comes rolling in. If you find yourself stuck with a whole bunch of awesome brand names, then I think you have a happy problem. Deal with it and push forward!

4. Ideas are like one-night-stands
Ever have a great idea and then you sleep on it and then suddenly it isn't that great the next day? Your "beer goggles" are off and you look at your great idea and think, "What the hell was I thinking!?" It's happened to me many times. And I've learned this one very important lesson whenever I have a sudden burst of ideas and thoughts. I sleep on it. If the next day, I still feel all giddy and warm and fuzzy about it, then I know its a keeper. 

Treat your brand name with the same respect. If by the next morning you feel you should maybe slip out quietly, then do so and never look back. But if you are in love with your brand, then treat it with the respect and dignity it deserves. Build that relationship and make it flourish. People will be looking at you two in smiles and adoration.

For now, my own Manarisms will remain as a small part of my main website - just a light hearted blog that brings in a little magic and wonder every now and then. 

I'll have you know that I woke up this morning still feeling giddy about my blog title. I still believe that it is a good representation of what I plan to bring to this blog. I can only hope that Manar approves of it. I do hope to hear from her, maybe even become friends. 

Thanks for dropping by and have a great week ahead!