Hi guys,

In my show a love to perform mnemonic feats like remembering long numbers, list of words, fast identification of dates, solving the Rubik's cube blindfolded, and so on.
What I currently don't perform in my show is lightning mental calculation. Nevertheless I would love to add such an act in my show (like the one performed by Benjamin Athur on TED). The problem is that I find it is difficult to understand what's the best way to start practicing this art and...what is the best system to use in a magic act for show purposes (no pencil and paper, only mental).
I know there are many books out there. I already bought some but I still didn't begin to read because I don't want to spend time training and learning stuff that maybe are not suited for entertainment purposes.
The ones I have in my library are about Vedic, tratchenberg, speed math by Bill Handley and mathemagics by B.Arthur.
Are they good? Which one should I start reading?
Is B. Arthur really using the methods explained in his book? Is it not too difficult to learn?
I would love if you guys could tell me whats the best system I should use or start using.

Any help is kindly appreciated!

Best regards

Federico

Hi Frederico.

I don't have much to point you towards from those books, but would however suggest that you read Martin Gardner's Mathematical Circus. In this book he has an article about the 'true' lightning calculators who could do remarkable mental feats using only their mind, and also an expository article about the bogus ones, who used some sort of trickery. In this section there are several effects taught which you could use yourself. The one that immediately springs to mind is the ability to multiply two nine digit numbers without the use of pen or paper faster than the time taken for somebody to put them into a calculator. I'll look up more specifics when I'm at home with the book.

Owen

Art Benjamin has a book he wrote with Michael Shermer called "The Secrets of Mental Math" which describes how he does all of his tricks. The methods are not too difficult to learn but they do require practice. Shermer points this out in the introduction. He talks about how amazing it was to learn the tricks, but once they were done writing the book he moved onto other things and slowly forgot the methods.

Benjamin also did a video lecture series for The Teaching Company (also called "The Secrets of Mental Math"), in which he describes the exact same methods as far as I can tell.

A quick update to note that the book is actually Mathematical Carnival, not Circus (which is another of his collections from Scientific American). As of yet I have not had a chance to look back at the book, but will post here once I have done.

I second the book The Secrets of Mental Math. It's very practical, and leads you step by step to the more difficult material. Obviously there's a lot of practice involved, but this is the real thing.

Thanks for your answers guys!
What I am really wondering about is if the great lightning human calculators (like Alberto Coto) are really using the system explained by Benjin.
Moreover I am also wondering if Benjamin himself is really using the system that is explained in his book...
I started reading Mathrmagics (by benjamin) last year and I had the sensation that not everything that is performed in Benjamin's show is based on the described system in his book. Am I wrong?

Well, not everything in Dr. Benjamin's act is described in the book. For example, he often opens with the Invisible Deck.

While many of the items are described, others are the result of learning shortcuts and speeding up from experience over the years?

There's a great 3-part essay on lightning calculators and their actual methods at the following link:
http://myreckonings.com/wordpress/2008/0......players/

BTW, here's a video of Dr. Benjamin's full 1-hour show, as compared to the edited-down 15-minute version you've seen on TED:
http://vimeo.com/31119072

Thank you.
Are there other magician like Benjamin Arthur who perform during show lightning mental calculation?
Thanks

Federico

Shakuntala Devi of India does lightning calculations last I heard.

Anton Zellman does a few memory feats and calendar calculations in his performances.

There's also a few videos at the end of the my reckonings link above.

Beyond those, they're few and far between.