Thanks to Sean Lough for sending me a link to this article from the Wall Street Journal discussing Mentalism. Asi Wind, Lior Suchard and Ehud Segev all get a mention.
Why is the tradition of mentalism alive in Israel, but not so much in America, especially with a role model as dashing as Simon Baker? Is it a skill Israelis are taught in the army? Both Mr. Segev (who was not trained in the army) and Mr. Wind (who was) evoked the legacy of Uri Geller, a 64-year-old Israeli entertainer who traffics in the areas of mysticism and magic.
In an interview, Mr. Segev, who refers to himself as "The Mentalizer," travels around the world and does many corporate Wall Street events, called Mr. Geller "the father of modern mentalism," and pointed to Mr. Geller's spoon bending as a trick that put him on the map. "I used to say, 'I'm a mentalist and people would say, 'What's a mentalist?'"
Now, with various reality shows under his belt, and of course the hit show on CBS, "everybody knows what a mentalist is." But Mr. Baker's procedural has had an adverse effect, too: "I used to be the first thing that came up on Google when you typed in 'mentalist.' Now it's so much harder to get to people."