Nipin Niravath started off as a street magician. But, having always been fascinated by investigative stories and movies, he wanted to delve deeper into the workings of the mind and started coming up with “mentalism experiments.” Ever since his first mentalism show in 2008 proved a hit, the 35-year-old has endeavoured to focus his energy on perfecting this “art of reading minds.”
“I’m neither a doctor nor a black magician and I would prefer to be called a psychological entertainer,” says Nipin over phone from Kochi. His upcoming show, ‘Cryptic: Impossible to Imagine’, is aimed at debunking myths about such arcane fields and exposing certain sham practices in the society.
“There are a lot of fake theories and practices based on astral projection, ouija board, exorcism etc. Through my performance, I attempt to connect them to the real psychological phenomena behind them for a rational understanding,” says the mentalist.
Nipin explains that Cryptic, an audience-immersive show, is presented in an “investigative” format through the story of a serial killer based on a true incident that took place in Sweden in the previous century. “The killer murders nine people but is nabbed by the police while he is plotting his tenth murder. He is put behind the bars where he kills himself. This is, in fact, a popular story among mind-readers. I open the case diary 145 years later...,” he says, choosing to keep the details cryptic.
Nipin Niravath
Nipin points out that Cryptic will be an out-and-out mentalism spectacle and not a magic show. “One key difference is that magic uses a lot of stage props where as in mentalism, the prop is the mind of the audience. It works by manipulation of their thoughts. One cannot keep a script as the entire show depends on the situation and the audience,” he says, describing the performance art as a regaling combination of “psychology, showmanship, the art of influencing and a bit of magic for the wow factor.”
More than verbal communication, what a mentalist taps into is the non-verbal signals during a performance using well-practised mind-reading techniques. “Body language and micro-expressions are more revelatory to a mind-reader than the subject’s words. No matter how much we try to hide, our body language gives it away,” he says.
Over to Nipin and his bag of tricks.
‘Cryptic: Impossible to Imagine’ will be held at Vyloppilli Samskrithi Bhavan on December 9 at 6.30 pm. Contact: 9020333322
