It is rare to find a book on mentalism and storytelling with sound practical advice and proven working material written in an engaging, plain-speaking, and logical manner that makes you want to keep reading.
Anyone who performs magic would benefit from buying this book. Gattullo has precisely articulated something about which we all have heard bits and pieces but have rarely seen spelled out so clearly. Pay attention to how succinct the presentations are, how everyday items and emotions connect to an audience, and how the magic takes center stage instead of the performer. Then, instead of seeing a magic show, your audience will leave having had a magical experience.
Tales from the Invisible Door distills various mystery entertainment theories and provides presentations and plot concepts that take advantage of the best of those theories. Highly recommended.
Rolando Santos – “The Linking Ring”
Vito fully understood the need to create atmosphere and context to captivate his audience and provide them with an experience rather than just tricks. Although most of the principles used by our man are known to mentalists worthy of the name, all the routines are very well thought out, in particular because he diverts classic processes to achieve his ends.
Beyond the proposed routines, Vito also invites you to ask yourself essential questions about your approach as a mentalist, as well as about building your performance. Questions which, unfortunately, are too often overlooked by opportunists who embark on the discipline, simply because it is fashionable.
Tales from the invisible door is a very good book and Vito a promising author for the future. When’s the next installment?
Erick Fearson – “Magicus Magazine”
Vito Gattullo has created a modern masterpiece in his book, TALES FROM THE INVISIBLE DOOR.
He has transformed classic mentalism methodology into something very special and, frankly, much more interesting to an audience.
Using creative narratives and storytelling approaches, the performer can deliver routines that are captivating to an audience.
The ancient magicians and shamans have always been storytellers, and Gattullo will spark your imagination in order to elevate your performance to something that even becomes meaningful to those who witness it.
I loved this book, and I loved Gattullo’s thinking. I recommend reading it a few times, allowing your creativity to mix with his and build on what he has shared with us.
This process will make a difference in your magic. Audiences will see you as more than just a presenter of tricks, but something much more.
Terry Tyson – Mentalist, Séance Master, Magickal Raconteur, Creator and Writer.
For me, Tales from the Invisible Door stands out among many of the publications released recently that I’ve read.
With Vito’s work you avoid pipe dreams and find practical road-tested methods that do not require costly or expensive gimmicks to produce the effects. Beyond methods, he includes some very interesting premises and routines all written with a pleasant narrative style.
Vito also takes great care in crediting others. Both for inspirations of his work, but also for similar presentations to help the reader if they are interested in similar concepts.
I feel fortunate when I read something and I get even a single idea from from it. Vito’s work contributed multiple ideas to me as well as encouraged me to look further into the deep literature of our art.
Brandon Bell – “The Magic Café”
I found Tales from the Invisible Door to be a fascinating and rarely explored entree to the mentalist and even the magic world. I was delighted by its insights and its journey. I think his anthropological and storytelling approach are wonderful. I am stimulated by this work. Thanks.
Marc Salem
“Tales from the Invisible Door” is an illustrated volume running at over 170 pages, It includes not only twelve of Vito Gattullo’s original and entertaining storytelling-mentalism routines, but his perspectives and approaches on frequently considered performance themes, such as act openers and closers, the use of playing cards in mentalism and the selection of the right show routines.
Unlike other magic and mentalism performer compilations, you will discover that Vito’s approach to infusing mystery into his performance is often achieved through assumptions and psychological perceptions of any scene he sets, whether cultural, historical, esoteric or folkloric and this lays the foundation for the ensuing theatre.
All routines have been extensively audience tested and include classic mentalism themes ranging from predictions to pseudo-hypnosis, mind reading, clairvoyance, selective memory suppression, synchronicity, intuition, psychometry, and a chair test. Each chapter details subtleties and reflective conclusions gathered from the experience of performance in different settings, plus credits the methods with a detailed bibliography for the reader to further explore that covered.
This is a book to be discovered and studied, and not only for mentalists, but also storytellers, bizarre magick practitioners and (real) magicians.
Foreword by Wolf Waldbauer, afterword by Cara Hamilton.
Editing by Steve Drury, illustrations by Simone Gattullo.
I had been fortunate to befriend Vito a number of years prior to him preparing this book in English. It was through the first tangible time we met in Italy, beyond online, that I knew that this book should be translated and made available to the mystery entertainment community outside of his country. In person, the blend of Vito’s charm and curious mind always makes for an engaging experience; then to witness how he enhances this positive enchantment onto his spectators in performance, even when the topic may be otherwise, is a joy akin to experiencing some of his influences. This book is a mere glimpse into his intelligently complex yet at the same time effortless performance persona and creativity. Study it well as there is much to read between the lines.
Steve Drury
Tales from the Invisible Door by Vito Gattullo is a real cauldron of possibility for those who seek to weave dreams. It is a shudder down the spine and a warmth in the heart. It is that element that most forget or perhaps convey poorly. We are in our own story and not a bit part in someone else’s.
Cara Hamilton
Mentalism must above all be ‘Mystery’ and therefore we have to create that expectation and emotional tension. Reading the pages that follow, you will find within that Vito understands and uses these principles perfectly; the ‘Mystery’ arises from the spell evoked from his presentations, which, from time to time, involve intriguing and engaging themes, and so laying the foundations for his own original and true ‘theatrical pieces’
Wolf Waldbauer
Vito Gattullo is an Italian underground mystery performer and psychic reader who performs between Naples and Rome, Italy.
He has held membership with IBM Ring 108 in Naples, one of the oldest Italian magic clubs still active today, where he also used to teach mentalism. He’s a member of IBM Ring 204 in Rome and he’s one of the few Italian’s nominated for membership within the prestigious ‘PSYCRETS British Society of Mystery Entertainers’.
As a student of Anthropology and as a result of his membership with the Italian Center for Parapsychology, he has developed a strong passion for studies focusing on the relationship between mentalism, mysticism, and parapsychology.
Vito also lectures on mentalism and psychic related topics for Universities and cultural associations. He has been featured within other specialist mentalism books and seen his routines published within some of the most important magic magazines in Italy. Some of his English work has also been exclusively published within PSYCRECY, the exclusive membership publication for PSYCRETS. “Tales from the Invisible Door” is his first international book.