Stock Mentalist lies about Poll!

I love it when things change and you have to rethink your opinion over and over. Keeps you aware of your own actions.

Turns out I was wrong about a few things about the recent Paul Stockman issue. He did won the award for Best Mentalist/International Psychological Entertainer of the year.

Just kidding, not really? But there is some truth in that statement. SOME!

The UK Magic Magazine "Magicseen Magazine" did have a poll. The readers could vote by email. One if the categories was "Best Mentalist 2012". Paul Stockman got first place at that poll. Not an award at all, and certainly not for Best Mentalist/International Psychological Entertainer of the year.

So you see, he changed a few things. First he changed it to an award and then he changed the entire name of the thing. He also claims that "Celebrities, The General Public and Paul's peers voted to put him at the top." I don't think that any celebrities voted in that email voting. I may be wrong, but chances are slim.

There is bending the truth and there is lying. Paul Stockman took the low route and lied. And that is not acceptable in advertisement as it does two things. It discredits the performer but also ruins the public image of magic even more. The sad thing: Paul Stockman had something (a small thing) and he fucked it up by exaggerating it to the point it became a lie.

It's even kind of ironic how Paul Stockman uses stock photos of the Las Vegas sign as a background for himself. Stock mentalist comes to mind!

He also removed any mentioning/hinting that he ever performed for Ricky Gervais or Simon Cowell. Both of them hate magicians BTW. If he indeed performed for them, then he could have left the statements on his website. That is indicating that he indeed lied about ever performing for them. To his credit, he never explicitly said he did perform for them, but he strongly hinted at it.

Kinda fast reaction!

There are three kinds of reactions whenever I do a WMF post. The most common one is to ignore me. And that works out for most performers. The second one is asking me if can take it down asap. Third would be going all ape shit and threatening me with lawyers and/or doing so. (e.g. Jack Moyer and "he who shall not be named" but his names sounds a lot like Hames L Dlark)

Guess what category Paul Stockman belongs to? Sorry to disappoint, but he simply asked me to take it down as some of what I claim is not true. I replied to further know what part is not true, to which he didn't respond, but instead stated that he wishes my post to be removed, as he did not give permission to publish it in the first place. Naturally I told him that I am aware that my post didn't require his permission and that again I am willing to hear his side of the story. Then he finally opened up a bit.

Before all that I had a talk with my girlfriend about it and we wondered a bit about a possible reaction. We thought he cannot refuse the fact that the pictures are faked, but he will probably argue that he indeed worked for some celebrities and that no picture was taken at that time, and that the statutes worked like a dummy in the celebrities stead.

And guess what. Pretty much that was his argument.

Now let's give him the benefit of a doubt and let all he is saying be true. That still is bad, bad practice. A practice not worthy of a successful performer of 15 years of experience.

He has taken down the relevant images. Which was the point of the post. So the prior post is scheduled to get unpublished in a few days.

WMF Paul Stockman

UK magician Paul Stockman may be not of the brightest lights among the magic community. But he has balls. Let me elaborate:. When it comes to advertisement you should not tell a lie. You may exaggerate a bit, but a lie is a big NO NO!

So what did he do you may ask? I'm getting to the point you impatient fan of the blog.

He basically took a few pictures of him an celebrities and put them on his website. So it seems.

In fact those pictures are fake.

Here is a picture of Tony Bennett and one of Sarah Michelle Geller. Both are wax figures and not real.

Paul Stockman took a picture while standing next to them. That in itself is not a pathetic thing. But to use those pictures in ones own advertisement is a low that I have not come across yet.




The following image is a screenshot from Paul's website.

You can clearly see the puppets there. The picture with Ricky Gervais (Spelled wrong on his website btw) is a great fabrication. And bad photoshop.

The original picture shows Ricky Gervais next to David Bowie. A facebook user placed them side by side:

The same dopey face you find in the picture with Simon Cowell.

Now I hear you say... .well, he at least doesn't say that he actually performed for these people. Well he says a lot of things on his website. One of the gems is this great line: "THE ONLY U.K PERFORMER TO SPECIALISE IN STAGE AND STAND UP PERFORMANCE." Oh really? The only one?

He also has a promo video. Around the 2:50 mark you will see this great image. The Headline reads: "Mentalist From U.K Performs for Tony Bennett in New York." Since the picture is a fabrication so I must assume the claim is a fabrication as well.

So I have to ask myself does a successful performer have to do this? A clear no is the answer.

In the news section of his website you can find this: "

PAUL WINS TOP AWARD
We are thrilled to announce that Paul has won the award for International Psychological
Entertainer of the year.
The Stockman camp is still celebrating after finding out the news that they beat
Derren Brown to the post by just a hand full of votes.
Celebrities, The General Public and Paul's peers voted to put him at the top."

Oh boy his is wrong on so many levels. You never put another performers name in your advertisement! (Which is the point of his website) You never put yourself above another performer in your advertisement! Also: The Award for International Psychological Entertainer of the Year? What award is that? I dare to assume that award is fake. Please correct me on that if I am wrong. Also, why didn't Derren Brown win that?