The offer that reached Nimrod Harel a few months ago, the Israeli mentalist who has long since become a star, was surprising: an Israeli placement company was asked to find the senior Israeli mentalist for the Crown Prince of Ras Al Khaimah in the Emirates, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Saud bin Saqr Al Qassimi, so that he could conduct a workshop for him Mentalism. Harel accepted the offer and flew to his palace in Ras al-Khaimah and stayed there for three days.
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Is it even possible to teach mentalism?
“Yes. I wasn’t born with it. I wasn’t touched by the finger of God, and I didn’t meet aliens at the age of 10. I learned it like a talented stand-up comedian learns to tell a joke and that means a training regimen. In the beginning I practiced cards every day for eight hours until my hands bled. That’s it A Sisyphean and enjoyable process for those who like it.”
I’m not sure Uri Geller would agree with you.
“I’m not Uri Geller, and Uri is my friend and always tells me: ‘Talk about me as much as you want, it makes me feel good.’ to learn. It takes a lot of time and training, but it is possible, and I can give people tools that will improve what they do.”
Are there any professional secrets that a mentalist should not reveal?
“No. It’s like learning the piano. You start with ‘Little Jonathan’ before you play Beethoven’s Fifth, and in five years you’ll be able to play complex symphonies.”
May I have some palace stories?
“The place is amazing in its beauty. I sat there with the heir to the throne, who is thirty plus years old, married and father of children, and his two cousins, when every moment another servant arrives to fulfill every request and demand. It was wow, we sat in a huge, magnificent hall, just like in Aladdin and Menorat The magic. I spent the nights in the luxury hotel next to it, which also belongs to the prince. I was alone in a luxury suite designed for ten people. It was the most luxurious room I’ve ever been in, and I’ve seen luxury suites in my day. And the restaurant in it is one of the best I’ve eaten at.”
Has the Sheikh turned out to be a mentalist?
“Most people are fascinated by what is done to them, but as soon as they realize how hard work it is, their appetite decreases. He wanted to know when he was being lied to and to influence people. At some point he realized that he would no longer be a mentalist, but he was interested in the mentalist angle in the context of everyday life His – for all kinds of things that happen and why people do what they do. We talked, for example, about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the situation in saying that 90 percent of its residents are stateless immigrants.”
Did you manage to walk around?
“No. When I go to work, I return when the work is done. I have no time to have fun except with my family, my wife and my three children.”
Nimrod Harel Photo: Guy Gilad
Now, after a break, Harel, 46, returns to perform on the stages. The man behind fantasy books, who is used to hosting huge conferences around the world and is considered a sought-after international lecturer in the field of mentalism, is excited precisely because it is an intimate show, in relation to the audiences he is used to. The show will be held starting in September in Zappa across the country and will be held in front of 400-450 people. It is about an hour and a half long.
“I really like performing. It’s very different from appearing on a TV show when there are three people and a camera in front of you,” says Harel, “it’s a crazy, fun, entertaining and intriguing evening. A fun, interactive, scary and exciting evening that people who come out of it say such an experience and such a rollercoaster they’ve never experienced . The audience with me is part of the show. Everyone who enters the show will receive an envelope, inside there is a surprise and he will do all kinds of crazy things to himself that will happen to him. It’s not just an audience and a stage, it’s an audience on the stage and the magic will happen to everyone.”
Has anyone done this before you?
“Every mentalist has his own way, I’m not in competition with anyone. This is a show that constantly challenges the mind and yet is funny because it is combined with humorous things, and in the end people want entertainment. There is an emphasis on suggestibility, phenomena on the senses, the ability to influence people to do things against Their desire is to make wrong choices and feel something in their body that they don’t want. In Israel there is a hypnosis law according to which it is forbidden to hypnotize for entertainment purposes. I found a way around it, like hypnosis but not – with a pendulum in front of the eyes until the person falls asleep. The effect is like that of hypnosis and people behave In a strange way, a normal person can forget his name or lose his sense of taste. I can make him give me money and he is convinced that he is making the right decision. It is only after he gets off the stage that he bangs his head and asks ‘Why didn’t I make a logical decision’, and that is because His mind was in a loop. I also put people on stage and let them lie, showing how to catch liars. This show is a bit about behind the scenes of mentalism.”
How do you explain that the field of mentalism is still very niche?
“Because mentalism is a niche field. Many people see in poetry, if I ask you to name 100 singers, it will be easy for you. If I ask you to name ten mentalists – it will be difficult for you. The field of playing the violin is also not strong.”
Nimrod Harel Photo: Guy Gilad
frustrating?
“No. I’m the first to do shows and open the box office. At the beginning I was told that people wouldn’t come, because when people think about what to do on a Thursday night they’ll say ‘Slomo Artzi’ or a theater performance, not a mentalist. Really ten years ago I performed in front of a quarter of a hall. It took me a while , like my colleagues, to educate the audience and convince them that it’s not just for older people. It took a while to get to the point where I can say that it’s the best show I’ve ever seen in my life, not because I’m the best and I’m excellent, but because the audience that comes admits that they haven’t had such an experience. Today I reap the fruits”.
what about tv
“In my new series ‘Breaking the Rules’ on the sports channel, I appear in front of athletes. Although I am not a fan of sports and do not know the rules of football, I was exposed to a new world and this is the television program I have enjoyed doing the most to date, Bay Fair. Many times adults are less fond of playing, but they I was told it was an hour of fun and clearing my head from training.”
Compared to other mentalists, in your plans to take people from the street to date.
“True. For 15 years now, I haven’t brought celebs, because with them, when they see a camera, they act and are not who they are. I want people without agendas, I want to knock them down. The audience feels when it’s authentic and when it’s not. The world of celebs is less interesting Me. I’ve never been to a launch in my life and I don’t have any celebrity friends, other than other mentalists, but this is a professional friendship and has nothing to do with being a celebrity. My publicist screams at me that I don’t go and mingle and the paparazzi don’t sit under my house. I tell her – get over it.”
Harel has come a long way since being an officer in the IDF, later he earned a bachelor’s degree in software engineering and a master’s degree in literature at Tel Aviv University. “I didn’t submit the last work to the master because I got an offer from the television,” he admits. The best thing he got out of his studies is that he met there 16 years ago Dana Harel, 40, then a student of Jewish psychology and philosophy, today a well-regarded fashion designer and loved by celebrities and connoisseur fashionistas from Danit Greenberg to Lehi Kornovsky, who both got married this year in dresses designed by her. The two have three children, ages 7, 9 and 11. “The relationship was created after she wrote me a sharp critique of a short story I wrote. The critique was quite justified, I wasn’t that good. And a dialogue was created,” he recalls.
Nimrod Harel and his designer wife Dana Harel Photo: Courtesy of the family
And read her thoughts?
“For the first time I went out with someone who didn’t want me to call her, it started from a place of the spirit and it led to a meeting and we have been together ever since. I think that after the first meeting I knew it was there. I felt that I was with someone who was not only beautiful and that I was attracted to her, but she also made me laugh and I love The way she thinks.”
Did you help her retrain?
“She was always drawn to fashion, but she needed a push. She took my advice to study fashion and went to a barber, built herself up with both hands in a field where man is a wolf, and she makes a very beautiful way and keeps her line. In my eyes, she is the number 1 bridal salon, Most of her success is in the world. It’s amazing for someone who started as a seamstress in the basement of our house and today is an empire. I love her.”
Two careerists in one house.
“Yes. Our hours do not overlap. She works throughout the day and then the children’s chores are on me and she is on the evenings. In between we have to find the time for ourselves. So in order to beat the non-overlapping times and be more together, I made a decision and I don’t work on Shabbat. It’s a no decision Simple because there are many performances on the weekend, but I am very satisfied. I lost a livelihood but I gained a family.”
Did any of the kids get anything from you?
“I don’t know, I see analytical thinking in them and my daughter, for example, knows how to manipulate with speech, but I don’t know what they will be in the future. I still hope they don’t do what I do and bring something new.”
Want to tell us something about yourself that will surprise us?
“I wrote a book that was published by Keter and Moden. It is a novel, not an instructional book, but from my world. I recently finished adapting it into a script from the worlds of mentalism and suggestion and it will be rich in effects. Avi Nesher edited the script, after the producer Moshe Edri connected me to it, because he strongly believes in the project. This is my first experience in this field. It is a supernatural thriller, something that has never been done in this genre. Its temporary name is ‘The Believer’ and the filming of its film will begin at the end of the year. The film will be in Hebrew, but it is also intended for overseas.”
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