My Brain Exposed...

 

The AMAZING KRESKIN

 

Review by Neil Slade

It WAS fun- and it was AMAZING. He lives up to his name. Now, before any of you start with--"Oh come on! You don't actually believe any of that act is real, do you?!?!" read on.......

Kreskin claims that nothing he does is a trick, and is actually a demonstration of his unique and real mental abilities. Reading a in a newspaper article prior to his show here, I learned that he discovered his talent as a young boy, spontaneously finding a penny hidden by his brother in his house- he instantly found it inside the large house with no clues. His parents immediately thought he had "the devil's eye" ! His name, by the way, is legally "The Amazing Kreskin", and is even listed on his credit cards as "T.A. Kreskin".

The show started out with a mind over matter demonstration, the only one he does- where he links three distinctive finger rings belonging to members of the audience. We had expected an older mature audience who were familiar with Kreskin through 30 years of TV shows- among them 80 tonight show appearances- the most of any guest. If you are over 30 you will know who Kreskin is, a staple of late night and daytime talk shows, as well as the night club and Vegas circuit.

This night, the audience was about 98% beer drinking young adults in their 20's- the show was sponsored by a local rock radio station. Kreskin was great however- he handled the occassional slightly inebriated and rowdy loud comments well, and with humor throughout. I guess that's how drunk people show their appreciation- by yelling!

The show continued with some really astounding card "tricks", but again, not tricks in any ordinary sense. He explained that he is banned in every casino in the country because of his ability to know the identification of cards, faces hidden. Imagine the value of this in black jack. To prove it, he once did a demonstration with a casino's approval, and won the record number of blackjack hands in a row, 23 hands if I remember correctly. In the show's demonstration, he had two audience members pick a PILE of cards out of a deck newly opened and supplied by a third party. He correctly identified about 20 cards successivly, and in the order and position that they appeared in the audience member's hands, completely hidden to all. He sat about 20 feet away in an isolated view proof booth doing this. It was quite incredible.

It appeared, both to logic, gut reaction, and to any appearance to be completely genuine, as did everything else in the show. Nothing was "flashy" at all in the sense of a magician's performance, but of a different caliber altogether. It was rather spooky and unsettling in a way.

Yes, I know what some of you are thinking---- trick. Hang on.....

The show went on with all kinds of other "mentalist" telepathic feats, and all the while Kreskin made jokes and kept us all laughing throughout. He is a real showman in the Vegas or vaudeville tradition. If you get a chance to see him- do it. Real fun, and a tradition that in a few years you will likely never have the chance to experience

He moved on to a phase of the show where he then began to tell people about themselves, a "psychic" reading would be a common description, although he denies that he is a "psychic" or reads peoples minds, but rather reflects on mental impressions he gets.

Kind of like talking to the dead- only he was talking about the live folk who came to his show. Of course, the line is "I've never met any of these people before, and no one has discussed anything with anyone here." I can imagine you are thinking "liar" and "hidden microphone" and "spies in the lobby" and "good guesser".

I have to tell you, he was dead on just about every time, with information that was so personal, and had everyone absolutely flabbergasted. He would start out by asking the audience something like "Does the number 4812 mean anything to anybody here?" Then that person, usually only one would answer to his question, would stand up and he would then begin to reveal startling personal information that he should have absolutely no reason to know- except if he was accessing the most deep innermost regions of a persons brain stores.

It was really, really incredible. But then of course, in the back of everybody's mind they are asking "Now, how DOES he do that... how many planted people are in this audience anyway?!" He did this more than a dozen times. My mother in particular was skeptical, although she really enjoyed the entertainment in any case.

THEN...

THEN...

As if he were responding to a little private inner request I had made before coming to show (Oh, I hope he picks me for something, I want to know if this is all REAL, or just a trick....)

He says "Does October 17 mean something to anyone here?"

In the entire audience, I am the only one to respond, and it was instant recognition, and I raise my hand...
"That's my father's birthday."

He asks me to stand up, and say's "I'm getting the name Richard-- does the name Richard mean anything to you?"

I think for a second, and think of a friend's father who is named Richard. "Yeah.." But this is nothing impressive; most everybody knows one Richard or another.

Then he says, "You injured your leg when you were young." I am completely silent.

"Your knee, you damaged your knee, I think it was playing sports or a sports activity."

My mother (sitting next to me that night) is about to have apoplexy... "Yes. That's absolutely right."

He caps it off-- I have given no signals about any of this... "It was your right knee."

My mouth drops open. I roll up my pants leg to show the audience- I have a six inch scar on my right knee, which I damaged playing football when I was 16, and had surgery.

Only when I get home do I remember that the first name of my orthopedic surgeon was......

Richard.

I had not spoken to anyone ever about this in YEARS.

*****************

The show continued with some plain goofy and funny demonstrations of suggestibility where Kreskin pokes fun at "hypnosis", which he says does not even exist. For example, one person was unable to properly count from 1 to 10, involuntarily obeying the command to omit the number 7 without catching the error. No matter how many times he tried-- he found to his dismay that he had 11 fingers every time! (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11) It was something to see the repeated frustration and incomprehension on this guy's face.

Although Kreskin slowly eliminates those participants with high suggestibility threshold during the process, he is still left with about 18 people on stage. Despite their intentions to the contrary, this remaining group keeps the audience in true hysterics with their "involuntary" antics.

The show stopper, which he has done on TV many times, is where Kreskin finds his hidden paycheck- which he forfeits his entire nights fee if he is unable to locate. His record, by the way is not perfect- he's failed 9 times, and once gave up $51,000 in a New Zealand amphitheater (donated by the venue to charity, given to a hospital which now has a wing named in Kreskins honor. Kreskin says they could have offered him a room that night to recover!).

He is led offstage and isolated out of hearing and sight range by several officials. A group of six audience members are picked at random-- they are picked by Kreskin throwing six playing cards into the audience. Whoever the card lands on- they come up stage to assist. I mean, he is throwing these cards way up into the air, at least 50 or 60 feet, and they land truly at complete random, impossible to set up.

This committee of 6 then hides his check for the night's performance somewhere in the very large auditorium. There must be a million possible hiding places. Kreskin comes back into the auditorium, and then drags one of the six people around silently on the other end of a handkerchief-- he says he's using it to pick up their thoughts as they mentally guide him to the hiding place.

During this last feat, the audience suddenly became so quiet and so intently focused, that you could hear a pin drop. I mean- real money at stake here! in that auditorium. It took about another six minutes but eventually isolated two people out of the audienceand found his check hidden inside the baseball cap of one of them. This feat had it all- Drama! Suspense! Risk! Nothing like money to get people's attention---

************************ By the way-- Kreskin mentions- although the telepathic part of his brain is apparently strong-- it comes at a price to other brain functions - he says he is terribly absent minded, and frequently can't remember where he put his glasses......

A fun and mind expanding night for all- Viva The Amazing Kreskin-- one fellow who seems to have a permanent connection to a number of of his Frontal Lobes Paranormal Circuits.