There’s no hiding from the mentalist

The Amazing Kreskin reads what’s on our minds, Saturday at the Vernon Performing Arts Centre.

photo submitted

It’s enough to intimidate a humble newspaper reporter trying to make an honest living.

 

On the other end of the line is one of the world’s most famous mentalists (a real one, and not that cutie from the TV show.) His knack for predictions and mind reading is so notorious, it’s possible he could have made David Letterman spill the beans about his in-house affairs before that alleged extortionist threatened to expose the misdeeds.

 

A visit to his website doesn’t ease the fear with its introductory words: “Even Now I Know What You are Thinking.” (OK, OK, I confess... it was me who stole the yogurt out of the staff room fridge!!)

 

Here’s another prediction: on Oct. 17, The Amazing Kreskin will undoubtably amaze some audience members at the Vernon Performing Arts Centre. And that’s no lie.

 

The last time Kreskin visited these parts, in February, 2007 to be exact, a woman couldn’t hide from the mentalist, who found a piece of paper tucked away in one of her shoes.

 

“Everyone asks if this will include the test,” said Kreskin, explaining he starts every one of his live performances by writing a cheque for his appearance fee, and then instructs the audience to hide it somewhere in the theatre while he is escorted off the stage.

 

If he doesn’t locate the cheque through the two-and-a-half hour duration of the show, his fee is forfeited.

 

“I’ve failed about nine times out of 6000,” says Kreskin. “I once lost $51,000 in a New Zealand coliseum. It was covered nationally. They turned the money over to a crippled children’s hospital.”

 

Part Patrick Jane from The Mentalist, sans the wavy blonde hair and twinkling blue eyes, and the character Tim Roth plays in Lie to Me, the 74-year-old, born George Joseph Kresge, Jr., has made a show business career from guessing, often correctly, what people are thinking.

And unless you want to be embarrassed, like that poor bloke who interrupted Hugh Jackman’s recent Broadway performance, please turn off all cell phones when he comes to your town.

 

“If it goes off in the program, I will assume the person has sexual problems,” laughed Kreskin.

 

“Life deals with communication, and you need that capacity to read people’s thoughts. People are not listening anymore. It’s offensive with people in a restaurant talking on their cell phones. I would get up and leave. You don’t need to be on the cell phone all the time.”

 

Kreskin didn’t have to worry about any disruptive hand-held devices back in his early days.

 

Developing his abilities when he was a young boy growing up in New Jersey, Kreskin later publicly demonstrated his mind bending skills on his weekly TV show The Amazing World of Kreskin, produced in Ottawa from 1971 to 1975, as well as on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson an amazing 88 times, and many other talk shows, including Letterman’s.

 

“As Bob Hope said to me, you have to be a gypsy to be in this business,” said Kreskin, who last year made 198 live appearances, not including the 180 to 200 TV and radio programs he does every year.

 

He has also, so far, racked up more than three million air miles in his 50-plus year career.

 

“Since I am working all the time, the most valuable thing is personal time. I try to read four books a day. The BBC even came to film my library, which has 9,000 books related to my field.”

 

Kreskin has always maintained strong ties to Canada. He’s appeared on George Stromboloupoulos’ The Hour a few times, and last year, brought his skills to the Gemini Awards, where he was sealed into a soundproof booth and predicted the winners, all correctly, before the envelopes were opened.

 

“I got such a kick out of it,” he said.

 

About to appear on a Halloween episode of the Bravo-produced Star Portraits, where a celebrity is painted by three prominent Canadian artists, and then must pick the portrait that best captures him/her, Kreskin says this year continues to be extraordinary.

 

He just released his latest book, Kreskin Confidential: The World’s Greatest Mentalist Speaks Out. Even U.S. rock band Clutch has named a song after him. And his life recently became the basis of the film, The Great Buck Howard, produced by Tom Hanks and starring John Malkovich.

 

Written by a former road manager of Kreskin’s, the film follows a celebrity mentalist who gets his big break on The Tonight Show, but later becomes bitter after he sinks into obscurity. Well, at least part of the film is true.

 

“At the opening, Hanks told me he had watched videos and videos of my appearances,” said Kreskin. “(Malkovich) doesn’t look like me, but he caught my mannerisms.”

 

Kreskin recently brought his tell-no-lies act to former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee’s Fox News show, and revealed the contents of a letter he wrote to President Barack Obama.

 

“I offered him my services that he could bring me into a meeting and I would be able to confide to him who is lying and not lying,” said Kreskin.

 

“I do seminars for law enforcement and research has shown that today in the western world only one person out of 100 could reliably tell if someone is lying. It’s so common in everyday culture. We don’t react to it, we accept it.”

 

While in Vernon, Kreskin will bring some audience members up on stage to tell whether they are telling the truth or not.