Conference hydra::dejavu

Here is a summary of Kreskin's performance on Friday night:

   ** Please, somebody offer explanations.  I don't believe that any of **
   ** this was the supernatural or paranormal powers that he possesses. **

The show lasted for 2 hours.  He started with a small introduction, a few
jokes, and read a comic strip that dealt with mind reading in which his name
appeared.  The major events follow:

1.  He asked for 3 mens' rings, put them on a pencil and began to spin them. 
After about 3 spins the rings where linked together.  People in the audience
were allowed to hold the chain of rings momentarily and inspect them.  He then
split them apart and returned them, in one piece to their owner.

2.  He selected 2 people from the audience and asked them to select multiple
playing cards from a deck that he was holding.  One person selected 7 cards and
the other 11.  With his back to the person, he inquired as to how many cards
were selected and guessed them in the order that they were holding them.  He
would occasionally comment on how the person looked ahead and would guess the
card which the person was looking at.  He could not guess the last card and
made a few mistakes along the way.

3.  Kreskin then passed out small pieces of paper (3" square), a few pencils,
and a few envelopes.  He instructed everybody to write down about a dozen or 
so thoughts that came to mind, fold the paper up, and place it in one of the
envelopes.  The people holding the envelopes were told to hold onto them and
keep them out of sight.  Nothing ever came of these envelopes.  He said that
they were to get us to start think.

4.  He then picked up a small pad of paper which was inside a box blocking our
view of what he was writing.  He then said that he was thinking of two
geometrical figures one inside the other and neither was a square.  Everyone
was supposed to think in their mind as to what the figures could be.  The
figure he drew were a circle inside a triangle.  Needless to say, many people
guessed this rather common choice.  He then selected one person and had them
think of a number.  He correctly guessed that it was an 8.

5.  He then asked the whole audience to think about something.  He then called
out a name and one or two people would usually stand meaning that the name
meant something to them.  He would ask them what the name meant and then
Kreskin would tell them a few things about there life.  He did this for about 8
people.  One particular person stood three times.  Kreskin mentioned the girl's
brother's name, mother's name, where she lived (Livingston, NJ), and a few
other specific things.  Very interesting.

6.  Kreskin selected 8 people from the audience.  He showed them a piece of
paper that was his fee for the evening.  He took 3 of the 8 people and walked
out of the auditorium with them.  4 of the people were to hide the paper
somewhere in the auditorium.  If Kreskin could not find the paper, he would not
get payed for the performance.  They decided on placing the paper in somebody's
shoe who was sitting about 4 people in from the aisle.  He was called in by the
last person.  Kreskin held one end of a handkerchief and one of the 4 people
who helped to hide the paper took the other end.  Kreskin ran off of the stage
and directly to the area where the paper was.  He then started to move up and
down the aisle looking somewhat unsure.  He eventually came back to row and
asked a few people to stand in the aisle.  Apparently confused, he asked for
another one of the 4 people to hold the end of the handkerchief.  Again, he
walked to the same location and took off the person's shoe.  Since the paper was
hidden underneath the inner lining, he did not see the paper.  He asked for the
other shoe and then immediately came back to the correct shoe examining it very
closely.  About to give up, someone told him that he could remove the inner
lining and find the paper which he did.  The whole event took about 15 minutes.

7.  The finale consisted of him asking for anybody who would like to come onto
the stage.  About 150+ people went onto the stage.  In a normal speaking voice,
he told them that their eyelids are very heavy and that they would not be able
to open them.  About half could open their eyes and he had them leave the
stage.  He then told the remaining people that their arms are stiff and that
they would not be able to bend their arms.  Again, about half could and they
were asked to leave the stage.  With about 30 or so people left of which half
were sitting on chairs on the stage, he caused a few to be unable to stand up
and the ones standing were unable to move 1 of their legs.  Again, he asked
people who were unaffected to leave the stage.  With about 5 people left he
asked them to just move around a bit before returning to their seats.  As they
moved he snapped his fingers twice and they could not move their legs anymore. 
He allowed them to get off of the stage and he snapped his fingers while they
were walking through the aisle.  They, again, were unable to move their legs. 
He then removed the power and snapped his fingers and the people were no longer
affected.

His final comments where:
   "To those who believe, no explanation is necessary.
    To those who don't believe, no explanation will do."

                              Thanks in advance
                                    - Rich
    

    Sounds like he's one hell of a sharp magician.

    Once upon a time there was a magician who called himself Kreskin.  He
    was a good magician, who specialized somewhat in "mentalism" -- the
    simulation of psi abilities.  He had a certain flair and a certain
    originality.  Like many mentalists he prefaced his act by reminding
    people that everything he did, he did by trickery.  Like many good
    mentalists, he found that some people didn't believe this.  So one
    day he stopped bothering to make the announcement, then, sometime
    later, he started to tell people that his powers were real.
    
    In all that time his act has matured, but not changed much.  He still
    does what is at its root a standard mentalist act, with some
    originality but not essentially different from what you would see from
    other good performers who claim no particular powers.
    
    It is very difficult to tell from a description of how a trick appeared
    how it was done.  If the magician is any good at all, you were not
    paying attention to the important parts and what you *remember*
    happening is not quite what happened.  That is what magic is about.
    
    But...
    
    1) Linking finger rings.  I don't know how this was done.  I have seen
    many ads for similar tricks (I've been tempted to buy a trick in which
    very sharp non-safety razor blades are linked and examined by the
    audience).  I can think of a way it might be done, but whether or not
    it was done that way would depend on many minor details.
    
    2) Card calling.  Good presentation.  Lot's and lot's of ways to do it.
    Could have been done either with what a magician calls a "glimpse" or a
    "force".  Get any good adult's book on magic including sleight of hand
    for some details.
    
    3) Write down your thoughts.  This is opportunism which didn't work out.
    If something was said in 5  which happened to connect, then he could
    take credit for it.  If not, it was just to get you to start thinking.
    
    4a) Figures.  You called it.  I'm willing to bet that almost everyone
    in the audience wrote a circle in a triangle or vice versa.
    
    4b) Number.  Depending on details, lot's of ways to do this.  Simplist
    is to have a plant in the audience for him to call on.
    
    5) In magic this is called "cold reading", which is a general label
    for a bunch of techniques involving speaking generalities, saying
    things that are bound to be true for someone, Sherlock Holmes like
    deductions to focus in a bit, watching reactions to incomplete or
    "wrong" reactions, and sometimes using a plant.  The technique is
    named after the mediumistic/Spiritualistic name for doing a reading
    for a sitter who is unknown by the medium.  Fraudulent mediums use
    the magicians "cold-reading" technique to fraudulently simulate a
    mediums "cold-reading".  Some non-frudulent mediums seem to
    unconsciously use many of the same techniques at times.
    
    6) This is a classic performance of "muscle reading".  I've written
    about the technique at length elsewhere in this conference.  It is
    truely a marvalous skill, but not in the least paranormal.  Briefly,
    the magician uses body language to subtly signal his guide some
    phony intentions.  The guide, not even aware that (s)he has picked
    up a message, unconsciously reacts in small ways depending on whether
    this action fits or doesn't fit their expectations.  The magician
    watches for this and acts accordingly.
    
    7) This is a classic demonstration of stage hypnosis.  People do it
    to themselves.  The hypnotist provides an environment where they are
    likely to do so.  A bit of skill is required in knowing what to say
    and how to say it to encourage people, but you could learn to do the
    same thing in half an hour or so (making a good show of it takes a
    lot more skill, however).
    
    						Topher

    We are planning to go to Harrah's in Atlantic City Thanksgiving week.
    Kreskin is playing there.  After reading about this act, I would like
    to see if it is the same act, same tricks, same answers etc.  If
    I get a chance I'll go to his show there and compare the acts.  I would
    like to see if they hide the paper with his pay in someone's shoe. ;-).
    
    Could you imagine how much money Kreskin could make at the
    blackjack table ;-) ;-)!
    
    All kidding aside, Magicians really interest me.  When I went
    to Greece, we saw a magician in a park carbaret.  He put a knife
    through his arm and lip and we saw blood, but after the knife was
    out there was no scare.  He also used a Black and Decker electric
    drill through his arm.  He came out into the audience and
    walked around a bit (the extension cord limited him to my area)
    but several people walked up to him and actually saw that
    he was doing it.  It was amazing, I went back to the same show
    four times.  A lot of people took pictures as he was doing this
    I wish I did!
    
    
    Kathi
    
    

    I would rather doubt that you will see much duplication; almost
    certainly not the paycheck hidden in a shoe.  First off, he probably
    did it by muscle reading rather than having the location "forced".
    Second, and this applies to the other tricks, a good magician, and
    Kresking is unquestionably a good magician, will vary the arbitrary
    answers every time he does the act, exactly for this reason.  You
    have a good chance of seeing the circle-in-a-triangle repeated and
    *maybe* the number eight.  I don't think you'll see anything else
    come out exactly the same, and it is likely that his act, playing to
    a different audience, in a different kind of theater with different
    time constraints will be substantially different.
    
    ><money at blackjack> :-)
    
    Very little, at least in this country.  The casinos take the attitude
    that consistant winning *by any means -- including good strategy* is
    tantamount to cheating.  They reserve the right to "ban" anyone who
    does too well from the casinos.  The law backs up their right to do
    this, and they keep picture files of such "cheats" which they pass
    around to each other, brief their dealers with, and show to special
    spotters who will call in the bouncers if they see anybody on the
    black list.
    
    > <Greek Geek magician>
    
    In the trade, this kind of shock trick is known as a "geek trick".  The
    term comes from carny talk where the "geek" was the person who would
    dress up as the "wild man from Borneo" or some such and bite the heads
    off of chickens.  Sometimes they would use tricks like this, but more
    often they were winos or addicts who would do anything to get their
    fix.
    
    This one sounds pretty good.  I have frequently seen this effect done
    with a long needle.  Harry Anderson (of Night Court) likes to do this
    in his act.  For a few bucks you can get the secret from any good magic
    store.
    
    					Topher

In fact, you can buy the Harry Anderson Needle Through Arm trick right
here in Nashua at Don Paul's Magic Shop. Lou Tannen sells a linking
(borrowed) rings effect. The fact that Kreskin needed to know the number
of cards drawn by each spectator strongly suggests a deck that was
previously set up.

I can think of at least three ways he could have found the hidden paper,
including a confederate subtly directing him. Kreskin probably used
a muscle-reading method, though.

Odds are that he drew a number of figures, or none at all...you said that
his hand was obscured while he drew.

The interesting thing about magic is that the tricks themselves are (usually)
stupendously simple; the art of magic is making those tricks appear
miraculous. Magic is 90% presentation.

I've looked in on Kreski now ad then over the years. I feel a bit sorry
for him, I wonder if he feels bitterness or anger at his inability to 
be truly psychic?

-Perry