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Date: 5/21/2015
SPRINGFIELD – The Amazing Kreskin isn’t slowing down.
Despite turning 80 this year, the man who has astonished audiences for decades with his feats of “mentalism,” works about 40 weeks of the year.
“I’m home four days a month,” he told Reminder Publications.
And one of those appearances will be at The Student Prince on May 30 with dinner reservations taken for 5 p.m. and his show beginning at 7 p.m.
A frequent guest on talk and variety shows on television for years – he appeared on “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson” 88 times – as well as starring in his own series, Kreskin astounded people with his feats of mindreading.
He explained he was inspired as a child by the exploits in the newspaper comics section of “Mandrake the Magician,” a strip written by Lee Falk. Mandrake used his powers of telepathy and hypnotism to defeat criminals and Kreskin decided, “That was the model who I was going to be.”
In third grade he discovered his gift. His teacher would lead the class in a game in which an object would be hidden and a student would be directed by calls of being “hot” or “cold” to find the item. Kreskin asked his brother to try such as game at their grandparents’ house and without any prompts he found a penny his brother had carefully hidden.
The entertainer is explicit about what he can do. He called himself a “mentalist,” and stressed he doesn’t have psychic powers. He is not clairvoyant and cannot see into the future – although he has made general predictions. He can’t discover correct lottery ticket numbers, for instance.
Essentially he said that if a person is thinking something he has the ability to understand that thought.
He added he has been involved in 84 criminal investigations and believes he was “helpful in about one third of them.”
Despite the mysterious nature of his work, Kreskin is affable and down-to-earth with this reporter. He interrupted the interview to let in one of his cats and asked if this writer had pets and if so how many.
Kreskin is an entrepreneur whose career spawned various games and other products through the years. He recently launched “Supernatural Dating,” a website for people who are interested in paranormal subjects to be able to meet and communicate with each other. He said the interest in the paranormal is “bigger than ever before.” He added the site is “very, very appropriate.”
He also recently worked with three boxers, including junior featherweight champion Heather “The Heat” Hartley. Kreskin said the manager of the fighters wanted to see if he could help mentally train them to anticipate a blow from his or her opponent. He said that of the three Hartley “seemed to have a gift” in reading the other boxer.
Kreskin has been outspoken in his criticism of hypnosis and has publicly disputed the idea of people being put into a trance. Instead he believes in the power of suggestion and said on May 2 he conducted an experiment in which a group of people in New York City gathered in a room and listened to the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight while looking at a blank wall. He said by using the power of suggestion the people “saw” the fight and experienced it as if they were sitting ringside.
At the Student Prince, Kreskin will be performing one mental feat that has been a hallmark of his act. He has members of his audience escort him out of the venue, while others hide his paycheck. If he wants to be paid he has to find the check.
He has taken this challenge about 6,000 times and has failed nine times, he said. In one of the most recent performances he discovered his check had been tightly rolled up and inserted in the barrel of a police officer’s gun.
A 15-minute interview stretched to more than a half hour and Kreskin said he has another reporter scheduled to call. Before he goes, though, he noted, “My career has been like an adventure.”