How does Kreskin do it?

[ianzin]

Some time ago we had a discussion about people asking how magic tricks are done in GQ. It’s here if you’re interested.

For some good info on Kreskin’s act, track down a copy of ‘The Psychology Of The Psychic’ by Marks and Kamman.

Personally, I’m not allowed to discuss the methods Kreskin uses (because I’m in the Magic Circle), and I am also disinclined to do so because I think it spoils the illusion and spoils the fun and entertainment of what he does. However, I respect that here on the Boards there are many shades of opinion about this, and that some feel all magic secrets are ‘fair game’.

Suffice it to say that it is highly unlikely that ‘plants’ or ‘stooges’ in the audience are the answer, as the Marks and Kamman book makes clear. The fact is, plants just aren’t necessary. There are many other, simpler ways of creating a mind-reading illusion. Another good reason not to use plants is the one mentioned to me by Teller, of Penn & Teller: “…it’s just one more person on the payroll”.

[Keeve]

@Princhester

Are you certain that the guy didn’t say something like: “Think of a flavour of soda, like coke or lemonade or [etc]” thereby boxing you into few choices?

No, I’m not certain at all. It’s quite possible. And given my last-second decision to change from sarsparilla to root beer, I am quite willing to concede that this is how he did it. But still… root beer is not as common as cola or even orange. So if he indeed said something to lead me into choosing it – and in a subtle enough way, not like “Think of a flavor, like root beer or something” – that is still pretty impressive. On the other hand, (1) root beer is one of my two favorite flavors, and (2) it is rather similar to my deliberately over-difficult sarsparilla, so there’s two pieces of evidence that I was not led to choose it.

[Diogenes_the_Cynic]

William Poundstone revealed Kreskin’s tricks in one of his Big Secrets books. I don’t remember the details but it involved multiple methods of acquiring information for “hot readings,” including collecting information from drivers licenses at the box office and (IIRC) sending spies out to collect information from cars in the parking lot (apparently you can find out a lot about people by peeping into their car windows).

I still have the book somewhere. I’ll try to rustle it up and find out some more details. Any

[solkoe]

So you’re telling me he can’t read minds?

[Musicat]

@Chronos

For example: I’ve often seen variants of a trick where a magician has, say, 200 different people write something on an index card. He then says “OK, the first person, John, wrote ‘puppy’”, and checks the card. Yup, puppy. John gasps in disbelief. “The second person, Alice, wrote ‘867-5309’” He checks the second card, and again he’s right. "The third person, Robert, wrote “supercalifragilisticexpialidoceous”. He checks the third card, and this time it’s Robert who’s amazed. A few minutes later, he’s gone through all 200 cards, and he’s been right every time.

That’s known as the “one ahead” trick, and relies on the mistaken belief that what the magician is reading aloud from the card is what he is seeing on the card. Never assume that is the case!

[scm1001]

@glee

I was delighted to be on a televised Derren Brown show.
He did three pieces of magic.
I knew how he did the first (because it was about chess and I can do it myself.) It still required him to remember perfectly, without notes, about 500 chess moves in groups of 8. :eek: This is extremely difficult for an inexperienced chess player (Derren has no chess rating.) Derren did it all in one take over 3 hours.
.

If that is the show I remember, I dont think it took much memory. He played 4 white and 4 black games against experts. After game 1s white had made his move he just went into room 2 and played that move himself and so on. It was true that he had to remember 2’s response for the round trip back to room 1, but essentially 4 moves get played straight away and only 4 need to be remembered for a short period.

Derrin is good when he pulls of a large scale mind-reading stunt, but alot of his stuff is simple misdirection, card palming etc.

“Kreskin was one of the few people to ever get banned from Art Bell’s radio show after he predicted the greatest UFO sighting of the century on a certain date. Naturally, nothing happened. You have to be a pretty big fuckup to get banned from Art Bell.”

That was odd. I suspect that Kreskin who did a bit of hypnotic suggestion on his show thought he could get a crowd to believe that they had seen a UFO by some sort of mass hysteria (and that was sort of his lame defense afterwards). I am sure that he didnt think he was going to predict a real UFO.

I think that Kreskin (and Derrin) are just very good at reading peoples nonverbal and verbal responses (e.g. think hard where the card is hidden). When it works it is spooky. However I have seen many reviews of Kreskin where it failed embarassingly.

[GuanoLad]

@Princhester

…by doing it the right way, the mentalist can make it seem that you are being offered a big choice while actually leaving it so that the audience member will pick the one remaining common shape a very high percentage of the time.

Think of an animal that begins with E. Think of a country that begins with D.

Hmmm… I can sense what you’re thinking, but

there aren’t any elephants in Denmark.

[Celyn]

But are there any echidnas in Deutschland? Oh, all righty, then, Denmark.

[Princhester]

@GuanoLad

Think of an animal that begins with E. Think of a country that begins with D.

You got me on “Denmark”, but I thought of “eagle” first

@Keeve

No, I’m not certain at all. It’s quite possible. And given my last-second decision to change from sarsparilla to root beer, I am quite willing to concede that this is how he did it. But still… root beer is not as common as cola or even orange. So if he indeed said something to lead me into choosing it – and in a subtle enough way, not like “Think of a flavor, like root beer or something” – that is still pretty impressive. On the other hand, (1) root beer is one of my two favorite flavors, and (2) it is rather similar to my deliberately over-difficult sarsparilla, so there’s two pieces of evidence that I was not led to choose it.

I’m not precisely sure from your post but I think you misunderstand me. It’s not that the mentalist directs you by suggesting an answer. Rather, he takes away choices by using them as examples. In other words, if he says say: “choose a flavor of soda, like coke or lemon or orange” people are not going to use one of those flavours, because that would be too easy. So they choose something else. But how many other popular flavours are there?

[Keeve]

@Princhester

Rather, he takes away choices by using them as examples. In other words, if he says say: “choose a flavor of soda, like coke or lemon or orange” people are not going to use one of those flavours, because that would be too easy. So they choose something else. But how many other popular flavours are there?

Hmmm, quite possible! Never thought of it that way. Thanks!

[Wee_Bairn]

I was told there is a clip somewhere of John Edwards making as ass of himself with incorrect “readings”- of course this one never made it on his TV show for some reason- does anyone know if its available anywhere?

Also, pick a two digit number between one and fifty, both numbers different, both odd, is it…37?

[RumMunkey]

In one instance he had each person in the audience write something on a piece of paper. Later in the show he had an audience member randomly pick one of the papers. He was able to tell us exactly what was on that slip of paper!

You’re going to kick yourself:

Everybody writes on a different piece of paper, whatever they want, right? Any word, and phrase anything then puts them all in a bag or container of some sort?

Guess what’s *already *in the container (in the hidden second compartment)?

275 pieces of paper that all say “elephant”. The audience member now has a 100% chance they will pick a piece of paper that says “elephant”.

[Hampshire]

I’ve noticed a trend lately with magicians using classic handheld small magic tricks and then blowing up the prop to jumbo scale for a greater effect.
Remember the classic ‘put a pencil through the sheet of clear plastic in the frame’ trick. It comes with kids basic magic kits. David Blaine blew the trick up to a full size window pane and stuck his arm through it. Same trick, different scale.

[Ryan_Musarra]

@chappachula

Ahh…just think of the glory …“Kreskin the magnificant real estate agent”-----gee… is that gonna win him a lot of many fans?..

At this time of our history - YES
The real estate market needs mental illusionists to close deals … you may have solved what America’s top economists and president have been stumbling to fix

[Duckster]

Funny how Kreskin dis not predict this zombie thread.

[md2000]

@Leaffan

A few weeks ago I saw (on TV) Criss Angel walk into a “random” bookstore; and then asked a “random” shopper to pick a “random” book from any “random” shelf. And then open the “random” book to any “random” page. And then pick a “random” word from the “random” page and commit it to memory.

Criss mysteriously guessed the exact word. I said “fuck you Criss; either their’s a camera or it’s a plant.”

'Nuff said.

@solkoe

I’ve seen a bit of Criss Angel. Obvious BS. Kind of a giveaway when a woman gets pulled in half and her top torso starts crawling away. Very entertaining though!

I read a whole long rant about Criss and TV magic. Way way back when magic first started appearing on TV, the producers woul go out of their way to assure the audience it was live, no camera tricks were used to produce the effects.

Now, “magicians” like Criss exploit the assumption that this is still the case with TV magic. Apparently a lot of his “tricks” are just staged, right down to hired “audience”. One discussion forum talked about recognizing most the “random audience” from the Pull The Girl Apart scene, as they appear in several other tricks too. The girl herself (born with vestigal legs) has appeared on shows like Oprah. Criss floating off a rooftop was done with tiny wires and a crane off camera, a direct violation of the TV convention.

[Telemark]

@md2000

Now, “magicians” like Criss exploit the assumption that this is still the case with TV magic.

Now?! This thread is 6 years old.

[md2000]

@Telemark

Now?! This thread is 6 years old.

But people still think “How did he do that? He wouldn’t do anything as cheap as camera tricks and paid extras for audience?” Sadly, nowadays, or for the last 6 years, some would.

[Chefguy]

I used to watch his TV show many years ago. He was very good with close-up magic tricks along with his mentalist act. The one time I saw him slip up was when he did his “is anybody in the audience thinking about someone in their family named. . .?” A person with long hair raised a hand, and Kreskin said, “Yes, ma’am, and what’s your name?” Long-hair says, in a baritone voice, “I’m a guy.” Cut to Kreskin doubled over in laughter. At least they aired it, which I gave him credit for.

[JBDivmstr]

When I was about 23 or 24 years old, a friend of mine paid $50 to learn a fun little trick, he could stuff a lit cigarette butt into his fist and make it disappear, RIGHT BEFORE YOUR VERY EYES! :eek:

I watched him perform the trick, at least, a half dozen times and just couldn’t fathom how it was done!

I finally resorted to the, “you’ve been my best friend since we were 8 years old and if you don’t tell me how, I’m gonna kick your ass” strategy.

It turned out to be nothing more than a plastic ‘slip on’ thumb!