The Amazing Kreskin sets out to stupefy

On stage, the Amazing Kreskin is always affable, charming and entertaining. But behind the scenes, the internationally renowned mentalist doesn’t mince words about lawyers using hypnosis as a defence for murder.

In the last few weeks, the legal team for Sirhan Sirhan, the Palestinian who murdered Robert Kennedy in 1968, has filed court documents alleging a bullet was switched in evidence at the original trial. They also allege that Sirhan was programmed through hypnosis to fire shots as a diversion.

As a result of these new appeal statements, Kreskin is receiving a flood of media calls asking if it is possible to hypnotize an individual to perform a criminal act.

“I’ve heard of cockamamie theories, but to use hypnosis is reprehensible. It’s impossible to hypnotize someone into doing antisocial things. It makes you wonder who is hypnotizing whom. I’m really sick and tired of legal chess games,” says Kreskin.

In fact, he is quite forceful in stating, “Hypnosis does not exist. There is no such thing as a hypnotic trance.”

But the power of suggestion is another thing. Just look at how Hitler, Rasputin and Franz Mesmer manipulated the naive and gullible, he says.

Now Kreskin makes a pretty decent living with about 300 appearances a year influencing the power of the mind and performing the seemingly impossible. However, he does not claim to have paranormal or clairvoyant powers and doesn’t like the label of “psychic.”

Kreskin prefers the term mentalist, a less defined moniker, but one that St. Albert audiences can decide on their own as he makes his first appearance at the Arden Theatre on Thursday, Dec. 15.

“I love to tour Canada. It’s my second home.” He’s just finished a three-month stint in Vegas and will clock 65,000 miles on his itinerary this year.

Since his popularity exploded in the mid ’70s, the legendary mentalist has toured the world and played before royalty and presidents.

A household name, he’s been on virtually every morning and night talk show in America – estimates range at over 500 television appearances – from The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson to Larry King Live.

One of Kreskin’s dazzlers is asking someone in the audience to hide a cheque with his fee while he is out of the room. If he cannot find the cheque, Kreskin forfeits his fee. He has only failed nine times.

Once when he was in Illinois he nearly lost his fee when an elderly gent cleverly folded and hid the cheque between his dental plate and the roof of his mouth.

Another occasion at a dinner with Bob Hope, Walter Cronkite and 1,500 paying customers, he again found himself thinking he might lose his paycheque.

“Hope was sitting on a dais. Next to him was Walter Cronkite. I kept lifting the plates but no cheque. I walked away and then walked back. I took off my jacket found it cooked in the turkey stuffing.”

At another instance, Kreskin was dropped in New York City on a media-accompanied hunt for Robin Leach, the celebrity entertainment reporter. While Kreskin was riding in the limo searching for him, Leach had holed up at a defunct sports club in a condemned building.

“It took me 42 minutes to find him.”

At the Arden, Kreskin plans to have someone hide his fee. How long will he take to find it? Bring your stopwatches.