| For over four decades, The Amazing Kreskin has dramatized the unusual power of the human mind with a rare combination of wit and showmanship.
His very name has become an integral part of pop culture invoked in comedy clubs, comic strips, print stories and TV shows from sitcoms to national magazines.
Kreskin, who has performed for the likes of royalty and presidential families, has also made well over 500 television appearences in addition to those as host of his own highly rated series and specials.
Ever-earning his status as “the world’s foremost mentalist,” Kreskin offers $50,000 to anyone who can prove he employs paid assistants or confederates during any of his performances.
On stage and television, Kreskin seeks to reveal the thoughts of audience members, plant suggestions in fully aware subjects and dazzle with feats of extraordinary mental projections.
As one of the highlights of his stage show, he regularly asks to have his check hidden anywhere in the premises.
If he fails to find it, he will forfeit his fee.
Kreskin dismisses any association with the occult and labels like psychic and medium. “I am not a mind reader, because that implies I can totally penetrate the process of the human brain,” he explains.
“On many occasions I can perceive a single thought or a series of simple thoughts if the subjects are tuned to me and willing to open their imaginations to receive or project.
I am totally helpless if they refuse.”
Kreskin maintains that this silent communication is within the capability of many people, once trained and self-sensitized.
“Basically, I apply the power of positive thinking which may be mankind’s ultimate tool.”
Kreskin’s name and face have gained a household recognition from over 500 appearances on national television including 118 “Mike Douglas Shows,” 98 “Merv Griffin Shows" and a record 88 “Tonight Shows.”
Legend has it that Johnny Carson, who saw Kreskin trip and fall during his first appearance on “The Steve Allen Show,” modeled his own clumsy-yet adept Carnac the Magnificent after the mentalist.
In addition, Kreskin’s recent guest spots include the Late Show with David Letterman, MTV, Live with Regis and Kathie Lee, The Howard Stern Show, Larry King Live and CNN Morning News.
Kreskin astonished viewers of “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” by finding Robin Leach hidden somewhere in New York City.
In 1997, Kreskin amazed not only the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, but also the entire world, when he successfully predicted the top 9 categories of the academy awards the day before on CNN Morning News.
In 1977, the legendary magazine, Famous Monsters of Filmland, devoted two lengthy cover stories to Kreskin's analysis of the use of hypnotism in movies.
This past year Stephen King re-wrote his classic novel for television, The Shining, where he renamed the boy as “Little Kreskin.”
Kreskin especially enjoys working Halloween. In 1997, Kreskin conducted a seance on The Howard Stern Show.
The appearance (lasting over 2 hours) included flying tables and over 30 completely bewildered fans who participated in-studio.
Howard Stern summed it up best when he said, “This is the most amazing thing I've ever seen!”
The mentalist has dazzled millions of international viewers each week for years with his television series “The Amazing World of Kreskin” and starring in “Kreskin's Quest,” a series of internationally syndicated specials.
In 1997, Kreskin brought Sprint’s latest campaign to millions of consumers as the spokesperson for the “Amazing Dime Find.”
This promotion took place throughout the United States and garnered media appearances the world beginning with an appearance on NBC’s
Today Show.
Kreskin has appeared in several commercials this past year for Wendy’s Restaurants.
He also headlined the premier promotion of the Burnet Swiss Watch Company.
Kreskin, who has always enjoyed the challenge of a casino, (those of which he is allowed to enter) made two incredible appearances in Atlantic City in the summer of ‘97.
First, he appeared in front of Trump Plaza on the hottest day of the summer and caused crowds to shiver, shake and run for blankets.
Kreskin proved that your “Mind Could Beat the Heat” and The Philadelphia Inquirer was on hand to ducument that participants’ hands were cold and shaking.
Later in the fall, Kreskin broke his own personal record by winning 21 straight hands of blackjack at Resorts Casino.
The casino spodesperson said, “It’s one thing for casinos to deal with card counters, but handling Kreskin is something else. There's not much we can do about ESP, if you got it, you got it.”
Kreskin’s unparalleled contribution to the study of parapsychology has made him the subject of articles in numerous scientific journals and magazines, along with earning him an honorary Doctorate of Letters from Seton Hall University, where he majored in psychology.
Among thousands of volumes in his personal library on the subject of parapsychology (reportedly the largest private collection in the world) are eight books by Kreskin himself.
Kreskin’s books include The Amazing World of Kreskin (Random House), Kreskin’s Mind Power Book (McGraw-Hill), Fun Ways to Mind Expansion (Doubleday), Secrets of the Amazing Kreskin (Prometheus), How to Be a Fake Kreskin (St. Martin's Press) and Kreskin’s Secrets, a privately published mail-order tome which has sold nearly 500,000 copies.
Kreskin credits the childhood influences of Mandrake the Magician comic books, radio/television pioneer Arthur Godfrey and magnetic televangelist Bishop Sheen for the direction of his career.
Born in Montclair, New Jersey, Kreskin was fully fascinated with magic by age five, after which he began to perform for the neighborhood children.
To this day, Kreskin often warms up an audience with a deft display of sleight-of-hand as a preparation for the thought reading to come.
He enjoys defying the eye and admits, “The ESP factor needs a solid mental foundation to be successful.
Once the audience members become mystified, they are more susceptible to suggestion.”
The roots of Kreskin’s abilities can be traced to a simple childhood game. While trying to find a hidden object based on the verbal hints of “hot” and “cold”, he discovered he could locate the object without the verbal communication if the person who hid it concentrated on its location. From this and other exercises, Kreskin gradually developed a telepathic-like sensitivity.
At age eleven, he developed an uncanny determination beyond his years when he received permission to study the entire psychology section of his local library.
Soon Kreskin began to perform professionally, billed as “The World’s Youngest Hypnotist.”
From his early experiments, Kreskin developed a theory into his special talent:
“In most cases the phenomenon of thought transference can be explained as a kind of hyper-aesthesia — an almost unconscious raising of the threshold of one's senses to a degree far exceeding one's everyday feelings.”
With a hectic schedule of ever 300 appearances a year worldwide, Kreskin is constantly challenging the impossible with amazing results.
The Sally Jessy Raphael Thanksgiving Day Show this past year featured Kreskin discussing “How to Pick Lottery Numbers.”
His performance offered amazing discussions over Thanksgiving dinner throughout the world.
Music has also served as an effective medium for the mentalist who made his professional debut as a pianist at Carnegie Hall with Skitch Henderson and the New York City Pops, subsequently soloing as a guest artist with the symphonies throughout the U.S. and Canada.
During one performance with the Hamilton Philharmonic in Ontario, thirty people slumped over in their chairs onstage as Kreskin played Brahms’ “Lullaby”.
At a seance in Nashville, Kreskin played “Love Me Tender” on the piano as he summoned the spirit of Elvis Presley — through Kreskin’s extraordinary powers of suggestion, bystanders suddenly began to drop to their knees!
Kreskin has also used his unique gifts to make a positive social contribution.
His highly developed skills have led to the discovery of crucial evidence in several major criminal investigations.
He has also devoted a great deal of time in and out of the nation’s courtrooms questioning the validity of testimony given by hypnotized witnesses and the reliability of hypnosis in general.
Kreskin even appeared on the television series “Missing Reward” to offer $100,000 to any hypnotist, psychologist or psychiatrist who could prove the very existence of a “hypnotic trance” under scientic conditions.
To date, no one has collected on this challenge.
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