The Alternative Press

NEWTON, NJ – Bob Hope once told the Amazing Kreskin he was “out of his mind”, when he would take a gamble on the possibility of forfeiting his check for his appearances by leaving the premises and having them hidden.

Yet, outside of a rare few times in his career when the world famous mentalist could not locate the check, he has been “in his mind”, and in the mind of audience members as well.

Sunday evening was no different as Kreskin took on The Newton Theatre.

The nearly packed house was silent as Kreskin was guided through by a member of the audience named Bob, to find the check in the auditorium, with nearly 700 audience members in strength waiting with bated breath.

Kreskin took a few passes while hanging on to Bob’s arm, walking back and forth along the aisle of the left side of the theater, occasionally taking a few steps up the balcony, then down again.

A snicker from someone in the audience broke Kreskin’s concentration, and it took a moment for him to recompose.

“Get up from your seat,” he requested of a woman, and a tall man within the audience.

He scanned with his hands the seats they had been sitting on, and then the people themselves.

After leaving the couple, then returning to them for an encore visit, Kreskin’s hands made their way atop the head of the man, and lifted off a white hat on the gentleman’s head. Underneath it was the check. Kreskin said he had been envisioning "white" as the color he associated with where the check was located.

The audience broke into cheers, as did Kreskin, who dashed up onto the stage, jumping up and down, as he was reunited with his check.

“Folks, you have no idea, this is a joy to have it,” Kreskin explained as he waved the envelope.

Kreskin, who weaved in tales of his appearances on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson, Merv Griffin, and “Live with Regis and Kathie Lee”, invited members of the audience onstage throughout the almost two hour show, and surprised audience members by naming the exact cards they were holding.

In another few instances, he asked audience members who had thoughts of particular names that appeared in his mind.

“Who is thinking of the name, ‘Rebecca?” he asked.

Two separate women rose, each indicating “Rebecca” was their daughter’s name.

“Who is ‘Anna’?” Kreskin quizzed further.

One woman did not recognize the name, and Kreskin asked her to take her seat again. The second woman responded, “’Anna’ is the name of my other daughter.”

“Who is ‘Spencer’?” Kreskin asked inquisitively.

“My cat,” the woman replied, her voice rising at the end of her answer, with a tone of amazement.

Kreskin entertained the audience with tongue-in-cheek humor throughout the show, as he mingled with them, especially when handing off slips of paper to audience participants to jot down four things they were thinking of.

Kreskin picked Frankford resident Lexi Malavet, age 11, to take out of one the slips of paper, at which time Kreskin began correctly guessing the content on the paper Malavet held.

“I was a little nervous, but it was really exciting,” Malavet told The Alternative Press after the show.

Kreskin does not claim to be clairvoyant, and credits the power of suggestion as key.

“Suggestion stimulates the imagination,” Kreskin said as he worked with close to 50 members of the audience, who volunteered time on the stage during the second half of the program.

Members of the audience reacted to suggestions given by Kreskin, that they were cold, or they smelled a strange odor, and finally, that they needed to shake hands with another guest in the audience as they exited the stage. When the volunteers left the stage, they became “stuck” to the person that they shook hands with.

Paulette Dorflaufer from Livingston was one of the ones onstage.

She had won tickets on WMTR, and had watched Kreskin for years on television.

“It was thrilling because I’ve never done that before,” said Dorflaufer of her experience onstage. “I had a splitting headache, and I must have drifted off.”

Dorflaufer spent her time onstage with her eyes closed. Like the other volunteers, when asked how much time they felt had passed while they were onstage, they all gave Kreskin of average of two to 10 minutes. Kreskin told them in actuality, they were there for 32 minutes.

Ed Selby was another participant onstage who said, “The experience on stage with Kreskin is much a blur, although I was aware that he was talking and giving instructions to us. I think the most interesting parts for me were, when I opened my eyes and realized that so many people had been taken from the stage without my being in the least aware, when told what I judge to be 10 minutes on stage were really over 30; and, when shaking hands with the theater usher, he actually pulled away from me after I had pulled him halfway up the aisle and I immediately felt released from the suggestion.”

Click here for upcoming shows at The Newton Theatre including: Bobby Collins, The Marshall Tucker Band, Marc Cohn, The Big Apple Comedy Club, Spyro Gyra, 7 Walkers, Gin Blossoms, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Outlaws, John Waite, Blackberry Smoke, Blue Oyster Cult, and Lotus Land (American Rush Tribute).