Mentalist wows crowd with talents

“The Mentalist” made it very clear from his first comment to the audience: “I am not a psychic.” While dazzling the audience and conjuring information from no obvious source, Christopher Carter stuck to his claim. Given, he was happy to tell Hope students all about his fascination with the supernatural and existential, but he made no claim to mystical influence. In fact, he was happy to reveal such tricks as the power of suggestion, having the body of students hold their fingers apart by a mere inch and drawing them closed with nothing but words and an invisible string.

From the beginning it was clear that he had more on hand than parlor tricks; he set to declaring just which numbers volunteers had chosen with their dice. The catch? He never once saw their choice, whether they were in a hand or under a cup or purely within the mind of the subject. He even went so far as to guess when students had switched their answers. Only once during this game did he say he wasn’t “super sure” (80% confident or more) that he was correct. As it turns out, he was. He was correct time and time again, guessing animal choices and somehow describing a member of the audience on tape BEFORE he had even seen her.

In one segment, three volunteers were asked to write down the name of their first childhood crush and then place these paper pieces in his jacket pocket. The Mentalist went on to guess objects he couldn’t possibly have seen, copy words he didn’t see written and relay information he hadn’t heard. In one situation when he was blindfolded, he asked for a “Sarah” in the audience. Two Sarahs responded by accident, one after the other, and he seamlessly switched whose mind he was reading. The grand finale was no less impressive, tying together random numbers from the audience, a watch stopped at a specific time before the segment even started, and envelopes chosen by what was thought to be the free will of a volunteer.

If ever there was a show that made you doubt how information can be Cameron Geddes communicated, this would be it. The audience hovered over their seats in anticipation the entire duration, something Mr. Carter was suitably pleased to observe “The energy from the crowd was amazing!” This was another fantastic event hosted by SAC, the type of event where the audience is happy to leave with more questions than answers. If you were not there, you missed out on a great show. SAC, great job once again!