The Amazing Kreskin

Source

• Born: 12 January 1935
• Birthplace: Montclair, New Jersey
• Best Known As: Star of TV's The Amazing World of Kreskin

Name at birth: George Joseph Kresge, Jr.

The Amazing Kreskin built a show business career on his apparent ability to read people's thoughts. His weekly TV show The Amazing World of Kreskin was a syndicated hit from 1971-1975, with Kreskin wowing his studio audiences by guessing birthdates or deciphering the pips on hidden playing cards. (While Kreskin has always been vague about the exact nature of his skills, he denies being a psychic or mind-reader and prefers to call himself a mentalist.) In the 1990s Kreskin became famous to a new generation via repeat appearances on the David Letterman and Howard Stern shows.

Kreskin has often said he was inspired as a child by the Mandrake the Magician comic strip... One of Johnny Carson's best-known comic characters, Carnac the Magnificent, was reportedly based on Kreskin.

The mentalist magician Kreskin was born George Joseph Kresge, Jr., on January 12, 1935, in Montclair, New Jersey. He was educated at Seton Hall University (B.A., 1963). He worked for eight years as consultant to a psychologist. He disclaims supernatural powers but appears to use some form of ESP in such stage tricks as "influencing" a member of his audience to select a name (previously placed by Kreskin in an envelope) from a pile of telephone directories. He has described telepathy as "just a heightening of the senses," and he has suggested that "ESP" should read "PSE"—phenomena scientifically explainable.

In addition to his book The Amazing World of Kreskin (1973), he has also published Use Your Head to Get Ahead! With Kreskin's Mind Power Book (1977). Although he says he uses telepathy in conjunction with conventional stage magic, he also claims that his methods are purely scientific. According to Kreskin, "Everything I do is inherent in everyone. But what I have done is to learn to sensitize myself to the reactions and attitudes of people around me. Under certain conditions I can sense their thoughts as well as influence their thoughts."

Sources:

Berger, Arthur S., and Joyce Berger. The Encyclopedia of Parapsychology and Psychical Research. New York: Paragon House, 1991.

Kreskin [George J. Kresge, Jr.]. The Amazing World of Kreskin. New York: Random House, 1973.

For the TV psychic Criswell (1907-1982), see The Amazing Criswell.

The Amazing Kreskin (born January 12, 1935), George Joseph Kresge, who had his name legally changed to The Amazing Kreskin, is a mentalist who became popular on North American television in the 1970s. He was inspired to become a mentalist by Lee Falk's famous comic strip Mandrake the Magician,^[1] which features a crime-fighting stage magician.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Bibliography 3 References 4 External links

Biography

Kreskin was born in Montclair, New Jersey. From 1971 to 1975, his television series The Amazing World of Kreskin was broadcast throughout Canada on CTV and distributed in syndication in the United States. The series was produced in Ottawa, Ontario at the CJOH-TV studios. An additional set of episodes was produced in 1975, billed as The New Kreskin Show. He appeared on the The Tonight Show 56 times from 1970-1980. Then in the 1980s and 1990s, he came to prominence again through several appearances on Late Night with David Letterman. In 2009 he became the first guest to make three appearances on the new Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.^{[citation needed]}

He is still active as a live performer, appears regularly on WPIX in New York City, and appears annually on the Fox News Channel and CNN to give his New Year's Day predictions for the coming year.^[2] One of his best known tricks is finding his check for a performance, which he instructs the audience to hide while he is escorted off stage and into seclusion by other members of the audience. While finding the check on most occasions, he has failed to find the check nine times.^[3]

Though Kreskin makes "predictions," he does not claim to have paranormal or clairvoyant powers, and is annoyed to be lumped with psychics.^[4] He teaches classes for law enforcement groups, which "focuses on psychological methods such as jogging lost memories through relaxation techniques or detecting lies through body language and voice inflections."^[4]

The 2008 movie The Great Buck Howard is based on the experiences of writer-director Sean McGinly who worked briefly as the road manager for Kreskin.

Bibliography

• Secrets of the Amazing Kreskin (Prometheus, 1991) ISBN 0-87975-676-4

References

1. ^ http://www.cbc.ca/radioshows/AS_IT_HAPPENS/20091218.shtml
2. ^ "Transcripts". CNN Newsroom (CNN). 29 December 2007. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0712/29/cnr.01.html. Retrieved 2008-02-15. 
3. ^ The Amazing Kreskin!. YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsiTQvjA9DA. 
4. ^ ^{a b} "Whatever happened to The Amazing Kreskin?". Chicago Tribune. January 6, 2008. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-kreskin_webjan07,0,6915944.story. Retrieved 2008-02-15. 

External links

• The Amazing Kreskin, his official site
• The Amazing World of Kreskin at the Internet Movie Database
• The New Kreskin Show at the Internet Movie Database
• Kreskin at the Internet Movie Database
• The Amazing Kreskin on The Hour

This biographical article related to television in the United States is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v • d • e

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)