Tonight Shoresh celebrated their 25th anniversary. While that in itself, combined with the incredible results they've seen is amazing that is not what has my head spinning here at 2 AM. In honor of the event they had Marc Salem perform. If you haven't heard of him or seen his act it is worth the time to head out to NY to catch him on Broadway. He bills himself as a "mentalist" - one who studies non-verbal communication and small subtle signs in human interaction to pick up on things. Honestly, even while accepting that nuances in voices and small facial expressions can tell a lot about a person, there were still things he did tonight that I am just totally shocked by. A couple of examples:
1. Had someone pull out a $20 bill and without asking for any hints had someone else put his finger on each digit of the serial number and Marc succesfully named each number.
2. While blindfolded identified 6 different randomly selected objects from the audience members and gave some facts about each one (where purchased, if it was a gift, colors, etc...)
3. Again while blindfolded had someone draw a random picture of whatever they wanted in whatever color marker they wanted, and then picked the same color and drew the same exact picture!
There were a bunch more and all were equally freaky. I really have absolutely no idea how he manages it. I know the people were not plants in the audience. Also, I saw him do this act about 10 years ago and his results were equally amazing (although his stage presence has definitely improved dramatically). If anyone has any insights I would love to hear them!
Posted by ravomess at October 28, 2004 02:00 AM