Kreskin

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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,[citation needed] which features a crime-fighting stage magician.

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[edit] 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.[1] 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.[2]

Though Kreskin makes "predictions," he does not claim to have paranormal or clairvoyant powers, and is annoyed to be lumped with psychics.[3] 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."[3]

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.

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Transcripts". CNN Newsroom (CNN). 29 December 2007. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0712/29/cnr.01.html. Retrieved 2008-02-15. 
  2. ^ The Amazing Kreskin!. YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsiTQvjA9DA. 
  3. ^ 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. 

[edit] External links


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