Facts about The Kreskin
The Amazing Kreskin Biography
The Amazing Kreskin built a show business career on his seeming 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.
One of Kreskin’s signature bits at his live shows was to use his powers (or “powers”) to find his paycheck for the show, which had been hidden by the audience. He also performed card tricks and other bits that seemed recognizable as classic magic bits.
Kreskin was always vague about the exact nature of his skills, but he denied being a psychic or mind-reader and preferred to call himself a mentalist. He told the Chicago Tribune, in a 1991 interview, that he couldn’t “penetrate the process of the human brain, but I am able, on many occasions, to perceive a single thought or a series of simple thoughts, if the subject is tuned to me and willing to open up their imagination.”
In the 1990s, Kreskin became famous to a new generation via repeat appearances on the David Letterman and Howard Stern shows.
Extra credit
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.