The Journal

Issue date: 2/22/07 Section: LifeStyle

Media Credit: Max Gersh Wayne Hoffman, an illusionist and mentalist, pulls a strand of razor blades from his mouth during his performance Feb. 15 at UC Sunnen Lounge.

Media Credit: Max Gersh Illusionist and mentalist Wayne Hoffman refills and pours a can of Coke he had already drank Feb. 15 in the University Center Sunnen Lounge. Hoffman's show also featured mind reading and pulling a dollar bill out of an orange. The show was originally scheduled for Feb. 13, but was canceled due to snow.

Wayne Hoffman is not your traditional cape-wearing, abracadabra-chanting magician. Instead, Hoffman prefers to sport jeans, a funky white jacket and short, black spiked hair.


"You wouldn't pull a rabbit out of a hat," Hoffman said. "What the hell are you going to do with a rabbit?"


Hoffman, a mentalist (mind reader) and illusionist (magician) who said he has been performing since the age of seven, performed his show "Mind Candy" Feb. 15 in the University Center. A crowd of more than 120 students, some of whom were lined up outside the Sunnen Lounge as early as 20 minutes beforehand, attended the show.


"The turnout was amazing," said Campus Activities Program Manager Liz Eisele, a junior broadcast journalism major. "I think it just proves that Campus Activities can put on really good events."


The mentalist/illusionist demonstrated his mind-reading abilities when he asked everyone in the crowd to concentrate on a single thought. He had audience members jot their thoughts down on a piece of paper or type them into their cell phones to enhance their concentration. Then he asked the audience to look up, still concentrating on their thoughts.


"You guys are thinking of some weird shit," Hoffman said as he scanned the crowd. "I should have told you to keep it clean, too."


Hoffman singled people out and predicted what they were thinking of, including pets' names, cities, musical artists and even car make, model, year and color. Hoffman said people often come running up to him after the show to ask him if he knew what they were thinking, but for him, it's all about focusing on the thought in the moment.


"If I don't get it during the show, I don't get it at all," he said.


The crowd was amazed at his accuracy, even more so when he predicted sophomore accounting major Gina Runde's cell phone number, with her providing only the area code. Rather than announcing her number out loud, he had her turn her ringer volume all the way up and hold her phone in the air.


"Often, I miss this," Hoffman said as he began to dial Runde's number on his own cell phone. "This is the hardest thing I do in my show, so if I don't get it, don't be surprised."


Despite his warning, Hoffman was successful. The crowd went wild when Runde's phone rang.


According to Runde, Hoffman tapped her on the shoulder as she walked into Sunnen Lounge, handed her his business card and asked her to write her phone number on the back of it and fold it. Hoffman turned around when she wrote her number and never looked at it, "not that I'm aware of," Runde said. Runde kept the card with her, and Hoffman told her he would do the trick during his show. Even though she knew it was coming, Runde said she was in disbelief.


"How the heck did he know my phone number?" she said.


Though Hoffman was skeptical about the outcome of his phone trick, he was confident about another one, despite advice that a performer should never tell the audience how "cool" the trick will be before he or she does it.


"Screw that," Hoffman said. "This is cool."


Freshmen Dustin and Josh Maassen, identical twins, stood on the stage facing each other. Hoffman asked them to memorize every detail they could about the other before they closed their eyes and turned to face the audience. Hoffman took a sheet of paper and brushed Dustin's arm and face with it. Then he gave Dustin a gentle shove in the back - both boys leaned forward, earning gasps of disbelief from the audience.


Hoffman then drew a small star on Dustin's inner arm. As far as the audience could tell, Hoffman never touched Josh. When the twins opened their eyes, Hoffman told them he had only touched one of them, yet both Dustin and Josh could indicate the same places and number of times they felt touches. The audience cheered, and the excitement in the room grew when the star Hoffman had drawn on Dustin's arm disappeared and reappeared on Josh's.


"I swear he touched my arm and pushed my back, but people say he never touched me," Josh, a media communications major, said. "And I ended up with a mark on my arm I never felt."


Sophomore Martine Wiley, a math major, was so impressed during one point of the show that she impulsively put a dollar in Hoffman's pants while he was on stage.


"It was crazy," Wiley said. "I had to give him something before I fainted."


Hoffman called Wiley up to the stage and had her hold an orange up to her chest as he covered his eyes with one hand and held a large knife in the other. Audience members started to scream - until they realized Hoffman was teasing.


"I thought he was really going to stab me or something," Wiley said. "I was going to move."


Instead, Hoffman had Wiley write down the serial number of the dollar. As Pink Floyd's "Money" played in the background, he folded up the dollar until it was gone. He held out his hand and shook out his sleeve to make sure the audience knew he hadn't hidden the dollar anywhere.


"A lot of people say, 'It's up your sleeve,'" Hoffman said. "I say, 'Up yours.'"


Hoffman sliced open the orange to reveal the dollar neatly rolled up in the middle. Wiley checked the serial number, and it was indeed the same dollar. Hoffman said this was the first trick he ever learned.


"Money is the greatest illusion of all time," Hoffman said. "People will kill for this. They will rob for this. They will punch their own mother in the throat for this."


Throughout the show, Hoffman stressed his belief in fate.


"I believe we can have free will where we make our own decisions, but I also believe in what I call 'checkpoint moments,'" he said.


He demonstrated a checkpoint moment when, toward the end of the show, he told the audience there was one person who knew he or she was fated to come up to the stage.


"Your life at this moment is meant to be intercepted with fate, and you are truly, spiritually meant to be on my stage," Hoffman said.


A few moments later, sophomore Jason Rich, a video production major, walked up to the stage. Hoffman had him concentrate on a thought and draw it on a dry-erase board without letting Hoffman or the audience see it. Meanwhile, Hoffman fired up the crowd by refilling an empty, crushed can of Coke by merely waving his hand around it and talking about the power of imagination. When he was done, he casually popped the top, poured it into a cup, and took a sip.


"There will be a lesson on how to do that with a six-pack after the show," he said.


He then brought freshmen Steve Thompson and Jabrina Simmons up to the stage to open a sealed envelope Hoffman had given Thompson to keep in his pocket the entire show. In the envelope were predictions Hoffman had written before he started the show.


Among them: "Josh will feel touched," "Martin will choose an orange" (he was one letter off, but he had predicted even that, drawing a line next to the word "Martin") and "Jason will draw a ring." Rich slowly turned the dry-erase board around to reveal the ring he had drawn. The crowd exploded with cheers, and Hoffman received a standing ovation.


"People who were here will be telling people who weren't what they missed out on," Eisele said.


Rich did feel he was fated to be on stage.


"As soon as I walked through the door, I had this feeling he was going to ask me up on stage," Rich said. "I hate that."


He told his friends not to sit in the front row for fear of getting chosen, but still couldn't ease his mind.


"I shook anytime he said someone was fated to be on stage," Rich said. "I couldn't stand it. I had to go up there. I had to."


Hoffman hung around after the show to sign Coke cans and answer fans' questions.


His performance was originally scheduled for Feb. 13, but was canceled due to a snowstorm. Katie McComb, graduate assistant for the University Center and Student Activities, said the postponement was for the better because it allowed Hoffman to give a pre-show teaser. Hoffman was seen entertaining people at the men's and women's basketball games Feb. 13 and at Marletto's Feb. 14.


"As far as advertising goes, it's perfect because it gets people interested in the event," McComb said. "It was a nice perk to booking him. It gave people a better understanding instead of just seeing signs around campus saying 'mentalist' and 'illusionist.'"


McComb said Hoffman sent out an e-mail saying he would be in the area and asked if the university would be interested in booking him. Campus Activities checked out his Web site and found he had a lot of experience performing for college student audiences, as he has performed his show for colleges across the country.


"It wasn't hard to get him here," McComb said, although she wouldn't say how much the university paid him.


Hoffman does not think of himself as psychic. He said his tricks are based on human behavior, psychology and science.


"I believe a sixth sense is created by fine-tuning the five senses you already have," he said. "You don't have to be a mind reader in order to figure out what someone's thinking."

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools