Kreskin Talks ‘Conversations With Kreskin’, Crime, Politics, Guns and Violence
In our Third and last installment of this series regarding the Amazing Kreskin, Gambling911.com Senior International Correspondent delves into his start as a “mentalist”. Kreskin also touches on today’s problems with guns and violence. And don’t forget to order his book on Amazon.com – “Conversations With Kreskin”. He’s a most amazing individual.
JENNY: I could sit with you for days and just listen to your stories. Going back to an earlier age before you even had stories to tell, your interest in magic started pretty early on. When did you realize that you weren’t like everyone else but yet someone with a special ability? And were you always finding new ways to “wow” the crowd?
KRESKIN: Jenny, that’s a good question. As I said, you can get “Conversations with Kreskin” either at Amazon.com or Barnes and Nobles. But I’m going to tell you what’s gotten me so excited. I feel like a kid. In the new book, there in the center an 8 page colored cartoon done by Joe Saint Pierre who comic strip professionals will know is a very very outstanding young man who has done a lot of cartoons. He captures in those 8 pages the turning point of my life. It’s interesting because it answers the question you brought up.
When I was 9 years old, in 3rd grade, it was raining outside and we couldn’t go out and play. Our teacher, Ms. Curtis said, “I’m going to teach you a game.” I can remember this as if it happened yesterday. She sent someone out of the classroom to stand in the hall and she closed the door. Ms. Curtis said, “Let’s take this bean bag.” I remember Jenny, it was put into someone’s desk. She calls Jane Hamilton back in and she said, “Jane, go walk around the room. If you’re getting near we’ll say warm, if you’re not near we’ll say your cold, and we’ll say you’re hot if you’re real close.” It’s a normal children’s game called “Hot Cold”. Finally, we were saying, “You’re hot hot hot.” She was standing right next to the desk and she reached in the desk and found it. Let me tell you that I was very disappointed when the 43-minute class broke to work on to some other work because I didn’t get to play it.
When I was walking home from school – I walked a mile home everyday from Kindergarten to 12th grade even though there were different schools. When I got home, my mother was at work, and my brother who is 3 years younger was home from school also. I said to my brother, “Let’s go over to grandma and grandpa’s house.” They were from Sicily and they didn’t speak much English. I loved them dearly and they lived about 10 minutes away. My grandfather who was in construction had built this house with his own hands. It was beautiful house. They lived upstairs and rented the downstairs. I said to my brother, “Joey, here’s a penny. Go upstairs and hide the penny in grandma’s house.” I knew everyone living there was at work and my grandma was at home. So he called me, I run up the stairs, I walk into the kitchen, and my grandmother’s sitting behind a large old-fashioned kitchen table. She didn’t know what was going on. I ended up in the bedroom, I climbed up an old maroon chair and I found myself reaching behind a curtain rod. As I reached I felt the penny that my brother hid. Then it dawned on me, I forgot to tell my brother to talk to me. He never talked to me and I never had him say anything. But intuitively sensed it.
I got around my family, got into my school system and I started doing these experiments with my school. When I was in the 4th and 5th grade I was already doing small performances. On “show and tell” day my teacher would have me attempt to read the thoughts of my audience. I remember I said to my classmates, “Think of a movie you saw.” When we were kids we would see double features on weekends. I pointed out to Jane Hamilton. She almost screamed. However, it wasn’t the movie she saw that weekend but it was a movie she saw the last Christmas. By the time I was in 9th grade, I was already doing public 2-hour concerts.
Now I will tell you the aftermath that’s been written about all over the world. It’s also in my book, “Conversations with Kreskin”. In every show I do around the world – and the people in the gaming industry find this fascinating. I gather from the audience a half a dozen strangers who don’t know me. I hand them my check for the evening of what I’m being paid and two of the committee escorts me from wherever I’m performing to where I cannot see or hear what’s going on. While I’m out of the theatre, the committee from my audience takes my check and hides it anywhere in the entire theatre. When they’re finished they return to the stage and come and get me. When I come back in, no one speaks to me, there’s no conversation, I do not ask any questions, and the committee must simple think of what they’ve done. Jenny, if I do not find my check hidden in that theatre then I return it back to the people who booked me and the show is for free.
That’s a hell of way to make a living. I’m the only one in the world doing this. I’ve been at Rutgers 18 years in a row. They would be upset if I didn’t exude my program.
One time I was the surprise guest for the late comedian Bob Hope. It was in his honor at the Waldorf. I did television shows with him but he never saw me do a live hour and a half to two-hour performance. So this dinner was in his honor. I left the banquet hall at the Waldorf, they hid my check, the committee got me, and I walked back into this large room of about 1500 people. I ended up walking to where Bob Hope was sitting. I’m standing behind him and I said to the man right next to him, “Sir could you move over so I can look at the table.” Well that man was Walter Cronkite, the CBS anchorman. At every table was a tray about a foot to a foot and half long with meat on it with turkey and a large spoon. I lifted up this giant tray but there was no check. I was kind of taken aback. Bob Hope who would sometimes have dinner with the late Phyllis Diller, he’d lift this tray and keeps looking under it about 4 or 5 times. I did this and Jenny the fifth time, I slowly came back to the table, took off my jacket, rolled up my right sleeve and shoved my hand in the stuffing of the turkey where they had put the check.
By the way people ask me if I’ve ever failed. I’ve done this over six thousand times. I’m the only one in the world who does this regularly in my programs. I have failed nine times. You can say that’s not many. But the most famous took place in New Zealand where I failed. I was at a coliseum and I finally gave up. The person that was there asked, “Would you have a press conference here because you’re now touring our country for the first time?” I said, “Yes I will.” I was not happy that I lost my check. The next morning in front of the theatre outdoors on the steps they had a press conference. It was broadcasted on radio and TV all over the country not just because I lost my check. Jenny the night before when I lost my check, I lost $51K.
JENNY: Wow. How long ago was this?
KRESKIN: Oh this was 20 to 25 five years ago. See it’s really an adventure because I’m relying on the thoughts of my audience. How they connect with me. You can imagine why people would not be comfortable by me playing poker.
By the way, I can now tell you this story. I was just rejected by jury duty here. A couple of years ago I was called in by jury duty here in New Jersey and as an American citizen. I had a schedule and many performances. I didn’t know how I was going to handle it but I was required to come in. The place was full of people and they finally got twelve on the jury. I was also picked to sit on the jury. It was a really nasty case. The suspects were not well dressed, which I thought was stupid of the defense. There were two defense lawyers in there and the judge said, “Everyone of you on the jury, I have to ask you a list of questions.” I guess it had to be done legally. So he finally comes to me and one of the questions was, “Would you be willing to participate?” I said, “Yes your honor. I’ve looked forward to this for years.” He said, “Can you contribute in some way?” I said, “Yes your honor.” He said, “How?” I said, “Your honor, when this trial is over, while I and my fellow jurors are deliberating in our sealed room, I will tell my fellow jurors of every single person on that witness stand who was lying and who was telling the truth.” The two lawyers jumped up. They didn’t stand up. They jumped up. In fact the people in this room had to stop laughing. Even the judge tried to hide his smile. They walked over to the judge and they’re talking and talking. I knew they were talking about me. When they finished, Jenny so help me God, there were plenty of witnesses there to testify. The judge says, “Mr. Kreskin.” I said, “Yes your honor.” He says, “I’ve seen you in public shows and public concerts twice in my life. I’ve seen you for years on television. I think you better get your ass out of here.”
Haha. True story Jenny.
JENNY: Haha. That’s a great story. Now you’ve done your fair share of good in helping in investigations. Correct?
KRESKIN: Yes Jenny. I’ve worked in 84 crime cases through the years. I didn’t get any publicity because they were private cases. In my book, “Conversations with Kreskin”, I mention John Kliman. John Kliman is in Indianapolis, Indiana who’s involved in law enforcement and investigations for many many years. He’s called me on a number of cases. What your readers need to realize is I’m not walking into a case and given the piece of evidence that is found at the crime scene. I can’t read the thoughts of an inanimate object. What I need to be able to do is to work with potential witnesses. Many times that witness has exposed information that they’re not consciously aware of and what have you.
I’ve done seminars for police groups having them tune into their unconscious mind while a lot of times they pick up information that they’re not aware of. I cannot teach people to do what I do – to read thoughts. I can teach them how to use their inner abilities.
One of the cases – and I could never do this for a living because I could not handle the emotions of it. I become too attached emotionally with the people I’m working with. I think it would take its toll on me. The effects of criminal activities are so tragic. However, there was one case in Reno, Nevada, which got front-pages for a number of weeks. The police had nowhere to go. They came to me and I said, “You know, don’t tell me about the evidence. I need to work with witnesses.” They said, “We don’t seem to have any potential ones.” Then the story got into newspapers and three men came forward. It was a story of a young lady who was leaving college going to her car on the parking lot of the University in Reno. Tragically she was kidnapped and murdered. It was horrible.
In fact, one night I was going to my dressing room through the casino and a man came up to me. Turns out it was the father of the girl. He thanked me and hugged me for being of help.
The bottom line is, I met the three different men. Two of them were truck drivers who had parked by a red light near the cars of the students. They had wondered if they could have seen something at the time of the disappearance because they were parked near her car that she had gone to. Now how could you know? No one would know what to look for. There were no suspects then cause no crime had taken place. I talked with three of the men and two of the men I was able to work with. The other gentleman I could not do much with. In the case with the other two, they were able to recall that yes they had seen a woman fitting the victim’s description. They both came forth with a description of a man that was walking up to her. Neither of the descriptions was complete. I had a courtroom artist sitting in the room with me on both occasions because I saw these drivers separately. He put together a composite drawing of what became a suspect and that was put in the newspapers in the Reno Journal for I don’t know how many days. A month, a month and a half later in Los Angeles, California, a man was apprehended as a suspect who fit the description of the person in Reno. It turned out, he became the key suspect and apprehended as the murderer because he was already involved in other crimes. I was there to help construct that. So the mind Jenny is a remarkable tool and we really don’t know an awful lot about it in spite of what we think.
JENNY: I definitely agree there but I’d much rather have your mind than mine sometimes. 2013 is right around the corner. Is there anything that pops out in your mind for 2013?
Kreskin: There are some things that have popped out. As a matter of fact, last Friday I sat down – I’ve done this the past couple of years in which I’m flattered – Fox television had me sit at their news department. They asked everyone to leave except someone such as yourself and ran a news camera for 45 minutes. They asked me about different changes coming up in the world as far as my theories.
Your readers should understand that I’m not a fortuneteller. I want to mention again my book, “Conversations with Kreskin” and you can look on Amazon.com or at Barnes and Nobles. It’s not that I’m looking into a crystal ball. I travel so much and I’m tuning in on people’s thoughts so I can sense the direction of how things are going.
By the way, you’re the first person to be getting this information because I didn’t get this until 2 days ago. Did I mention to you when we spoke earlier that last year I did 261 appearances in media and live concerts around the world?
Jenny: No, you didn’t mention that.
Kreskin: Yeah, I had done 261 appearances this year in 2012. For example, few days ago I did 4 shows in one day.
Some of the things that are going to take place in 2013 - first of all, I spend so much time with University audiences. I’ve done over a 1000 college performances in this country. I just got back a few weeks ago from the University of Manitoba in Canada. One profession is going to dwindle. The job market is going to be almost nil. Students ask me, “Why has no one told us?” The profession of law is going to be an empty profession. There will be no work out there. If any doubts of my prediction, let me level with them why there are no jobs. I predict in this next year more and more lawyers are going to be laid off. Sure they may be now 6 to 10 for every 100,000 people. That’s similar in places like Japan for every 100,000. Now that will be a profession that is as far as people going into Universities and looking for that future. There will be no future there except for odd jobs on the side.
I have been interviewed in depth more and more in the past week. There’s a new challenge for young people. A challenge that has never existed in the history of mankind and that is when you go for a job today. There are more people then there are jobs. You have all of the qualifications and all the degrees. You have to face the fact that there’s one thing that all the people doing the hiring will turn to and it’s as far out of this country as Germany. They will go and look up every single piece of information that exists about that person and their life. We now have a situation that thanks to the Internet and all of the media, there are no secrets left on the face of the earth. There are photos are now available to every hiring person in the world pf almost every single person who marched on Wall Street. If anyone thinks that I’m playing, no I am telling it like it is. So my predictions are very dramatic as far as settings that are changing in the new world.
About a week and a half ago PBS Public Service Television, their science series NOVA did a very distinct segment in which they brought me a picture that showed scenes of me reading the thoughts of people in my audience when I was on television. There’s an attempt now being made to develop a machine that could figure out what people are thinking. I don’t think the machine is going to take place in the next 5, 6, 7 years but at the same time I don’t think mankind would be comfortable. The machine could be always tapping into our thoughts. I think it would be a lot of trouble.
Hollywood, a different Hollywood, yes. Hollywood is dying. There’s no question about it but the new Hollywood is moving to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, New York City and of course the monumental growth is in India where entire Western sets are being put together. The cost of making a movie is becoming so astronomical that more and more producers are going to be leaving Hollywood. Right now I predict by the end of this year about 80% of the people working in Hollywood will be out of a job. The work will not be disappearing but just moving to other parts of the United States and the world.
One of the most interesting things is, in show business and in newspapers for many many years were gossip columnists. Years ago before you were born there were people like Walter Winchell. There’s going to be a renaissance of gossip columnists. However, they will not be in national newspapers. They will be in city blocks and towns around the United States. As more and more people are playing around with their web page, their computer, or what have you, they will find more and more stories and articles being written about the private life of people in city blocks because this will be the new writing rage.
There’s going to be also an increasing popularity in people talking about their houses possibly being haunted. Of all the shows the past couple of years about haunted houses, that’s going to be probably anything to talk about. Now I don’t necessarily believe in ghosts all though I think haunted houses seem to have a presence about them.
A former therapy that hasn’t been alluded to for a long time is going to return. Even though many houses no longer accommodate it because in many modern houses today bathtubs don’t exist. The therapy will simply be sitting in a bathtub full of warm water, resting, and relaxing. Will all the drugs and all the medications, this is going to be a discovery of a modern treatment to relieve stress.
Now a profession is going to take on renewed dignity – no one never thought about it but you speak to sociologists and they will tell you that yes there is a future in this field. You’re going to see a job profession that’s going to take on more and more importance in this country. Some of the people involved in it are amongst the finest most skillful that you’ll ever find. That profession is the bartender. The bartender is going to become renewed again as a vehicle for the average person to pour out his or her troubles knowing that there are no repercussions because a person can tell more to a bartender that they can’t often tell to their best friend or their family. I mean it when I say the respect for that business is going to be increased immensely. We have a need for it today.
I hope I’ve given you some interesting material.
JENNY: Yes, you have.
KRESKIN: By the way, this prediction I know is going to happen because I’ve spent a great deal of time up in Canada. Of course, the major sport up in Canada is hockey. There still exists today, unbelievably after so many many months a strike where the players have not come to an agreement with the owners in this country and in Canada. That’s why we’re not seeing hockey games. Let me make a warning, a warning that is taking place because of the economy. The average person in the United States will never ever to the day they die make the staggering salary that a soccer player makes or in the sports industry. I warn the soccer industry and sports industry that they’re going to begin to see the diminishing of attendance at the games when the strike is finished. The public is not interested in hearing about staggering money when the average person is having trouble making a salary of their own. They have made a great mistake in PR by letting this go on so long. That is a warning that I very seriously believe.
There’s one last thing I’m going to mention. This came up when I was at Fox and I said, “I must refuse to talk about it.” We have now one of the most important controversies that we’ve ever had in this country because of the terrible disaster of the youngsters that we lost. That’s dealing with guns and weapons. I want to alert the people – because I’m being asked by every reporter – one of the reasons I’m not discussing it right now is that it’s a no win situation.
Our politicians are being paid and influenced by lobbyists. Listen to what I’m saying and remember this, prepare yourself for a shot. A year ago, I successfully predicted the election this year. Don’t anyone say that I’m a Republican or Democrat. I’m not a Liberal and I’m certainly not a Conservative. I think independently. But I have lost all respect for our political figures. I mention this in every public performance in the past 4 or 5 years, I’m being asked if I would be willing to run for office. This is my answer and it’s been printed in many parts of the world now because people get a kick out of it. They know I mean it. I say, “I refuse to become involved in politics because I have much greater respect for organized crime.” As far as our situation on weapons and guns, I understand the position of the gun people and the end solution is to have guns in every school. Well if that’s the case, I think it’s very short sited. If this cockamamie idea of guns in every school is the way the answer is going to be for safety then we would have to have them in every theatre not only where Batman is seen but also where there are kids. We have to have them in every church. We have to have them in every gymnasium. This is out of control. The situation is going to have to be resolved in some way and I think the American people are going to have to make a decision. This is a very serious crisis. You have a situation where every single day in the United States where 30 to 35 people are killed by guns. You would have had a congressional hearing 2 or 3 years ago. Our political team leaders don’t give a damn because there’s something more involved that we’re not facing up to…..money. Aside from money, the other factor is money, and the third factor is money. It’s a sad commentary on people who are supposed to be our leaders today. I don’t see a future for almost any of them in office today.
I hope I’ve given you some stuff to think about.
JENNY: You definitely have. I would have never thought of things you’ve told me today. Thank you so much Mr. Kreskin.
KRESKIN: I just realized the next time you and I speak, it’s going to be next year.
JENNY: I know. I look forward to it. Happy New Year!
KRESKIN: Happy New Year!
- Jenny Woo, Gambling911.com Senior International Correspondent
