The Amazing Kreskin, beloved TV mentalist who mystified ‘Tonight Show’ audiences, dead at 89

nypost.com:

Kreskin said in 2015. “There’s no footlights between me and the audience who are not there just to see the show, subconsciously they wanted to be a part of the show.

They’re telling me what’s in their minds and I’m reading them.”One famous Kreskin routine was letting the audience hide his check at every show and promising to do the show for free if he couldn’t find it.In thousands of appearances, he only failed a dozen times, finding checks under the upper bridge inside a man’s mouth, inside a 20-foot fire hose rolled up behind a closed door at the back of the theater, and inside the barrel of a gun being carried by a plainclothes detective.Kreskin also offered $1 million to anyone who could prove he was using secret assistants or hidden electronic devices during his shows.“People who come because they’ve seen me on television inherently know they’re not coming just to watch,” he told the NJ Herald in 2012. “I’ll be reading their thoughts, coming down into the audience and tuning in on what they’re thinking.

The only people I ever saw go down into the audience were Al Jolson and strip teasers, so I guess I’m in good company.”The showman mystified audiences leading up to 2024, where he’d mainly host online seminars about his talents.

He didn’t have any plans to retire from show business. “It’s going to be 10 days after I pass away,” Kreskin told CBS before his 80th birthday. “I have a tremendous passion for what I do.”.