PART 1: Kreskin and the Past

The Amazing Kreskin gave Stephanie and me the comfortable chairs in his Sheraton Hamilton room. Our first impression of the great mentalist was one of a considerate and kind man. At no point would he prove us wrong, as the interview was successful in revealing that Kreskin was just a regular guy.

Was it a coincidence that Stephanie and I, small city founders of a paranormal website, would be getting a personal interview with the famous Kreskin? If you asked Kreskin, he would say there are no accidental coincidences; everything is meant to happen.

This accepting and calm nature is an asset for when Kreskin travels around the world. Even today he’s only at home about four days a month. He admits easily how flying has become a stressful ordeal since 9/11, but that doesn’t slow him down. Even at the age of 74 he continues to add more distance to his experience, a number that

“Has to be over 3 million miles by now”.

With all of that stress and the approaching event at Hamilton Place the next day, Kreskin was happy to spend the time talking with us about his long and famed career, the media, the declining values of today’s magicians, and even about Haunted Hamilton.

After getting comfortable, we spent the first ten minutes having Kreskin interviewing us. He was so interested in our Ghost Walks and the Victorian style of storytelling. He loved the idea behind the Hermitage walk.

“You’re really entrepreneurs. I give you a lot of credit.”

We couldn’t help but like Kreskin right from the start.

About The Amazing Kreskin
_________________________

Born George Joseph Kresge on January 12th, 1935, the 74 year old Capricorn knew from an early age that he was destined for something different. Half Polish and half Italian, Kreskin is open about sharing the origins of his name.

His grandparents didn’t speak English when first coming to America. They got through immigration without any difficulty, holding tight to a last name which was difficult for any non-Polish person to pronounce and spell. This held until a lazy door-to-door insurance salesman came knocking. They tried to make the salesman understand while he quickly filled out important insurance forms. The man gave up and wrote in Kresge, the same as a famous department store at the time.

The name stuck for his family, but not for Kreskin. He didn’t want to get famous with a department store as his last name. So edit it he did,

• First he dropped the ‘ge at the end, leaving him with “Kres”.
• He then added a ‘k, in honour of the famous magician Harry Kellar (1849-1922).
• A little bit more for paying homage to another great man, Robert Houdin. He took the ‘in at the end of Houdin to complete the name that is now known all over the world – Kreskin.

SIDE NOTE:
Robert Houdin was a famous illusionist in France around the mid-1800’s. He was very much known for conjuring the dead, (dramatised in the movie The Illusionist staring Edward Norton). Houdin’s exploits were so admired in the US, that Kreskin wasn’t the only pillar of this community to borrow the name. Magician Ehrich Weiss changed Houdin by adding an ‘i at the end, creating the persona of Harry Houdini.

The Amazing Kreskin was born… legally. Stephanie and I didn’t believe him. To prove it, Kreskin took out his American Express credit card and showed us the name at the bottom. In clear, pressed silver, it said “T.A. Kreskin”.

Raised in Montclair, New Jersey, Kreskin was a lover of learning. Even at a young age he would demonstrate amazing skills of the mind in front of his classmates and relatives.

It was an uncle who started his interest in the mystic ways of the mind when he gave him a comic book called Mandrake the Magician. We hadn’t heard of it. Kreskin’s face lit up as he told us about the comic, how if we knew it we could easily see what an influence this was on him. Kreskin wanted to be Mandrake.

Later on in life, Kreskin would become close with Mandrake’s creator, a man named Lee Falk. So much that Kreskin did a USA Today obituary for Falk after he passed away in 1999. Four years before his death, Kreskin went to see Falk speak at a comic book seminar. He had time to sit with Falk after the speech,

“{Falk told Kreskin} in all the people he’s known, come to know, and seen, the closest person to truly become Mandrake in reality, is Kreskin.”

“To hear him say that... I couldn’t talk.”

As a child, Kreskin saw some of his natural abilities come out in the fictional Mandrake. It was not long after developing this obsession that he began to notice he was different.

“{In school they used to play} huckle-buckle beanstalk, more known as Hot and Cold these days”.

The class would send a student into the hallway while they hid a beanbag in the room. When the student returned they would help him find it by screaming hot or cold as he moved about the room.

Kreskin was so excited about the game he forced his little brother to play it while visiting relatives in Pennsylvania. His brother hid a penny on the second floor of Kreskin’s grandmother’s home. He hurried up the stairs and searched through the rooms, getting hot, hotter and finally finding the penny behind a curtain rod in his uncle’s bedroom.

Kreskin didn’t understand the shocked looked on his brother’s face until realizing his brother hadn’t said a word. He found the penny without any instructions, he just knew. Kreskin was only nine years old.

His grandmother told the entire family about it and making it not uncommon for Kreskin to perform this ability for family at holidays. This gave him confidence with family, and friends at school. In the sixth grade Kreskin would use show-and-tell to read the minds of other students.

This caught the attention of a very supportive teacher, a woman very much loved by Kreskin.

“Ms. Galloway was an inspirational teacher!”

Kreskin didn’t know it at the time, but found out later that Ms. Galloway was quietly writing letters to junior and high school teachers. She wanted to make sure his talents didn’t get wasted by a closed minded teacher. Her letter was clear, saying, “I don’t understand what his abilities are, but you must support him.”

It was only natural a “person of the mind” would enter the real world through psychology, by completing a B.A. at New York’s Seton University in 1963. He spent eight years as a consultant to a psychologist before moving on to a world of fame and the unknown as, The Amazing Kreskin.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

© Photos by Stephanie Cumerlato