Kreskin

George Joseph Kresge, Jr. (born January 12, 1935), better known as The Amazing Kreskin, is a mentalist who became popular on North American television in the 1970s. He was inspired by Lee Falk's famous comic strip "Mandrake the Magician", which features a crime-fighting stage magician, to become a mentalist himself.

George was born in Montclair, New Jersey. From 1971 to 1975, his television series "The Amazing World of Kreskin" was broadcast throughout Canada on CTV and distributed in syndication in the United States. The series was produced in Ottawa, Ontario at the CJOH-TV studios. An additional set of episodes was produced in 1975, billed as "The New Kreskin Show".

In the 1980s and 1990s, he came to prominence again through several appearances on "Late Night with David Letterman".

He is still active as a live performer, and appears annually on CNN to give his New Year's Day predictions for the coming year. [cite news | url=http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0712/29/cnr.01.html | accessdate=2008-02-15 | date=29 December 2007 | title=Transcripts | work=CNN Newsroom | publisher=CNN ] One of his best known tricks is finding his check for a performance, which he instructs the audience to hide his check while he is escorted off stage and into seclusion by other members of the audience. He has failed to find the check nine times. Kreskin has acknowledged that he has no paranormal powers, however Kreskin's name has become somewhat synonymous with psychic prediction.

Bibliography

* 1991: "Secrets of the Amazing Kreskin" (Prometheus) ISBN 0-87975-676-4

References

External links

* [http://www.amazingkreskin.com/ The Amazing Kreskin] , his official site
*imdb title|0066627|The Amazing World of Kreskin
*imdb title|0072550|The New Kreskin Show
*imdb name|0470916|Kreskin
* [http://www.cbc.ca/thehour/video.php?id=1554 The Amazing Kreskin on The Hour]