On Wednesday night, the Campus Activities Board will host noted mentalist Craig Karges.In his biography, Karges is proclaimed to be an “extraordinist,” able to induce tables to walk and eating utensils to twist and bend without the aid of smoke and mirrors.
Since he began his performing career at age 16, Karges’s demonstrations have been centered on incorporating audiences to bring validity to a craft that is often criticized as contrived and phony.
His routine does much to silence skepticism; he even goes as far as to offer a $100,000 reward, payable to charity, to the first patron who can prove the use of stooges or prepared audience members to accomplish the feats in his acts.
However, audience members’ minds should be too far bent from witnessing Karges’s on-stage creations to wonder whether or not a stage hand was used.
Talk show host and comedian Dennis Miller responded to the show’s antics with, “this weirds me out.”
When Karges was an up-and-coming performer, he was able to sharpen his teeth by performing his act to college campuses across the country.
“It’s 80 percent practice and 20 percent innate, natural ability. Everyone has natural abilities and I guess mine fell into a more arcane area than most. It took a great deal of practice, study and work in multiple areas like psychology, intuition and stage magic to enable me to bring about the effects I create on stage,” Karges said.
Throughout Karges’ travelling career, his performance has been seen in all 50 states and four continents.
After many years of audience-incorporated shows in smaller venues, his reputation grew as a master of mind expansion and he began to receive attention from national media.
Eventually he would land airtime on primetime television programs “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and “Larry King Live.” Performance, the traveling performer’s Rolling Stone, lists Karges’s routine in the top five family/variety shows, a list that includes “Disney World on Ice” and acts performed by illusionist David Copperfield.
Karges’ national acclaim has provided him the opportunity to direct his performances more so towards personal empowerment, rather than pure entertainment.
Since ascending to the national platform, he has created a routine titled, “Ignite Your Intuition,” which has been performed for major corporations such as IBM and McDonald’s.
Karges lists his late great-uncle, Alain ‘Doc’ DeLyle, as the chief influence in his work. “Many of the exercises and ideas expressed in ‘Ignite Your Intuition’ are the same exercises and philosophies Doc shared with me,” Karges said.
His corporate presentations double as seminars where, according to Karges’s Web site, “Participants learn memory techniques; their intuition is tested; and they are taught how to tap into their unconscious mind to enhance their creativity, intuition and decision making.”
Karges’ shows are meant to entertain but also come with purposeful undertones. Karges wants the audience to leave with minds blown and outlooks enhanced.
“One of the tag lines for my corporate presentations is ‘entertaining through the creation of mystery while opening minds to unlimited possibilities’,” Karges said.