Eric Edelstein

I was one of 3 called up on stage for one of the acts tonight, and this is what happened:

1. Larry Soffer gave me a small piece of white paper

2. He told me to think of a PET’s NAME and write it on the piece of paper

3. I thought of a small dog called Bobby which our family had for a few weeks about 15 years ago. (It turned a little violent as it was partly a fox terrier so we had to give it up) - I forgot totally till I was writing this that when I was sharing a place with Joanne and Liat a few years back, Liat had brought a tiny cat called JolE (after our 3 names) into our flatshare.

4. I wrote it on the top left corner of the page, and folded the page in half and then in half again.

5. For extra measure I put a little “+” sign after the name, so I could identify the paper as mine.

6. Larry Soffer gave me a small brown envelope, and I put the folded name of BOBBY into the envelope, and sealed it.

7. Larry told the first girl which person she was thinking of - her mother Zelda - and told her that her mother was nervous with her coming to his show - she agreed!

BY NOW I KNEW LARRY SOFFER WAS GOING TO READ MY MIND.

8. Larry asked me a few questions about my PET and got the answers WRONG.

9. He then asked me to think of my pets name, and i brought up the name BOBBY repeatedly in my mind.

10. He took a white board, and started writing on it - I could see him writing and judging by the curving of his pen, i KNEW that he had written what I had been thinking.

11. Larry gave me the white board, and asked me to hold it away from the audience, but without looking at it myself.

12. He then got the envelope from the member of the audience that was holding it, and read out the name that I had written on the paper - BOBBY

13. He then asked me to turn the board to read it and then show it to the audience - Larry Soffer had written BOBBY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks to Dave, we had complementary tickets in the FRONT ROW for Larry Soffer’s first night at the BMW Pavilion.

If I hadn’t been called up myself on stage AND been watching the rest of the show in the FRONT ROW, I might have been less inclined to TOTALLY DISAGREE with Derek Wilson’s review of Larry Soffer in June last year.

But an hour later I am still totally blown away by Larry Soffer:

* MAKING FORKS VIBRATE AND THEN BENDING THEM IN A VARIETY OF WAYS

* KNOWING WHAT PEOPLE WERE THINKING, AND THEN WHILE BLINDFOLDED KNOWING WHAT THEY WERE HOLDING

* GETTING 6 MEMBERS OF THE AUDIENCE TO LIFT A TABLE BY PLACING THEIR FINGERTIPS ON TOP OF THE TABLE - AND THEN MAKING THE TABLE DANCE AND MOVE ACROSS THE ROOM

* TAKING A PIECE OF PAPER, MAKING IT VIBRATE INTO A ROSE, AND THEN MAKING IT MOVE IN MID AIR (it was incredible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Larry Soffer is on at the BMW Pavilion till May 6th - You might see me there AGAIN.

And according to Larry Soffer’s appearances schedule on LarrySoffer.com, he’ll be appearing at the Miracle Drive this year - you guys are in for a TREAT.

Sure, the first half was a little too magic like (cards tricks etc) and the choreography could have been tighter (more mic’s on stage, better image’s on the projector of the spoon bending etc), but that all pales when you see what Larry can do.

In the back of my mind, I’m thinking about the incredible potential that Larry has created - he wanted to be a magician from a young age, and ACTUALLY made it happen (a rare example of the top of Maslow’s hierarachy), but I can’t think too deeply about it - I’M STILL SPEECHLESS at watching a table and then a Rose fly through the air….

….it could have been a DREAM!

PS: Dave and I chatted afterwards, and the only way we think Larry could have known I was thinking about my dog Bobby, OTHER THAN READING MY MIND, was if he had seen me write it down - but I’m ALMOST TOTALLY CONVINCED (99% SURE!!!), that he didn’t see what I was writing.