Although Christopher Grace was not the intended performer last Friday night, he certainly did not disappoint the capacitated Friends Hall. Grace is a Boston native and trained mind reader who has been featured on MTV, NBC and America's Got Talent.
Grace randomly selects audience members to participate in his brain games by wildly tossing a paper ball into the masses. Once the ball has been caught by an unsuspecting audience member, he performs tricks with props ranging from money to novels. Grace proved that he is very adept at reading people and taking advantage of their "tells" to guess what they are thinking.
"The show was awesome; he blew my mind. I think he's definitely psychic even though he denies it," said sophomore Erica Morel.
Dubbed "the man who knows too much," Grace delivered on this title, astounding audience members with seemingly uncanny knowledge. At one point, he used a tape recording from the night before in which he accurately described a participant in a previous trick down to the lettering on her t-shirt.
Perhaps one of the most impressive segments of the show was when he had virtually everyone write pieces of information about themselves on a folded up piece of paper, which he went on to use as an astonishing tool. Just by holding the paper, Grace was able to deduce who in the audience wrote the information, their name and at least one fact that they had written.
The majority of the show was filled with applause and general amazement until the mentalist decided to brave a famous trick from the legendary magician Harry Houdini. An air of seriousness fell upon the room as Grace ingested 11 sewing pins with only the aid of a drink to wash it down. Complete silence transformed into a frenzy of cheers as Grace pulled the pins out of his mouth delicately hung and evenly spaced on a thread that he also ingested to pull off the stunt.
"The show was pretty entertaining; the needle trick was by far the best part," said freshman Beth Hunt. "I was kind of afraid of him."
Although no witchcraft or sorcery lies at the heart of his tricks, Grace is an impressive showman with a bevy of unique skills that allow him to seemingly channel psychic abilities. He was able to keep spectators engaged for approximately two hours with an exceptional variety of ruses and readings.
brocha@ramapo.edu
