Supernatural entertainer and Israeli mentalist, Lior Suchard’s show on Sunday night at the Hilton Chennai started with an extravagant claim from the presenter that “he knows your innermost thoughts”.
By the end of the show, Lior Suchard, part-rock star, part-stand up comic and, presumably, part-spy, left the audience picking up pieces of their jaws, strewn all over the floor, as he pulled off unimaginable feats one after the other. It was clear that nobody could surprise him, because, the game was already rigged in his favour.
“I am not a magician. I influence people’s thoughts through subtle persuasion,” Lior stated during the course of the show after beginning with his now-popular first act. “Let’s warm up,” he said as he called a young woman to the stage, asked her to write down the name of a person in her life and, after 20 seconds, guessed it in a matter-of-fact way. He also performed a little magic trick, where he made a plastic coke bottle disappear inside an empty paper bag.
He was relentless through the evening, constantly assaulting the audience until they bowed to his mind: at a certain point in the show, he even predicted the serial number of a hundred rupee bill that belongs to the member of the audience. All said and done, one couldn’t help feeling that it was all one giant set-up. This was especially true when he guessed the name of the childhood crush of a woman, who publicly identified herself as a sceptic.
Perhaps, he has a team, working round the clock, that thoroughly collects information about the audience (from the internet footprints, of course), which he then uses intelligently to surprise them. Or, it is just the “sleight of hand” which he camouflages with his charming good looks and stage presence.
Despite all this, Lior’s response to the challenge posed by a young 14-year-old kid, stumped everyone. When Lior asked the sceptics in the room what would they like him to do to prove that he is a real deal, a confident 14-year-old-kid asked him to guess the name of his kindergarten teacher. Everyone in the audience seemed to agree that it is a formidable challenge, but Lior didn’t take it up immediately and kept it for the finale.
At every point, Lior emphasised that it would be difficult to do it and at one point, he even jokingly asked the boy to ‘get out of the show’.
The audience wanted to see him fail. As the show drew to an end, Lior went up to the stage and turned the chart-board, which he had used for many of his tricks on the night, dramatically towards the audience. He then turned towards the young boy and asked him, “Was your teacher’s name ‘Mina’?” and when he said yes, the audience were dumbstruck. Even the sceptics like me.
