Posted on 04/16/2014 1:17:56 PM PDT by nickcarraway
It’s both delightful and terrifying to watch Vinny DePonto at work — especially knowing you may be called on to have some embarrassing personal truth revealed to an audience. No matter how hard you may try to hide your secret.
“I want you to lie to me,” the master mentalist tells the audience during “Charlatan,” his breathtaking one-man show. “Because sometimes the way that we lie is the most honest thing about us.”
So don’t bother lying to DePonto, 27. Not only will he know it’s a lie, he also will know the ugly truth behind the lie. This is all part of a singular show — there’s nothing else like it now on a New York stage.
From the opening scene in “Charlatan,” there’s a big wow factor. DePonto, who lives in Brooklyn, explains that “there is no truth, only perception.” By the time the grand finale rolls around, he seems to defy the laws of both physics and common sense.
Sometimes the way that we lie is the most honest thing about us.
DePonto tells us at the start that a “mark” is someone who has been identified by carnival hucksters as an easy target. As the audience quickly learns, we are all marks, especially in the hands of such a skilled trickster.
“We deceive ourselves,” he told the Daily News recently. “We play our own marks and charlatans.”
That may be true, but DePonto makes it exceptionally easy to play the fool. This is a guy who seems to read words with his eyes closed, claiming to “see” through the tips of his fingers. Reading an audience member’s mind, he’ll stop, tell that person she has a song stuck in her head, name that song, and then ask her to forget it so he can properly read her thoughts.
'We deceive ourselves,' says Vinny DePonto. 'We play our own marks.'
The show’s close is so dazzling that it appears certain the audience volunteer was a plant. But a recent show’s volunteer swore that wasn’t the case.
“I have never met this magician before and I didn’t tell him anything about myself before the show,” said Alex Markle, 34. “I saw this show twice now — and I still have no idea how he did any of it.”
“Charlatan” plays at Ars Nova, 511 W. 54th St. (between 10th and 11th Aves.); (212) 489-9800. 8 p.m., through April 12. Tickets, $35.
Clever little manipulation he put in the photo there.
He must have a difficult time watching Obama on tv.
The show probably chooses the marks well in advance. They do background checks, interview people secretly and follow thm around a little. Ends up making the guy look like a mental giant when its still just deception...
Where’s the Amazing Randi when you need him?
We all seem to be assuming it is just a trick.......??
If it weren’t, he wouldn’t be doing an off-Broadway show, he’d read a few minds on Wall Street and make millions in the stock market.
Well my profession involves investigating a lot of white collar criminals and con artists do my vision is already skewed. I’ve seen a lot of really good tricks debunked. The ole adage, “if it sounds too good to be true”...probably applies as well.
Does he have a black sidekick?
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