Today I went to a Fringe show, "Alex McAleer: Mind Reader", with Emma and Joe. It was a show that looked like it was going to have audience interaction, and we were joking beforehand how we definitely didn't want to get on so we would sit a bit further back.
Turns out that Alex's way to get audience participation involved throwing a ball into the audience, so sitting back didn't actually help. For me in particular. He threw the ball and it landed on a guy, who then threw it on to land smack bang in my lap.
We both went up on stage, and the guy was the first to be part of the act. He had to think of a word in the English language that was between 5 and 7 letters, and wasn't a name or a place. He wrote the word on a piece of paper that he then put in an envelope and put on the floor. Alex then guessed the word by writing it on a clipboard, showing the audience, and then confirming that the guys word was in fact "student". Wow.
I was next. Alex got me to think about my first kiss; name, age and location. I had to write these on a piece of paper and fold the paper up, and put it in a small envelope which I then dropped on the floor. When I wrote the information down I made sure to hide the paper. Alex then asked me, did the name of my first kiss start with D? It did. No other questions before hand, he got D straight away. He then wrote the name Daniel on the clipboard and showed the audience; he was right! He then guessed my age by writing it on the clipboard and showing the audience. He guessed 13, but I said 14 (which was what I wrote on the paper), but he quickly glossed over that small discrepancy and went straight to the location. He asked me if it was outside, I said yes. It's Australia, so outside could mean beach, park, so many other places, but he straight away guessed "tree", and god damn it he was right! So the only thing he got wrong was my age.
The rest of the show was equally amazing (all to do with why you shouldn't play cards with a "mind reader"), and while I was watching I slowly realised that I got my age wrong. My first kiss was in the summer holidays between year 7 and year 8... I WAS 13! He knew more about my life than I did! I even wrote 14 down on the paper! Someone please explain this to me.
At the end of the show I went and told him he was right about me being 13, and he got me to yell it out to everyone who was leaving the audience, he was pretty proud he actually got it right while I was trying not to explode.
I am a cynic, I didn't give anything away (what part of my face said D?), I am officially broken. Everyone afterwards was asking me if I was a plant! I was not! Go see this guy next year (tonight was his last show), and try to catch that god damn life changing ball.
