Reading minds isn’t easy. Just ask Eric Dittelman.
“It’s a very interactive show, so you never know what people are going to be thinking at any time,” laughed Dittelman, an “America’s Got Talent” semifinalist and touring mind reader. “It keeps me on my toes, because some of the random stuff that people come up with … it just adds that individuality to the show, and it makes it unique for this specific audience every time.”
Despite the challenge inherent in every mind-reading show, Dittelman was a jovial presence on stage Thursday night at his Carolina Productions performance, making friendly quips even as he shocked the audience into the murmurs familiar to any magician: “How did he do that?”
“What I do is not psychic; it’s not supernatural … I don’t talk to the dead,” Dittelman explained at the show’s opening. “It’s a combination of people-reading and influence and science and magic all put together.”
Even that doesn’t come anywhere close to explaining how he uncannily divines what randomly selected audience members are thinking. In one trick, he had a woman write down a Christmas gift she had received, and after a few vague probing questions like, “Are you an artistic person?” Dittelman nailed it. (It was an airbrush machine.)
It seems like an impossible guess, but that’s where the real magic comes in — psychology, and understanding how people work.
“I started with magic first, and then when I was in college, I was more fascinated by why magic works on people, and the psychology aspect of it,” he explained. “So I actually started reading a lot of pop psychology stuff and merging the two together, and then I went to Vegas and actually studied with some of the top mind readers of the time. It just went from there.”
What really catapulted Dittelman into fame was his “America’s Got Talent” stint, where audience goodwill and challenging mental tricks took him all the way to the semifinals.
“Life-changing experience,” he said cheerily of his time on the show. “No one really knew who I was before that, but getting to the semifinals of that show really allowed me to continue doing what I love to do for a living and travel all over the world.”
Dittelman gets a charge out of performing his act anywhere, but he especially enjoys the receptiveness of college audiences.
“I love doing the college shows; I’ve got to be honest,” he admitted. “I just relate to the audiences way better. My show is kind of designed specifically for the college audience, and I’m not so far out of college myself, so I feel like I can still relate, and it’s just fun.”
His joy is infectious, making the audience laugh along with him at his sillier jokes and marvel at his seemingly impossible feats of divination.
“You’ve got to try that thing you always wanted to do, because if you’re doing what you loves it never feels like work,” he said. “I always encourage people to just take the risk, just try it and see what happens.”
Take it from him – he’s a mind reader.