I have to admit this show was a bit of a let down. I was so excited to see psychic spoon bender Uri Gellar and whipper snapper mindfreak Criss Angel mix it up in a world of mentalism and magic, skepticism and supernaturalism, but instead the two phenome-men only had a few seconds a piece to debunk or praise the acts. Instead of having my mind freaked I felt it wandering away imagining what I was missing on Top Model.
The first guy was an unsettled mentalist named Ehud Segev. The show invited three celebrities to act as assistants, Carmen Electra, Rachel Hunter and Ross “the Intern” Matthews. Ehud called Carmen and Ross to the stage and had Carmen close her eyes and tell him where he was lightly touching her. He touched his own forehead; she felt it on HER forehead. He tickled Ross’s chin, she felt it on her chin, then Ehud had Ross touch a body part of his choice (thank goodness he chose his nose), and lovely Carmen felt it on her sniffer.
Criss was not blown away by Ehud and called his PK(psychokinesis) touch average and has seen it performed masterfully in his work with Banachek, the genre’s inventor. This is the main problem with the show – everything Criss does is amazing, and being at the top of his game you have to wonder, does he really want to find the next phenomenon?
Jim Karol was a loud former steel worker who said he doesn’t feel pain and put his hand in an Alaskan wolf trap to prove it. He had Rachel Hunter write a celebrity’s name on a dry erase board and somehow wouldn’t untrap himself until he yelled out “Jeff Goldblum!!” Uri Gellar is the Paula Abdul of the show and sends all the contestants away with a pat on the back and a kind word where Criss is brutally honest and doesn’t hold back with his needle-like comments that burst most balloons. Uri called it “convincing” and Criss thought it was “disjointed” and told Jim he needed to focus on the continuity.
The star of the night was Eran Raven who played Russian roulette with nail guns. Apparently Eran cheated death in a boating accident and has craved that near death feeling ever since. This was no boating accident. He had Carmen secretly load one of the 6 nail guns with a full cartridge while his back was turned. As she was blindfolded he had her count from 1 to 6, and as he went down the line he put each gun to his head and pulled the trigger. Finally he grabbed 4 and 5 and had Carmen say those numbers a few times. He switched guns a few times, settled on 5 and pulled the trigger. He sent 4 nails through his skull into his frontal lobe and had to be rushed to the hospital where he later died.
No, he did not, but how fantastic would that have been? The show wouldn’t have been such a disappointment if someone had been mortally wounded (but I think the same thing can be said of most reality shows). Uri called Eran’s nail gun slinging mind blowing and Chris thought it was the most dramatic thing of the night. I think I know how it works…Eran kept telling Carmen not to pull the trigger. I think when you load the nail gun the trigger resists compression whereas unloaded guns probably have more give. It’s still a sketchy trick and the guy had the best presentation of the night.
The last guy of the night called himself not a mentalist but THE mentalist. His name was Gerry Macwhogivesashit and he had Rachel Hunter randomly pick a phone number out of one of the four phone books and he had seven people onstage reveal the number. I think this guy had the phonebooks made and every third number was the one he revealed onstage. Along with Jim the human penis trap-master, this guy’s act was insufferable and was so bad it elicited Uri’s first negative barrage of the night who thought he was dull, flat and unpredictable.
After watching every season of Criss Angel Mindfreak and having been mindfreaked in person by Uri Gellar in our stellar interview on Reality Remix I can say I was under whelmed by these participants. I hope the next six contestants step it up and help this show live up to its promise and potential. You don’t have to be a psychic to know if Phenomenon doesn’t turn around they’ll make it disappear faster than Viva Laughlin.
