Let’s Pay Our Respects to the Amazing Kreskin, One of Johnny Carson’s Favorite Guests
The Amazing Kreskin, who passed away recently at the age of 89, wasn’t always Amazing. He was plain old Kreskin until Johnny Carson added the honorific based on the mentalist’s 88 appearances on The Tonight Show, making him one of the program’s most prolific guests.
What made the Amazing Kreskin such a Carson favorite? A magician himself, Carson was fascinated by Kreskin and his popular trick in which someone hid Kreskin’s fee for appearing on the show. Kreskin denied being “psychic” — he always claimed his powers were based on suggestion — but how would that help him find his paycheck? That’s Kreskin’s secret but he always got paid.
Kreskin shared his most memorable Carson moment on his YouTube channel. He and Carson had agreed to an astounding trick for a Tonight Show appearance, but a few days before the show, Kreskin got a call from one of the heads of NBC.
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“They said, ‘Kreskin, you’re going to be on with Johnny next Monday, are you not?”
Of course — the appearance was already promoted in the TV listings.
“This piece you’re going to do with Johnny — you are not to do it. Under no circumstances will you do this with Johnny Carson ever, whether it’s on our show or some other appearance.”
Kreskin was taken aback. Not wanting to cause trouble, he agreed to substitute another trick. But Carson had the last say. The Tonight Show host called Kreskin a few days later, aware that the network had put its foot down. “You can quote me because I’d like those sons of bitches to know they can go to hell,” Carson said on the call. “Kreskin, you’re going to do this, understand?”
What was the performance that had NBC so worried? Kreskin had planned to use hypnosis to put Carson into a state of catalepsy. In other words, Kreskin would talk to Carson until his eyes grew heavy and his entire body went rigid. At some point, his stiff body would begin to fall backward and Ed McMahon and Carson’s band members would be there to catch him.
Next, Carson’s frozen body would be placed on two chairs set about five-and-a-half feet apart, miraculously holding there like a wooden plank. Then, Kreskin would select someone else to sit on Carson’s torso and raise their feet in the air. The jaw-dropping feat would bring down the house.
With NBC executives looking on, Kreskin performed the trick, and it all went as planned until he looked for that volunteer. He motioned to Carson’s earlier guest, Bette Midler, to sit on Johnny. But NBC had gotten to her as well. She refused, according to Kreskin, until a Tonight Show producer urged her to do it. She finally plopped down on Carson, who easily held her weight. He later told Kreskin she felt like a baby.
Midler insisted on having lunch with Kreskin a few days later. She told him she resisted because she believed she’d never be asked back to The Tonight Show if she sat on Carson while he was balanced so precariously. “It turned out that picture of her sitting on Carson was in Sunday newspapers all over the United States,” Kreskin boasted. “It became a classic. So you see, what looks precarious may not end that way.”
Amazing.
