Voices to Visions July 2011 __________________________________________________________________ Interview
Mark Edward Mr. Edward, thank you so much for taking the time to be featured in this issue of our magazine. • Can you take a moment to tell our readers about yourself? I am a performing mentalist specializing in magic of the mind and séance production. I also have a background in performance art that ties into many years of street magic, hoaxes, and bizarre magick. I am also heavily involved in testing psychic claims through science and working with The Center for Inquiry’s Independent Investigation Group (IIG) to look scientifically at claims of the Paranormal. Although primarily a skeptic to all things paranormal, I have an open mind and I am willing to listen and look at the evidence from anyone who claims to have special powers. • Tell us how you became interested in becoming a magician and what lead to your desire to make that a profession. My grandfather was a magician. As a child, I was frequently his test subject for sleight of hand practice. From an early age, I became fascinated with the supernatural and magical thinking. • Was there anything particular that happened in your life that chose you to become involved with psychics and mediums?
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Nothing supernatural in particular happened. My interest in mediumship and psychic phenomena was all a very natural evolution of first working for many years as a magician, then becoming a mentalist and then moving into the more dramatically charged atmosphere of the medium persona. Finding out that people actually held deep beliefs in psychic phenomena and being witness to hundreds of personal ghost stories became more attractive to me than just fooling people with tricks. I learned early on that if I was working at a corporate event or private party, walking around doing card and coin tricks was okay, but it often felt like I was intruding on conversations like a bad mariachi singer. While on the other hand when I did tarot or palmistry readings, people would come to me and stand in line for hours just to talk to me. It quickly became apparent that one entertainment was much more highly sought after than the other. There was a big difference in not only income levels and demand, but also the respect for the performances that I was giving that I preferred in the long run. • Being a magician how has that enhanced the tricks and trades of a psychic reader? The average street psychic has little or no mastery of showmanship, vocal intonation, staging, and a whole catalogue of both psychological and dramatic methods available in the magician’s bag of tricks. Growing up with that mindset made the transition from magician to “psychic entertainer” much easier for me and also helped me create a believable character for my sitters to buy into. I spent many years watching films and television, listening to old radio shows and reading tons of supernatural fiction about mediums and psychics to be able to cobble together a contemporary persona that would be likeable and friendly, while at the same time exude an air of mystery. The majority of today’s psychics, mediums, and ghost hunters simply have not done their homework. They are largely bullshit artists who spread doom and gloom without any care for how what they say may affect people or what “entertainment value” might be generated by what they do. Nobody wants to hear bad news or hear about things they cannot control happening to them without having something positive to buoy them back up at the end of the reading (or performance.) It took me many years of listening to the most dreadful psychics and readers before I realized there is a compassionate way to treat what you say and how you say it, even if you may see