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Interview With the Amazing Kreskin

Aired July 28, 2003 - 15:48   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: We continue to remember Bob Hope. Joining us now from Montclair, New Jersey, a man who entertained the entertainer, the Amazing Kreskin performed for Bob Hope on his 80th birthday. Kreskin...
THE GREAT KRESKIN, ILLUSIONIST: How are you, Kyra?

PHILLIPS: ... great to have you with us.

KRESKIN: I have to tell you. I am absolutely enamored. Of course, it would nice to have a better time in which to talk, but you're doing such a beautiful job. And it's certainly been a rich age that Hope saw, reaching 100. My mother, almost a few months ago reached 96 years old. These people have a special quality about them, don't they?

PHILLIPS: Well it's all that clean livin', don't you think?

KRESKIN: Hopefully. And because of my work as a thought reader to give a slightly different perspective on him, and there's two incidents that kind of -- you mentioned his 80th birthday. But the first time I met him was some 40 years ago. And that's when I first got to know him.

I was performing as the surprise guest at a banquet in his honor at the Waldorf Astoria. And here he's sitting on the dais with the late Lowell Thomas, he was a great radio broadcaster, and 1,500 people. And in my performance as a thought reader, I often take my check -- and I'm telling you, Kyra, I do this in concerts all over the world -- I hand it to a committee in the audience.

I live the premise, my check is hidden anywhere in the theater. And when return, by reading of the thoughts of the audience or the committee, I attempt to find my -- see if I don't find it, I don't get paid. Now can you imagine what Hope thought of such a premise, not getting paid if I didn't find my fee?

PHILLIPS: Oh, my gosh.

(LAUGHTER)

KRESKIN: So I come into this ballroom, 1,500 people, you could hear a pin drop. And they were mainly broadcasters, writers, newspaper people, what have you. And I'm walking quietly through -- no one speaking to me, it's no guessing game. I'm trying to pick up the thoughts of the committee. And come to the dais and there's Hope who to the last day I saw him would say -- remember the chandelier. He's gazing at the chandelier. He told me later on because he didn't want anyone to think he was giving me any cues.

And there was a big plate of carved turkey in front of him and Lowell Thomas. I kept lifting it, there was no check under it. And I turned to the committee and I said, Do you really know where this is hidden? And they said, Kreskin, we know exactly.

A minute later I'd taken my jacket off, rolled my sleeves up, shoved my hand into the stuffing, they had cooked the stuffing of the turkey.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: Oh my God...

KRESKIN: But on the other side, if I can reflect on a man whose theme song, of course, from that first movie became "Thanks for the Memories," I was felony to Fort Worth, Texas by his people. He was celebrating his 80th birthday, and it was an affair in which I think everyone paid, like, $1,000 a ticket because the money was going to a charity so many of his programs, performances were his live shows were for charity.

And he's on stage with Dolores Hope, whom his wife I got to know from performing on a cruise ship that she was vacationing with as Hope had sent her on the cruise ship. And they did not know I was going to be there. And there is Hope singing with his wife "Thanks for the Memories," and they said walk out now. I said, You have got to be out of your damn mind. You don't interrupt a legend, especially singing "Thanks for the Memories" as the climax of the program. They said, Go out and I walked out.

And if anyone, Kyra, thought was rearranged, Hope suddenly stopped, he looked at me and he said, Kreskin, what are you doing here? I said, They sent me here to read your thoughts. And Hope immediately said, Kreskin, if you're going to read my thoughts here, we both go to prison.

(LAUGHTER)

KRESKIN: Well, I told him to think of some incident in his life that he felt that no one else would know, and he became serious. And I must tell you, this was the quality of this man as a performer. He didn't need laughs.

The show ended very seriously because he said, Well, I have something in mind I'm thinking of. And I said, Bob, I keep seeing a woman lying in a bed in a hospital. He nodded his head. I said, she's in white, but there's something red over her chest. It could be a brooch in the shape of a heart. He said, that's exactly what I'm thinking of. I said, Bob, was there any clock? He said, I can picture a clock. He said, I know the time. I announce an hour and minutes, and I have to tell you, Kyra, I hit the hour and minutes only two minutes off. He turned to the audience and said -- this is the early part of the second World War. There wasn't a single person alive who knows that incident today.

So that was -- here's a man whose theme was "Thanks for the Memories," and my experience with him was tapping into his memories.

PHILLIPS: The Amazing Kreskin, thank you for that memory.

KRESKIN: And let's just think of one more thing. There's no question any of us spiritually inclined that this man has now entered some Pearly Gates where the smiles greater today than a few hours yesterday.

PHILLIPS: Oh. And you know what? He's making everyone up there laugh, Kreskin.

KRESKIN: Oh, yes. Take care, now.

KRESKIN: Thank you so much.

KRESKIN: Bye, now.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired July 28, 2003 - 15:48   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: We continue to remember Bob Hope. Joining us now from Montclair, New Jersey, a man who entertained the entertainer, the Amazing Kreskin performed for Bob Hope on his 80th birthday. Kreskin...
THE GREAT KRESKIN, ILLUSIONIST: How are you, Kyra?

PHILLIPS: ... great to have you with us.

KRESKIN: I have to tell you. I am absolutely enamored. Of course, it would nice to have a better time in which to talk, but you're doing such a beautiful job. And it's certainly been a rich age that Hope saw, reaching 100. My mother, almost a few months ago reached 96 years old. These people have a special quality about them, don't they?

PHILLIPS: Well it's all that clean livin', don't you think?

KRESKIN: Hopefully. And because of my work as a thought reader to give a slightly different perspective on him, and there's two incidents that kind of -- you mentioned his 80th birthday. But the first time I met him was some 40 years ago. And that's when I first got to know him.

I was performing as the surprise guest at a banquet in his honor at the Waldorf Astoria. And here he's sitting on the dais with the late Lowell Thomas, he was a great radio broadcaster, and 1,500 people. And in my performance as a thought reader, I often take my check -- and I'm telling you, Kyra, I do this in concerts all over the world -- I hand it to a committee in the audience.

I live the premise, my check is hidden anywhere in the theater. And when return, by reading of the thoughts of the audience or the committee, I attempt to find my -- see if I don't find it, I don't get paid. Now can you imagine what Hope thought of such a premise, not getting paid if I didn't find my fee?

PHILLIPS: Oh, my gosh.

(LAUGHTER)

KRESKIN: So I come into this ballroom, 1,500 people, you could hear a pin drop. And they were mainly broadcasters, writers, newspaper people, what have you. And I'm walking quietly through -- no one speaking to me, it's no guessing game. I'm trying to pick up the thoughts of the committee. And come to the dais and there's Hope who to the last day I saw him would say -- remember the chandelier. He's gazing at the chandelier. He told me later on because he didn't want anyone to think he was giving me any cues.

And there was a big plate of carved turkey in front of him and Lowell Thomas. I kept lifting it, there was no check under it. And I turned to the committee and I said, Do you really know where this is hidden? And they said, Kreskin, we know exactly.

A minute later I'd taken my jacket off, rolled my sleeves up, shoved my hand into the stuffing, they had cooked the stuffing of the turkey.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: Oh my God...

KRESKIN: But on the other side, if I can reflect on a man whose theme song, of course, from that first movie became "Thanks for the Memories," I was felony to Fort Worth, Texas by his people. He was celebrating his 80th birthday, and it was an affair in which I think everyone paid, like, $1,000 a ticket because the money was going to a charity so many of his programs, performances were his live shows were for charity.

And he's on stage with Dolores Hope, whom his wife I got to know from performing on a cruise ship that she was vacationing with as Hope had sent her on the cruise ship. And they did not know I was going to be there. And there is Hope singing with his wife "Thanks for the Memories," and they said walk out now. I said, You have got to be out of your damn mind. You don't interrupt a legend, especially singing "Thanks for the Memories" as the climax of the program. They said, Go out and I walked out.

And if anyone, Kyra, thought was rearranged, Hope suddenly stopped, he looked at me and he said, Kreskin, what are you doing here? I said, They sent me here to read your thoughts. And Hope immediately said, Kreskin, if you're going to read my thoughts here, we both go to prison.

(LAUGHTER)

KRESKIN: Well, I told him to think of some incident in his life that he felt that no one else would know, and he became serious. And I must tell you, this was the quality of this man as a performer. He didn't need laughs.

The show ended very seriously because he said, Well, I have something in mind I'm thinking of. And I said, Bob, I keep seeing a woman lying in a bed in a hospital. He nodded his head. I said, she's in white, but there's something red over her chest. It could be a brooch in the shape of a heart. He said, that's exactly what I'm thinking of. I said, Bob, was there any clock? He said, I can picture a clock. He said, I know the time. I announce an hour and minutes, and I have to tell you, Kyra, I hit the hour and minutes only two minutes off. He turned to the audience and said -- this is the early part of the second World War. There wasn't a single person alive who knows that incident today.

So that was -- here's a man whose theme was "Thanks for the Memories," and my experience with him was tapping into his memories.

PHILLIPS: The Amazing Kreskin, thank you for that memory.

KRESKIN: And let's just think of one more thing. There's no question any of us spiritually inclined that this man has now entered some Pearly Gates where the smiles greater today than a few hours yesterday.

PHILLIPS: Oh. And you know what? He's making everyone up there laugh, Kreskin.

KRESKIN: Oh, yes. Take care, now.

KRESKIN: Thank you so much.

KRESKIN: Bye, now.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com