March 2005
David Thompson 27.March.05
David Thompson from the UK, claims to be able to talk with the dead.
At a recent public performance in Sydney, he chose not to chat with the departed and stuck only to cold reading. Very disappointing as I, once again, had hoped to discover a real ‘psychic’.
Still, at least I can review his work.
Mr. Thompson’s cold reading technique was not all that it could have been. He did a so-so performance but made many errors in his routine. He, for example, would often find himself down dead, ends so to speak, when is subject could not relate to the bait his was casting. “Who is the man who had the dog please?” Instead of capitalising on a negative response, Thompson keep hammering the point. Yes, this can work very well when the subject finally makes some connection, but fails when it’s obvious they are getting nowhere.
Another mistake was for Thompson to bring up suicide when fishing for a hit. Not good at all as it brought the whole show down to a depressing level.
At one stage a very interesting trick backfired when Thompson, discovering his subject was born overseas, used the following line. “Your husband…. he feel he was not born in Australia…. I’m getting a name…. his grandmother is with me…. I… ah, I cannot…. she just told me her name, but I’m not even going to try to pronounce it! It’s very strange, what was her name please.” “I never met her.” came the reply. Maybe the grandmother mumbled. This trick would have worked, and probably has worked, when the subject does in fact come back with a foreign sounding name.
Maybe David Thompson does talk with the dead when he gives private readings. Pity he didn’t do it on stage.
David Thompson is 'performing' at Spiritualist Churches around Sydney. See his site for more details.
PSYCHIC CROSSES OVER 6.March.05
'Reverend' Margaret Dent, the Australian 'Psychic, Medium, Clairvoyant' died on the 20th of February.
A few years ago, I had the .... experience of being in the audience of Dent’s ‘talking with the dead’ show. My report of this can be seen by clicking here (pdf).
I find it amazing, but maybe not so amazing, that her death has gone largely unnoticed. Dent claimed to talk with the dead and in her show she brought people to tears with her incredible insights from beyond the greave. You’d think that the death of such a person, someone who TALKS WITH THE DEAD would be world news! - Alas no.
In the end Dent was just one of a gaggle of hundreds of people who claim to have communications with the ‘other side’, and her act came straight out of the pages of the cold reading manuals.
There is an final irony. In a few weeks I was going to see Dent’s show again as she was billed to ‘perform’ in a club not far from my house. In fact on the day she died, I was writing a report about her for the Mystery Investigator magazine.
