The Rocket

Issue date: 9/9/05 Section: Entertainment

Media Credit: NATHAN COLLINS/THE ROCKET

Rameek Flowers, James Stout, Robert Scott and John Hamed lift Iaeisha Palmer as she sits on a chair.

"Turn off your cell phones or you and your cell phone will be sent into another dimension."

So began the performance of the Evasons, a husband and wife team who performed in the Multi-Purpose Room of the University Union last night at 8 p.m. The Evasons have many titles: mentalists, mind-readers, psychics.

"We are using the paranormal to entertain," Jeff Evason said.

The event was organized by the University Program Board (UPB). Alison Frengel, the vice president of arts and entertainment, introduced the Evasons.

"They are mind readers," Frengel said. "They have appeared on Fox and the Discovery Channel. The Psychic Entertainers Association has given them the Award for Distinguished Professionalism. They are world renowned."

The performance consisted of mind reading, levitation and other examples of the power of the mind. Tess Evason amazed the crowd by correctly guessing people's names, the names of people they had pictures of, even the serial numbers of dollar bills in their wallets.

"We all possess this ability," Tess said. "Guys call it a gut feeling, girls call it intuition. It is the ability to focus the energy of your mind."

Some people were skeptical when she began reading minds. A group of students in the back was especially vocal about their disbelief.

"You in the back," Jeff said. "You're still skeptical aren't you? Stand up."

The student agreed he didn't believe Tess and stood up.

Tess closed her eyes in concentration.

"Your name starts with a 'J' doesn't it?" Tess asked. "Is it Jamal?"

There was no need for him to reply, because his amazed reaction was answer enough.

"It's not meant to make you feel stupid, it's just her ability," Jeff said.

If there was anyone in the audience who didn't believe Tess at that point, they were convinced by her next amazing trick.

Tess asked a woman in the audience to choose any two-digit number she wanted. Then, in twenty-four seconds, Tess wrote down a grid of numbers.

The woman in the audience then revealed that her number was 81. Tess added up the numbers in her grid, by column, by row and diagonally. They all added up to 81. It was a feat of psychic and mathematical proportions.

The Evasons not only showcased their own amazing abilities, they helped some members of the audience to discover their own.

"These are things that happen to all human beings," Tess said. "We are in harmony with one another. It may be a connection that you have with your best friend or your sibling. We all have this ability to focus."

The Evasons invited a young woman to sit on the stage. They guided her through an intense meditation during which she concentrated on a person. At the end of the meditation a member of the audience took a Polaroid picture. When the picture developed a face was clearly visible above the woman. She identified it as the person she had been thinking of. Many audience members were visibly rattled.

"Certain people use certain parts of their brain. (Tess's) brain is really strong," Frengel said.

It takes a lot of energy for Tess to sustain the connection that she has with the audience.

"I can't read what you all are thinking, it is a very focused energy," she said. "I can only stay on that level for a while. It goes on and off. It is not on all day long."

But how does someone become a psychic? How do they realize that they have this gift? The path for Jeff was clear from a young age.

"I was interested in magic as a kid," he said. "A friend of the family would bring gifts, mostly books, he was a publisher. And he brought a book called Natural Magic. It had the most wonderful picture of a witch with a cauldron and a crystal ball. That wasn't the kind of magic I was interested in though. I did card tricks. I would try simple guesswork such as guessing the color of a playing card, and see how close I could get."

Jeff worked in radio for a while before he met Tess at a party in Toronto.

"She was in the corner doing mind games," he said. "She was a fashion model at the time. We shared an interest in the paranormal. With my experience in radio and her experience on stage, we had the abilities needed for this performance."

They met a couple from Massachusetts who did psychic performances. The couple was getting ready to retire, so Tess and Jeff spent time with the couple and learned from them.

The posters hung in the union described Tess and Jeff as mentalists. But what exactly is a mentalist?

"We prefer to be called a psychic duo," Jeff said. "Mentalist is a word we use because the agencies that book us can understand it. We do a lot of corporate events and a lot of times corporate offices are put off by the word psychic. They expect Miss Cleo. So we use the word mentalist."

The Evasons perform at many different events, including corporate events, cruises and casinos.



"Performing at colleges is different then performing at other places," Jeff said. "College audiences are very open. They come prepared to be freaked out. We love to watch the reactions in the audience. Our performance at a college is different then other performances. At a college we can experiment and try new material."

How a performance will go is dependent on the audience. The Evasons rely on the energy of audience participation and reaction to drive their show.

"You can tell the differences in people in the audience," Jeff said. "Some people come in skeptical and want to see you fail. Some people come in eager to be impressed."

The Evasons are very clear as to the purpose of their performances.

"Don't let what you see confuse you," Tess said. "Don't let it destroy things you believe in, but rather be amazed at the power of your mind."

Jeff agreed.

"You saw how we picked out Jamal because he was skeptical," he said. "But we don't want to be confrontational. We want to stress that we don't want to change your beliefs, whether they be scientific or religious. We don't want to prove anything. We just want to entertain. Even if someone leaves and says they don't believe us, they can't say they weren't entertained, that they didn't enjoy it."

The Evasons are very confident in their validity. They say that they don't use microphones or electronics and will pay $2,500 to anyone who can prove otherwise.

"It is just human nature," Jeff said.

The power they use has application in everyday life, too.

"You can use this in life," Tess said. "Use your senses to gain the focus you need, whether you are studying or talking to a friend. But don't use it for evil. I don't use it to read credit card numbers; I couldn't use it like that. I couldn't live with myself."

Even though the Evasons stated many times that they don't want to convert anyone, it was clear that the majority of the audience believed by the end of the performance.

"Paranormal means abnormal, not understood," Jeff said. "We are using the paranormal to entertain. We are entertainers."

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