Horticulture professor David Himelrick can tell if a person is lying just by looking at them.
To prevent himself from being tricked by fake psychics, the educator picked up the skills to perform comedic mind reading.
Himelrick said he credits his fascination with strange occurrences like bigfoot, UFO sightings, witchcraft and demonic possessions for this passion. To prepare himself for any run-ins with fake psychics, Himelrick decided to read about psychics and the tactics they use to trick people, he said.
“If you do not know every trick in the book, a fake psychic will take you every time,” Himelrick said. “After I started to learn about these tools, I started to practice the thematic and performance elements.”
The act spans demonstrations from guessing what an audience member drew on a piece of paper with his back turned to figuring out which cards are missing from a deck. He achieves these feats through memory tools and observance using his five senses.
There is one fact Himelrick always makes sure to include in his act — he is not psychic.
He said he makes sure to mention he does not use paranormal methods to read minds to keep as many people attentive as possible. Instead, he tells the audience about the methods he uses to figure out what audience members are thinking to help them believe anything happening on stage can be done using only the mind.
“I tell people the disclaimer because I want them to set their minds at ease and be able to leave saying it was the best hour they have spent in a long time,” Himelrick said.
In his experience, Himelrick said claiming psychic abilities can sometimes polarize the audience from the start. He describes himself as a mentalist rather than a magician or a psychic. He also refrains from using the term “tricks” to describe his performance.
Himelrick said comedy mind reading works because people largely believe extrasensory perception, or ESP, is real. Given of this widespread belief, the audience is more willing to work with him on stage.
“It is important for an audience to suspend their disbelief for an hour rather than have most percent of the audience come into the act skeptical,” Himelrick said.
To keep the audience on his side, a large portion of Himelrick’s act involves comedic quips and witty jokes. This way, even if one of his mind readings does not work, the audience does not lose interest or turn against him.
Himelrick’s comfort while performing and quick thinking come from decades of practice and performance, he said. He’s performed the act for years, and the familiarity allows him to improvise when the audience reactions call for his own responses.
“When I am on stage, I can ask a person to do the same thing a thousand nights in a row,” Himelrick said. “How they respond can be different every single time, which still entertains me after performing the same act for this long.”
One of Himelrick’s most memorable audience responses came from one demonstration where he uses telekinesis to help the audience members knock a wooden block off another wooden block using only their minds.
“As I told the audience to focus on making the wood block fall, one of the waiters slowly walked forward, arms outstretched, focusing as hard as he could on the block,” Himelrick said. “When he was almost five feet away from the table, the block finally fell, and the waiter threw his hands up in the air, screamed and ran out the room.”
While Himelrick performed at banquets and other corporate events, he’s recently performed for nonprofit organizations and charity events.
Those who have seen his act enjoy watching it as much as Himelrick enjoys performing. Tour director for the Baton Rouge Antique Auto Club Vivian Crawford said Himelrick first performed for the club nearly five years ago.
“The performance was mind-boggling,” Crawford said. “We were at an event just last weekend, and people were still talking about him.”
Himelrick said his act has found its way into the classroom as well. He will demonstrate a part of his act to help students learn memory techniques to learn different elements in the course, he said.
He will memorize a deck of cards and have the students pull a few. Using these techniques, he can tell which cards are missing from the deck in a matter of seconds.
Another way his abilities translate in teaching by requiring students to tell the truth.
Himelrick said he will ask the front row of his class to stand up, hand them two objects, one for each hand. He will then ask the students to tell him which hand the object is in, and they can lie to him if they choose. Using tells, or subconscious facial quirks that appear when people lie, Himelrick can deduce whether the student is lying.
“If there are 10 students standing, I will get all 10 right every time,” Himelrick said. “I do that mostly as a joke, but it also encourages them to tell the truth about why they occasionally miss class.”
Himelrick’s enthusiasm for comedy mind reading lasted for decades, and he said he does not see an end.
“I have seen people be passionate about something for decades and slowly lose interest,” Himelrick said. “I hope that never happens for me with mind reading. Right now, I still wake up every single day with the same amount of enthusiasm I had when I first started this.”

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Haskell Whittington

LSU professor of horticulture David Himelrick talks about and displays some of his comedic and psychic skills in his office on Monday Oct.5, 2015, in Julian C. Miller Hall on LSU campus.