Magician Mike Super is literally betting his house that he can predict The Arizona Republic’s headlines.
He has assured the newspaper that if his prediction – currently locked securely in an Arizona Republic newspaper box at Chandler City Hall – is incorrect, he will refund the ticket price for everyone attending his show on September 22nd at Chandler Center for the Arts.
The predictions for the future were made in August – so, in the past, like last month – and sent by overnight courier to the Chandler City Hall. The prediction is sealed in an envelope, chains and a padlock in the lobby of the city hall.
Mr. Super is not from Arizona but Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He told the newspaper, “I really love the old days of Houdini and Blackstone. Before they even got to the show, they created a buzz in the community, and I really like that. It’s fun and intriguing, and it creates a buzz before the show because it’s something different.”
He even got the mayor of Chandler, Jay Tibshraeny, to sign the envelope before it was secured in the newsbox.
“I think it would be really cool if he gets them right,” Tibshraeny says. “It’s caught my curiosity doing this. I’m kind of wondering ‘what’s the angle?’ I’m excited for the show to come.”
The Chandler Center for the Arts is a beautiful venue but it also seats a lot of folks. Whilst he has yet to fail in his headline prediction he admits there is a risk element to it. “It’s like playing Russian roulette. One day it’s not going to work.”
“There’s two ways to look at it,” Mr. Super told the paper. “There’s, ‘He’s done it 12 times so he’s likely to do it again.’ But the more you do it, it’s like playing Russian roulette. One day it’s not going to work, and then it will be time to retire it.”
“If it was a huge venue and it didn’t go right, I could lose my house,” he says.
We identified intimately with the final quote of the story.
“I love to be fooled and, of course, the deeper you get into magic, the less you get to experience that feeling,” he says. “I try to live that feeling through other people’s eyes, from seeing them being fooled and enjoying themselves. And in the middle of all that, everyone in a while, somebody does fool you, and I’m like the kid in the candy store.”
If you are in the area check out Mike Super, at 7 p.m. Saturday, September 22 at the wonderful Chandler Center for the Arts, 250 N. Arizona Ave., Chandler, Arizona. Ticket prices are $36-$48 and the center seats more than we could afford to refund. Tickets are available at ticketmaster.com.
Visit Mr. Super’s website here: http://www.mikesuper.com/
