American University professor performs magic trick to control students' minds

Professor and former magician Barry Gordemer performs a magic
trick for his students during class at American University, Thursday, Oct. 2, 2014,
in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Jaclyn Merica)

A professor controlled the minds of American University students through magic.

Barry Gordemer is an adjunct professor at American and a former professional magician who called himself "The Sort of Amazing Barry". He said he was inspired to control people’s minds by Obi-Wan Kenobi from "Star Wars". He also said goal for his magic shows was to make people wonder if magic was real. He did a trick for his Writing for Communication class Thursday.

Gordemer took a stack of cards and divided them among five groups of students. He told each group to quietly choose a card from their hand to remember before he collected them again. He asked me to cut the deck before he laid the cards out into five different piles. He told everyone to concentrate on his or her card. Gordemer said he would be in control of their minds without them knowing.

He waved his hand over each pile of cards. He asked each group to tell him when his hand was above the pile their card was in. Then he guessed which card was theirs. The students were quiet and looked shocked. Then they laughed. Gordemer was right every time. But he guessed the third group's card a little differently. He handed them an envelope and later asked them to open it. They pulled out a piece of paper. But before they read what was on that paper, Gordemer asked them to say their card. They said it was the ace of clubs. And he had written the ace of clubs on the paper. Student, Jaclyn Merica, said, “This is fake. All of this is fake. It was all planned.”

Gordemer guesses his students' cards during a
trick he originally saw performed by a magician
from Ireland. (Photo by Jaclyn Merica)   

I asked fellow student Chloe DeChellis to tell me her reaction to the trick. After a long pause she said, “Well it was interesting and cool that he was able to figure out everyone’s card. I didn’t see that coming.”

Rahi Patel, another student in the class, told me his thoughts on the trick. “I didn’t know what was happening. I really wanted to focus in and see if I could tell how he was doing the trick. But I have no idea.”

Gordemer said this is his favorite trick because there is no logical explanation for it. I asked him what he liked about seeing the audience's reactions and he said, "That's my favorite part. As adults we're not supposed to believe in magic. But with this trick, there's a split second where you can tell that they do."