Fire Pixie Performance

A member of the Fire Pixie group demonstrates his technique of eating fire on Saturday, April 12, 2008, in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union. Photo: Logan Gaedke/Iowa State Daily

Erin Glover, founder of Fire Pixie, pauses in a dramatic display during their show on Saturday, April 12, 2008, in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union. Photo: Logan Gaedke/Iowa State Daily
Two performers of the Fire Pixie kick it off with some smooth moves and slow firespins during their performance, Saturday, April 12, 2008, in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union. Photo: Logan Gaedke/Iowa State Daily

The Fire Pixie performance jumps into some quick spins and twirls during their show on Saturday, April 12, 2008, in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union. Photo: Logan Gaedke/Iowa State Daily

Mad Chad Photos

Mad Chad Taylor holds the crowd in awe as he finishes off his performance by juggling three chainsaws, Saturday, April 12, 2008, in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union. Photo: Logan Gaedke/Iowa State Daily

Mad Chad Taylor holds the show for a moment to fix a handle on a chainsaw during his performance, Saturday, April 12, 2008, in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union. Photo: Logan Gaedke/Iowa State Daily

Two audience members hold a unicycle as Mad Chad Taylor "gracefully" climbs atop during his performance, Saturday, April 12, 2008, in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union. Photo: Logan Gaedke/Iowa State Daily

Harambee Photos

A member of the group HYPE performs Saturday night at Harambee in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union. The 14th Annual Harambee show was hosted by the Black Student Alliance and was both a talent show and an award ceremony. Photo: Kiley Phillips/Iowa State Daily

A group performs a dance encouraging abstinence during Harambee on Saturday night in the Durham Great Hall. Harambee, hosted by the Black Student Alliance, is a student variety show. Photo: Manfred Strait/Iowa State Daily

A performer dances at the 14th Annual Harambee show Saturday night at the Great Hall in the Memorial Union. The show consisted of beatboxing, dancing and celebrating awards given. Photo: Kiley Phillips/Iowa State Daily

Concert photos

Audience members jam out at the free concert on Central Campus Saturday. The band, Stanwood Charlie, performed with two other groups as a free entertainment choice for students. Photo: Kiley Phillips/Iowa State Daily

Jared Banes, lead vocalist for Stanwood Charlie performs at a free concert held on Central Campus Saturday night. Crowds braved the weather to listen to the Tama, Iowa band. Photo: Tyler Pauly/Iowa State Daily

Dirk Weise strums a chord as part of Stanwood Charlie during a free concert Saturday night on Central Campus. Photo: Tyler Pauly/Iowa State Daily

Senior Matt Neisen plays the bass for Saint Radar at a free concert Saturday evening on Central Campus. This was Saint Radar's third-to-last performance. Photo: Tyler Pauly/Iowa State Daily

Senior Steve Volcko plays guitar for Saint Radar at a free concert Saturday night on Central Campus. Saint Radar enjoyed a crowd that grew larger as the night went on. Photo:Tyler Pauly/Iowa State Daily

Junior Ben Shin sings for Saint Radar Saturday night at a free concert held on Central Campus. This was Saint Radar's third-to-last performance. Photo: Tyler Pauly/Iowa State Daily

Mentalist challenges student ideas

By Anthony Capps

Jim Karol was set on changing the minds of every skeptic in the room.

Karol is known for his memorizing abilities such as thousands of digits in pi, every nation and its capital in the world, knowing 80,000+ zip codes, the Scrabble dicitionary and even being able to pinpoint birth places by someone's social security number. He holds three Guinness World Records, including one for throwing a playing card over 200 feet.

He wowed the crowd in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union with his card tricks that included a card that was found on the ceiling. Karol proved himself very well as he usually asked for skeptics so he could show them he was no fake. The first acts mostly included card and word tricks — correctly identifying words people were thinking and cards people had picked or were thinking.

The later part of the act included putting his hand in a small trap designed for a bear or wolf. And he put his hand in it and it did not get cut off. Arron Hinton, of Moline, Ill., was one of the audience members who went up front to assist and partake in the tricks Karol was performing.

Hinton said he went in a slight skeptic but once the show was done and he was off the stage, he was completely convinced Karol was a real mentalist. While on stage Hinton took a lie detector test where he would be shocked if he answered a question falsely — the shock come from the chair even though there was nothing hooked up to cause a shock. Hinton was shocked once during he questioning, almost jumping completely out of the chair.

Karol has appeared on "The Ellen Degeneres Show," "The Tonight Show" and "Late Night" and was in "Jackass 2."

A volunteer gives the wrong answer while on Mentalist Jim Karol's lie detecting chair, Saturday, April 12, 2008, in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union. Photo: Logan Gaedke/Iowa State Daily

Mentalist Jim Karol finds the predicted card inside a volunteer's shirt during his performance, Saturday, April 12, 2008, in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union. Photo: Logan Gaedke/Iowa State Daily

Mentalist Jim Karol has a volunteer from the audience guess what card is in another volunteers pocket, Saturday, April 12, 2008, in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union. Photo: Logan Gaedke/Iowa State Daily

Mentalist Jim Karol helps a volunteer attempt to put his hand in a trap, Saturday, April 12, 2008, in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union. Photo: Logan Gaedke/Iowa State Daily

Taste of Veishea vendors feel the weather

By Anthony Capps
Daily Staff Writer

The finals hours of Veishea were slow for some vendors as temperatures fell below freezing and another wet snow fell yet again. By midnight Sunday, the crowd around the Taste of Veishea venues was quite low with only a few vendors having a line with a noticeable wait time.

Will Schroeder, co-owner of Blue-Sky Creamery, said that both the moving of bands off Central Campus and the weather impacted the site of the crowd.

"We have to make adjustments so we have samples," he said. "I think the fact the bands are gone has effected business."

Schroeder said he had sold a pretty good amount of ice cream considering the cold weather —selling ice cream at all in cold weather would be a challenge. However, he was still unsure about returning next year with the even earlier start date in late March.

Justin Hovey, vendor for Smiles Inc., said the crowd was far less this year than last year. He blamed the weather and also the moving of several events off Central Campus. He said there was a definite decrease in numbers of people around the stretch of road where the vendors were lined up.

Kostas Koronakis, owner of Zorba's Greek Food in Chicago, said the lack of business this year was strictly because of the weather and not due to the decrease of entertainment on Central Campus. This is Koronakis's 15th Veishea and he said this year has "the worst weather since [he's] been here." The coordination and set up was just fine, he said.

"Zorba's is and will always be faithful to Veishea. It is one of our favorite events," he said.

Lumberjack show

By Dylan Boyle and Stefanie Buhrman
Daily Staff Writers

The roar of chainsaws gashing away at tree trunks filled the area, but this is far from the forest.

Lumberjacks with Scheer’s Lumberjack Shows performed for a crowd of approximately 200 people in the Molecular Biology Building parking lot Saturday night, competing in seven different events ranging from log rolling to chainsaw events.

This is the second Veishea for the Hayward, Wis.-based group, which has performed for more than 5,000 people all over the U.S.

Dave Weatherhead, owner of Scheer’s Lumberjack Shows, said he might be hiring people to work and was enthused to hear that Iowa State has a Forestry Club that competes in similar events.