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