"I know a trick when I see one," said Mark Edward, after watching The Long Island Medium’s live show. Working undercover in New York City with a special investigation team from Inside Edition , Mark Edward reveals the tricks and cons Theresa Caputo, The Learning Channel’s *“Long Island Medium”* uses to create the illusion she can “speak with the dead.”

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Mark Edward teaches Jeff the tricks of the trade as Jeff undergoes a dramatic physical transformation to pose as a psychic. Will people fall for Jeff’s psychic scam? The talk show host finds out for himself just how powerful such a con can be…for everybody.

View the episode »

   

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Dragocncon 2012 was another smashing success and standing room only for the Mark Edward Psychic Reading session. Maybe it was the free candy? Remember, this was for the Skeptictrack segment of the con - and a fine con it was.

It was a rambunctious crowd of both skeptics and paranormal believers. After forty-five minutes of cold readings and talking to dead people, the "in character" performance culminated with fifteen minutes explaining exactly how "the psychic" was able to "know things nobody could possibly know" and other tricks of the trade.

When the reveal was over, most of the audience was left stunned - and a little more skeptical. James "The Amazing" Randi held court in attendance every day; sharing a table with Mark Edward and the Independenet Investigation Group (IIG) where many intensely humorous hours of one-on-one discussions reminising about mentalists and the "old school" techniques of mediums were a unforgettable highlight.

       

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Brian Dunning’s Skeptoid Podcast party was a blast. Celebrating the 300th episode of Brian’s ever popular podcasts, he proudly unveiled a beautiful new video “The Secret of the Gypsy Queen.” I did my stand-up mentalism act and shared the stage with Emerey Emery, Penenlope Chan and a hilarious Brit, Matt Kirshen.

       

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It was Standing Room Only for my talk on “Psychic Blues” at Dragoncon 2011 in Atlanta and I was very happy with the accuracy of my cold readings, especially with the skeptical audience. I showed the crowd how easy it is to be psychic without claiming anything paranormal and got quite a few stunned responses. Two days of panels and lectures topped off a four day adventure into one of the most amazing conventions I have ever been involved with. Where else could you see 35 woman marching down the street in formation (and each carrying an American flag) all proudly dressed as Wonder Woman? Wow. I will return in August 2012 for another four days of utter delight. See you there!

     

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My second episode of “Weird or What” was filmed with Susan Gerbic and me doing a very special Dark Séance re-enacting the dreaded “Scole Experiments.” This time out; William Shatner hosted and did a hilarious tongue-in-cheek parody of a confused believer in “Things That Go Bump In The Night.” He really has turned into a very funny man.  All the details about how we scared Holy out of the séance sitters can be read at Susan’s blog on the event here: http://montereycountyskeptics.blogspot.com/2011/09/weird-or-what-scole-experiments.html This dance macabre was certainly one of the best pieces of television séance work I have done. I couldn’t have done it without Susan. She was great as The Ghost. You can watch the séance back story in the Vault. Brian Dunning stepped in to offer his skeptical points of view at the conclusion of the show. We need more television like this!

       

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