Mind-reading, magic and laughter.
On Thursday, April 6, the third Renaissance Rally of the school year brought a mind-boggling experience to Loy Norrix. Eric Dittelman, a competitor on season seven of “America’s Got Talent,” gave students a taste of his mind-reading and comedy skills, leaving them in for a treat.
After performing for hosts like Ellen, Howie Mandel, Howard Stern and Sharon Osborne, it’s no surprise that Dittelman would be the real deal.
Students who improved their grades since the first trimester or earned at least a 3.0 grade point average, were able to witness the famed comedian’s seemingly magic abilities.
This isn’t Dittelman’s first run-in with Loy Norrix, as he has visited once before.
“I was here a few years ago,” said Ditttelman. “It’s been about eight or nine since I’ve been back, so it’s a fresh new crop of students.”
Throughout the hour-long performance, Dittelman continuously shocked his audience with his unbelievable talent.
The event started out with a game where Dittelman wrote a number down and then asked students to guess a two-digit number. The closest guesser was called onto the stage where he then announced the secret number. Dittelman read out some vague and silly guesses about the winner but amazed everyone by accurately predicting every detail about the winner’s outfit.
After initially being suspicious of Dittelman’s act, everyone quickly loosened up and happily engaged.
“He seemed confident. If I were performing for high schoolers, I would not be that confident,” said junior Nicholas Potts.
Regarding the entertainment of teenagers, Dittelman stated, “Some are more cynical, not trying to go with the traditional audience member approach.” He continued, “I know by the end they enjoy it – most high school students want to be entertained.”
For his second performance, Dittelman went on to guess a randomly selected word from the book “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.”
Later on, he somehow managed to figure out the name of a student’s first crush, a student’s ultra-specific Red Riding Hood and Big Bad Wolf costume mixture and a Christmas present from another student’s childhood.
“I was one of the first called throughout the show, so I hadn’t seen a lot yet,” said senior Nina Molitor. “Usually in these types of shows, I assume the people are pre-picked beforehand and prepped, so it was surreal that this time I knew for sure that wasn’t happening.”
In the words of Dittelman, “It’s not psychic, it’s not supernatural. It’s people-reading mixed with knowledge and psychology.”
After being blown away with no way to disprove his authenticity, junior Micah Johnson had no choice but to accept the show that was being put on.
“At first, I was skeptical because in the first act I was like ‘okay, it could be staged,’ but this had to be real, and I was like ‘what is going on?’” said Johnson.
The trick that warranted the biggest shock reaction from students was when Dittelman guessed three drawings made by students in the audience. After covering his face with an excessive amount of black tape and a blindfold, Dittelman knew precisely what each student drew: a sports stadium, a corndog and a birthday cake.
Junior Chauncy Coleman, whose drawing of a spider web was guessed by Dittelman, was astounded by what had happened.
“I was really mind blown because I was telling everybody around me that he wasn’t gonna get me,” said Coleman, “and then right after all that talk, he got me. It was really dope, and I was very confused about how he was able to do that.”
In a stunning finale, Dittelman captivated the audience by placing four students in the roles of racehorses with assigned names and cards. They could choose to keep the cards or make the choice to trade with another “horse.”
After numerous chair switches, Dittelman asked them to reveal their cards which were read in the order of four, three, one and two. The students turned around their chairs which astonishingly matched the exact order. Prior to the act, Dittelman handed a mysterious envelope to a student which was revealed to display the same sequence.
Despite there being no prizes for students to win this time, the rally still proved to be very successful as students left considerably more excited than when they entered.
Hopefully, Loy Norrix will see the return of Dittelman, as he has no current plans to retire.
Dittelman said, “This is the career path, so I plan to keep doing this until I can’t anymore. This was a dream come true, and I thank ‘America’s Got Talent’ for the big break.”