If you weren’t at Donovan’s Pub this past Friday night, you missed some serious humor, magic and even a few secrets.

The night featured Matt the Knife, a revered magician and mentalist. Born in Boston, Matt worked as a con-artist from ages 14 to 21. He ran card-cheating rings, shop-lifting rings and even had some influence with several Mafia families. During his early twenties, Matt adapted his very unique skill sets to become the magician and mentalist that he is today. Since his transi-tion from a life of crime to that of an entertainer, Matt has achieved worldwide praise and fame, performing in 17 countries and on four conti-nents. His sense of humor and rare talents have made him a respected performer.

Matt started the night by declaring that his show was not for the easily offended, jok-ing that he would do just about anything for the sake of humor and that if audience mem-bers are offended by literally anything, it may not be the show for them.

“It doesn’t bother me if you want to leave,” Matt said, adding that, since the New York Times said he was great, he couldn’t care less what college students think.

He jumped right into his routine with his first act: sword swallowing. Innuendo jokes filled the air as he began discussing his unique ability to open up his throat. However, he did not swallow an actual sword, joking that that of course would be crazy. Instead, he success-fully swallowed a stretched out pink metal coat hanger and had an audience member pull it out.

Some more physi-cal wonders were in store for the night. Matt asked an audience member to join him on stage. Barefoot, he piggy-backed the unsus-pecting audience mem-ber across broken glass placed on stage. To the audience’s wonder, he somehow did this with-out receiving so much as a scratch on either of his feet.

Matt then showed off his undeniable abil-ity to read people. He brought up five contes-tants who each grabbed a marble without Matt knowing which one they had grabbed. The four people with the red marbles were to lie whereas the person with the only white marble was to tell the truth. He started out by asking them baseline questions but then jumped into the “liar question” to determine who was lying and telling the truth: What is your mother’s maiden name? With almost no hesitation, Matt correct-ly guessed who was lying and who was telling the truth. The audience cheered, amazed by his perceptive abilities.

Just as impressive was his ability to guess the name of an audience member’s first kiss. Matt asked an audience member to begin writing down the name of his first kiss on a piece of paper. Just two letters in, Matt guessed the name and got it right.

Matt’s perceptive skills reached the sixth sense level towards the end of the night. He asked au-dience members to find random objects around the room and bring them up on stage while he was blindfolded. They placed the objects in front of him and, to everyone’s surprise, he successfully named them: contact lens cleaner, an apple, a condom and a ketchup packet.

Everyone in attendance Friday night may re-quest their heads be examined based on what they saw. However, this is probably a common feeling among people who have witnessed a magician or mentalist as skilled as Matt the Knife perform.

Contact Eric Bryden at [email protected].