Beverly Hills Courier

Mentalist Grabs Rotarians’ Attention

By Norma Zager — Staff Writer


Members of the Beverly Hills Rotary Club were treated to a demonstration on Monday by experimentalist Gerard Senehi at the Beverly Hills Hotel, who bent keys, made cigarettes fly through the air, glass stems bend and stunned the audience by correctly predicting the day’s events in a Federal Express letter written and delivered the previous week.

He wants people to go along for the ride and become involved in the process.

“The point is that’s it’s for the entertainment value. I’m an entertainer and I give people something that takes them on a journey.

“This is for fun and entertainment, but it’s the real mysteries of the universe that are the real deal. What I’m doing is just little issues. Who we are and our purpose for being here, or what is love, these are life’s real mysteries.

“I can’t remove my personality from what I do, but it’s really only entertainment. I don’t want to send a message through my act.

“There are entertainers who blur the line between what is real and what is entertainment. I don’t believe in doing that.”

According to Senehi, he feels very strongly about that because on some level he feels it may send the wrong message.

Senehi began entertaining three years ago at the behest of friends who had been enjoying his gifts since he was twelve.

He started by calling a talent agency in New York and asking to show them his act. They said to come in and after a minute they called in everyone in the office to watch him perform. He began working right away and has been busy ever since traveling throughout the United States and Europe.

“It’s something I’ve always been interested in, but never really had the chutzpa to make happen. It came about through the encouragement of others.”

He says he is looking forward to creating a television show from an original idea he has had.

Senehi closed the show by asking Mitchell Dawson, co-chair of the program committee, to open and read a sealed Federal Express letter delivered the week before the appearance.

“The letter arrived a week in advance and I didn’t open it until the day of his appearance.

“The odd thing is that I have many suits, but only two brown ones and I almost didn’t wear one that day.” [Having predicted what he would be wearing].

“He also wrote about my white beard [as the person reading the prediction] and had said I could give it [the letter] to someone else to read if I wanted.

“He turned a skeptic into a possible believer, ” Dawson said.