Frederic Da Silva doesn’t claim to have supernatural powers. What he does claim is that you may have some serious thoughts about whether he has them by the end of one of his Paranormal shows at Bally’s.
“Skeptics are fooled, scientists are fooled, magicians are fooled, hypnotists are fooled, because it is a mix of methods,” Da Silva said. “You would have to be an expert in everything to understand that night how it works.”
Da Silva combines magic, hypnotism and other disciplines into his act. He might tell you what card is on the top of a deck, guess the time at which a watch has been randomly stopped, or pull a word out of your mind that you have just read in a popular novel.
He might even give you powers for the show. “We turn people into mentalists, so they can guess things. Two people are asked to write down a two-digit number, and every day they write down the same number and they have no idea why.”
He’s very adamant about ensuring audiences do not think there are plants. Volunteers are selected with Frisbees or plush animals thrown randomly. That’s important, since up to 20 people might be pulled onstage in any given show.
“We produce effects that are unexplainable and impossible to understand,” Da Silva said. “You could think it is real or not; no one agrees on the same explanation.”
Bally’s, 4 & 9:30 p.m. Sun.-Wed. & Fri., 9:30 p.m. Mon., 4 p.m. Thurs. & Sat., starting at $55 plus tax and fee. 702.777.2782
