Wayne Hoffman, a mentalist, and illusionist, performed a number of illusions and hypnotic tricks to a crowd of about 190 people in Pace’s Gottesman Room on Tues., Feb. 7.

Hoffman has performed his show to thousands of people on TV shows and broadcasts such as America’s Got Talent, The TODAY show, “Phenomenon” with Chris Angel, The Glenn Beck Show, TLC, Animal Planet on The Discovery Network, and The Ellen Degeneres Show.

“I started doing magic as a hobby when I was a kid,” Hoffman said. “And then I studied psychology in college, I combined psychology with performance mystery art, and I created the show I have today called ‘Mind Candy.’”

His passion for magic, psychology, and illusions combined became his professional life as well when he started making money from his self-proclaimed hobby.

Hoffman’s show consisted of reading audience members’ minds, demonstrating an alleged supernatural phenomenon by predicting the future, and “traveling” through time.

The show was an interactive production that is structured on audience participation and every twist and turn involve the audience.

Hoffman warmed up the crowd by finding three volunteers. The first volunteer picked a random number and the second and third picked random words.

He stunned the audience and volunteers by being able to read their thoughts and accurately guess their random word and number choices.

In his next act, he set out to display the connection between twins.

Fraternal twins, John and Tia Fasano were in the audience and chosen as Hoffman’s next guests.

Hoffman said the twins were “experiencing a living dream,” and connecting through “electrical signals” in their bodies and Fasano was sold on Hoffman’s ability.

“I was very nervous to go up because I have stage fright, but I felt obligated to go up because I am a twin and it was a twin illusion,” John Fasano said. “He was definitely legit, he is very good at being an illusionist.”

Sophomore Jeremy Langdale enjoyed the show and connected specifically to the twin part of the performance.

“I got to say my favorite part was the twin segment, where the two fraternal twins went up [on stage] and they felt the same stuff, it spoke to me because I am a twin myself,” Langdale said. “Hoffman then tried to pick on up the audience’s thoughts during this experiment and managed to amaze the people whose thoughts he was able to bond with.”

Hoffman then tried to pick on up the audience’s thoughts during this experiment and managed to amaze the people whose thoughts he was able to bond with.

“By being here tonight you have given yourself a chance to have your mind read while you’re sitting in your seat,” Hoffman said during the show.

Lastly Hoffman “traveled through time” by making an empty crushed can of soda fill back up with just the help of his finger alone.

Amber Borrero, Vice President of the Programing Board, organized the event and found Hoffman through a conference called, Association for the Promotion of Campus Activities last fall.

Borrero said he did some unexpected tricks that he did not include in his conference act.

“Well, when I first saw him at the conference, I could not believe what he was doing,” Borrero said. “I thought there has to be some trick to it, there has to be something behind it. People looked at me, they thought I was up to it, but I didn’t even know he was doing that.”

Universities and colleges are Hoffman’s favorite venues among his 100 show lineup per year because “Everyone comes in open minded and ready to party.”

Hoffman said that he hopes the takeaway of his show will inspire others and give them a sense that there are greater things out there in this world.