It’s best to be honest with 23-year-old Karan Singh, since he’s anyway going to figure out what you’re thinking. Mind readers can do that really well. If you don’t believe us, you can test his skills at Akshara theatre, where he will be performing in the coming week.
As he takes his place in front of us to tell us more about how a youngster like him became a psychological illusionist, and magician, in addition to being a mind reader, we find his eyes carefully scanning our expressions, body language and disposition. “You don’t have to worry. I am not reading you right now,” he laughs.
People and their minds have fascinated him for long. As a child, he was an ignored kid at school. Then he started playing the flute and a few other instruments that other children wouldn’t popularly choose to learn. Subsequently, he decided to learn a few magic tricks and started performing at school functions. No other kid was doing that either. “When I started, everybody noticed my talent. I realised that I thoroughly enjoyed entertaining and since then, I have never left the stage,” says Singh.
Performing more than 100 shows a year, he says he never gets tired of his routines. In fact, when earlier this year, on September 19, his grandmother passed on, Singh didn’t use it as an excuse to sit and mourn at home. “She went away at 1 pm and I had a show at 8.30 pm that evening. I dragged myself onto the stage and let out my emotions through the work I do. It’s the best way for me to recuperate,” he says. Something about being happy even while being sad makes Karan the strong person and performer he is.
Does that strength help his girlfriend at all? Absolutely not, he confesses. “She was reading author Chetan Bhagat’s Half Girlfriend and looked at me and said, ‘that’s exactly what I feel like—half-girlfriend, because one side is always under the radar’,” he smiles and tell us.
His upcoming show at Akshara is going to be one of his biggest. It’s a story of a man from the 1920s who gets possessed by a spirit, and that spirit makes him do psychic acts. Adding a little bit of theatre into the performance, Karan says he will be using only one prop—his audience. He gets about 30 seconds to analyse a person and then use him to show the things he does best—tricks, magic and illusions. Are you ready to be tested?
Date December 11 and 12
Time 8 pm on December 11, and 6 pm and 8 pm on December 12
Venue 11-B, Baba Kharak Singh Marg.
Tickets Bookmyshow.com