Ark Valley News - Valley Center magician to drive blindfolded in televised event

Curtis  Waltermire

Valley Center magician to drive blindfolded in televised event
By Matt Heilman
Last Updated: August 22, 2013

Curtis  Waltermire will get in your head.

The professional magician and mentalist doesn't stick to the cliché act of card tricks and pulling rabbits out of hats.  His act is more cerebral and is meant to leave his audience wondering how he's able to see into their minds, not where he may be hiding something in a secret compartment or pocket.

"My standard fare is mental magic," he said. "I tell people, ‘forget your preconceived ideas of a typical magic show. … It's magic of the mind."

Waltermire has performed at corporate gatherings, fundraisers and parties across the Wichita area, the State of Kansas and surrounding states. Among his performances, the Valley Center resident puts on a show every month at VIP parties at Wichita's Metro Grill.

In one of his tricks,  Waltermire will ask someone to think of an image. Without being told what the subject is thinking, he will draw the image with alarming detail.

On Aug. 24,  Waltermire is taking his act to the street. Actually a parking lot, but he'll display his "slight of mind" ability behind the wheel of a car.

At about 1 p.m. Aug. 24,  Waltermire will attempt to drive a car blindfolded during the Black Top Nationals autocross event in the parking lot of Lawrence Dumont Stadium in downtown Wichita.

Wearing two audience-tested blindfolds, he will attempt to maneuver a car through the autocross course. For safe measure, the car's windshield will be covered with newspapers.

There will be no remote controls or GPS devices and  Waltermire won't be driving his own car.

"I don't want to use my own car," he said. "Everyone assumes I rigged it."

He'll be behind the wheel of a vehicle belonging to a young man who is donating it for the stunt. The car owner will look down on the autocross course from an elevated lift or platform.

Waltermire said he will tap into the car owner's mind to guide him through the course, similar to hacking into a computer. He said he is going to demonstrate his ability to perform what is known as ‘remote viewing,' which is the ability to see objects through someone else's eyes.

He said the stunt has been referred to as the modern-day version of "The Headless Horseman."

Waltermire previously performed the stunt last Halloween when he drove blindfolded through the Leeker's parking lot in Valley Center. He said the Aug. 24 stunt will be more complex and done at a higher rate of speed, although the trick is in completion of the course and not the time it takes to do it.

"I just want to complete the course,"  Waltermire said. "I'm not going to do it in record time or anything. … The stunt is amazing enough."

Waltermire said the stunt will be taped for a local broadcast of Park City resident David Wolfe's show, "Street Rodding American Style," on KPTS Channel 8. However, he encouraged anyone interested in seeing him attempt the stunt to witness it live.

"It will look different on TV," he said.

Waltermire said he was drawn to perform at Black Top Nationals because of the event's support for the Kansas Honor Flight, which gives veterans the opportunity to see the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Waltermire's grandfather was a World War II veteran who had the chance to visit the memorial on an honor flight last year.  Waltermire, who grew up in Illinois, said he started performing magic tricks professionally at the local level in high school.

After graduating in 1986, he continued performing shows to help him supplement his income in college. Though he's been a professional magician since the mid 1980s, he said his interest in magic started when he was a child and watched his uncle perform coin tricks.

"I was bitten by the magic bug as they say and it infected me," Waltermire said.

For more information on Waltermire and his act, visit his Facebook page a www.facebook.com/curtismagicfanpage. Waltermire also is preparing to launch his new website, www.curtisthementalist.com.