Cecelia FranciscoJustin Hallman and
Alyssa Schoenleber
staff writers
jjh722@cabrini.edu and ams725@cabrini.edu
After three and a half months of planning, Shocktoberfest has arrived at Cabrini. “Our goal was to have a week long schedule of events every night leading up to the annual Murder Mystery Dinner and haunted trail,” junior Mike Sofia, Campus Activities and Programming Board president, said.
The Evansons
Kicking off the first night of Shocktoberfest were about 80 people who sat in Grace Hall’s Atrium to see what the “Psychic Duo” had in store.
“Belief is in each person’s mind, heart, and soul,” Tessa Evason, one half of the “Psychic Duo,” said.
Tessa and her husband, Jeff Evason, held the audience members’ attention with their performance on Thursday, Oct. 23,. beginning shortly after 8 p.m.
Jeff Evason took hold of the show while Tessa, who was blindfolded, guessed the serial number on a $20 bill and several possessions, and their meanings, that belonged to audience members.
While Tessa waited on the side of the stage, Jeff called on those seated to pick any number between 10 and 99. Junior Megan Mirzoeff called out, “45.” She was asked to come to the stage and read a letter written by Tessa on the ride to Cabrini, which was sealed in a security envelope before the show, by a CAP board member. Reading the letter, she realized Tessa had written about her. The letter described that a female, of a certain height, wearing a certain outfit, having the initials “M.M.,” would call the number 45. Besides being a few inches off in her height assumption, Tessa had predicted everything else correctly.
The highlight of the night was when Jeff asked for an audience member who had a family member pass away at least three years ago. A lone chair sat on stage, and the audience member picked was asked to sit in it. While sitting, she was asked to close her eyes, concentrate on her grandmother who had passed away, and remember any unique feelings such as temperature or a touch.
Several audience members stood around the stage, making sure Jeff never touched the person sitting while he circled around her. Another viewer, who stood at the front of the stage, was instructed to take a picture with a provided Polaroid camera on his command.
Jeff asked what she felt, and she replied “hands touching each of my shoulders.” Sure enough, the picture showed an image, looking something like her deceased family member, over her with her arms stretched above her shoulders.
Tessa said, “We are not trying to make them believe. We invite people to challenge themselves.”
Jim Karol
Jim Karol and Ethan Bauer were the stars of the Shocktoberfest event on Friday, Oct. 24. Karol and Bauer had a not-so-normal show in store. Compared to their previous acts at Cabrini, there was a one-on-one feeling during the show that night.
Bauer, in the middle of the show, was blindfolded. Audience members had to sample different Snapple flavors and Bauer had to guess what kind they were drinking-he guessed all of them right.
At the end of the show Karol and Bauer invited the audience to pull their chairs close to the stage to learn a variety of tricks. Of these tricks was how to saw a person in half and a variety of card tricks.
When asked about the other Shocktoberfest performers, Karol said, “If I was the director of student activities I would have Stevie Starr each year.”
Stevie Starr
On Saturday evening. Oct. 25, at the Dixon Center, Cabrini welcomed Stevie Starr, the Human Regurgitater. The fun-filled night commenced at 8:00 p.m., when Starr began his amazing and twisted act of swallowing items and then curiously bringing them back up. Various items included quarters, a rubrics cube, an eight ball, rings, a lock and key, which was brought back up secured through a ring, butane gas, soap, and the list goes on.
Starr, originally from Scotland, explained how the actual show for all intensive purposes is a con, but really did swallow all the items. He has appeared all over the world, on different television programs, and has never been sick a day in his life from his peculiar profession.
By far the most awkward moment of the show was when Starr performed the act of swallow live goldfish. Starr took down the fish into his stomach, talked for a bit, and then brought the lively creatures back out in various fashions.
Todd Robins
“If this bothers you, then get the hell out!” Todd Robins said to a small audience located in the Grace Hall Atrium on Wednesday, Oct. 28.
Robins claims his show to be full of vile and disgusting things. With having an audience member check all of his stunt equipment, Robbins came “for one reason, and one reason only- to fill you with surprise,” and he definitely did.
Putting matches, which were on fire, and a lit cigar out on his tongue, he had everyone’s attention. He had decided that the taste of “French kissing an ashtray” wasn’t very good, so he needed something “light to snack on.” After chewing up the light bulb, pulled out of a wall sconce in Grace Hall, he washed it down with a bottle of Windex and flossed with the filament.
Without causing any harm to himself, he swallowed a variety of different swords, walked and jumped on broken glass, had his hand thrown into an animal trap, drove a nail into his nose and blew up a hot water bag until it popped.
Robins wants to keep the 150-year tradition of the Great American Sideshow alive.
Freshman Mark Garlit said, “He was absolutely hilarious. The greatest part was he stayed after to show people how to do some of the stunts.”
Don’t Miss The Haunted Trail Thursday And Friday, October 30-31 9 p.m.-1 a.m.
Posted to the web by: Cecelia Francisco
