...mentalist conjures up charity effort

REGINA -- Following his intuition is something Jeff Richards has made a career out of, so when he received the message that his wife was expecting, he just knew what he should do next.

Having benefitted from Regina’s neo natal ward himself as a baby with respiratory troubles, the Regina-raised entertainer decided to donate 100 per cent of the proceeds from an upcoming show to the ward.

“I was inspired by Z99’s radiothon to raise money for the neo natal facilities. When my wife and I found out we were going to have a baby, we knew it was something we wanted to do,” he explained.

With a baby coming in January, Richards wanted to do something special to celebrate receiving the recent news.

“We are excited and what better way to celebrate than to donate to a (unit) that is so essential to the families of Regina,” he said.

Richards spends countless hours each day sharpening his intuitive skills as a mentalist, which by his own description is a psychic phenomenon performer.

“If I could sum up what I do would it be psychic? I tend to distance myself from that term a little bit because there is stigma around that term for some groups. For me it’s based around intuition and the powers of the human mind.”

Richards started out as a magician at 12 years old but after receiving mentorship from some of those whom he considers the world’s best mentalists, he found his calling.

“I saw David Copperfield performing on television and I wanted to know ‘how did he do that?’ I had to know. In my search for magic, I started to move away from that and into things in my own lives or others that I couldn’t explain,” Richards said.

“I started to learn to tune into the intuitive nature that everybody has. It was a quest to explain the unexplainable.”

From humble beginnings of performing at children’s birthday parties, Richards has turned his ability into a live interactive show where he said he receives and interprets thought messages from the audience.

“At one show there was a lady in the audience who was thinking about an affair with a famous celebrity. And I was picking this up. I kept getting this image of a hat and a whip. And so I say this to the audience and I hear this chuckle come from the back of the room and this lady raises her hand and says ‘that’s me’. It turns out this lady had had a little bit of a romantic encounter with Harrison Ford,” he said.

Bending metal objects such as forks, spoons, coins and even a 12 inch solid steel spike with the power of the mind is another part of his act that Richards explains takes many hours of practice each day.

Richard’s fundraiser show runs on Saturday night at the Distrikt night club. For tickets call 924-5973 or go online to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
- Regina Leader-Post  July 24, 2008