Sacramento State’s favorite mentalist and psychologist Craig Karges will make a return to campus for an evening of trippy tricks, floating objects and mind readings inside the University Union Ballroom on Thursday, Oct. 13.

Karges, who was named Campus Performer of the Year six times by the National Association for Campus Activities, considers himself both a magician and a mentalist.

For him, magicians are usually related to physical nature where some actions happen to an object, such as making them float or that they disappear and reappear. On the other hand, a mentalist requires more of a skill to read minds and predict thoughts of participants on stage. Karges said he has abilities to master both styles in his shows.

Karges also said that he has been working with magic since the age of 12. His uncle taught him more of the psychological and intuitive aspects of magic, while books taught him more of the physical and stage presentation tricks.

“I was always fascinated by magic, and I was also fascinated by the mind so it’s all I really wanted to do,” Karges said. “I paid my way through college by performing and then graduated and hit the road and that was it. 5,000 some shows later, I’m coming to Sac State.”

And at that free admission Sac State show, Karges will use between 30-40 audience members as volunteers. Karges said he will read the audience’s minds by asking them to concentrate on random things as he picks up on their thoughts and ideas.

Another trick Karges promises to include will be a floating table. The invited group of audience will get an opportunity to touch the floating object to examine whether it was fake.

“There’s no smoke and mirrors,” Karges said. “There’s nothing to hide behind it. It’s just all these crazy, wild and unusual things happening on stage with (the audience) as my assistants and essentially, getting the extraordinary to happen.”

Ajamu Lamumba, UNIQUE Programs advisor, said that Karges goes to various campuses throughout the United States to perform his tricks. And based on his previous performances, Karges was very popular with students and the campus community.

“(Karges) is kind of extraordinary,” Lamumba said. “(He’s) a mind mentalist, which is kind of like magic, but mind reading as well. And he makes things levitate. He’s pretty entertaining and he’s very well received on various college campuses including ours.”

Carly Preston, a senior chemistry major, said she watched Karges’ previous performance at Sac State back in September 2012 and she liked how it was different from the usual concerts, comedy shows and movies that the campus tends to host.

“It’s just this guy that’s doing these really mind-trippy things,” Preston said. “That’s what I really enjoy. It’s just something completely different. I love variety acts and I love (how) these kinds of performances can change up our semester.”

“An Evening with Mentalist Craig Karges” will take place on Oct. 13 in the University Union Ballroom starting at 7:30 p.m.