On Monday, Oct. 8, Sean Bott took more than just the interest of Rockhurst students – he took their very thoughts.

Bott, a mentalist performer from Salt Lake City, is no stranger to the mind-reading career. This is his ninth year of performing mentalist shows full-time, but he has been working on his skills for 25 years.

With each accurate show, his reputation is built. He travels around the United States to perform. On occasion, Bott even performs in other countries.

When Bott performed at Rockhurst, his good reputation remained intact.

Although the night began roughly when several audience members chose not to participate, he was able to save the event. The moment he asked for volunteers, instead of picking them on his own, hands shot up around Arrupe Auditorium.

For each “stunt,” he picked three to four people. Without prior knowledge, he disclosed information about and thoughts of each volunteer. He knew movie titles people were thinking of, the name of a volunteer’s mother and places in the world that people want to visit.

For anyone who did not witness this event in person, the stories would, undoubtedly, be hard to believe.

Maureen Ryan, a Rockhurst junior, was among the students lucky enough to experience Bott’s talent firsthand. Ryan explained that, going into the event, she had high expectations for Bott’s ability to read minds.

Although she has watched other mentalists on shows like America’s Got Talent, she had no clue how good he would be compared to them. “He definitely impressed me,” she said. When she realized she had become part of the show, Ryan “was stunned,” she said.

“It was fun to watch from the audience, but when I was on stage, I could tell that he didn’t have anything up his sleeves, and he didn’t seem to be influencing our decisions in any way,” Ryan said.

Days after Bott’s show, there is still buzz about it on campus.

Students talked about how they could not believe what happened during the event. Volunteers who were able to go on stage have given their accounts to those who are still baffled by the event.

According to Bott, that is why he does it – to create shock and awe, stirring up buzz.

As was clearly shown to those of us who attended, Bott loves to make people have a good laugh. His favorite part about being a mentalist is looking into the crowd and seeing “that moment when jaws drop,” Bott said.

“I have already told plenty of people that they missed out by not attending his show,” Ryan said.

It is safe to say that Sean Bott left his mark here at Rockhurst.

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