Gerry McCambridge - The Mentalist

When Gerry McCambridge performed in his critically acclaimed off-Broadway show, one critic wrote that "Gerry was absolutely amazing on his television special, but is a lot funnier and more personable in his live show."

After witnessing one of Gerry's live performances, Steve Wynn the billionaire, and owner of the Wynn Las Vegas Hotel and Casino called Gerry "One of the most unique acts he has ever seen!"

For 20 years, Gerry, known as the "Mentalist to the Stars" has entertained around the world at ultra private A-List Hollywood Celebrity parties.

Gerry McCambridge is a native New Yorker, born on Halloween in 1962 and adopted by a loving family after spending some time as an infant in an orphanage. At the age of 8, Gerry received a magic kit for Christmas.

He practiced the art of visual deception for a few years. For his 12th birthday, Gerry’s brother gave him a ticket to see his very first Broadway show. It was “The Magic Show” with magician Doug Henning.

After watching the show, Gerry McCambridge knew that performing on stage was now his life’s calling. He chatted with Doug Henning after the show and Doug offered support and guidance with Gerry’s magic career. Gerry dreamed that some day he too would be on stage performing nightly. A year later Gerry saw Doug Henning on NBC TV in his first primetime network special. Gerry dreamed he too would have an NBC primetime network special one day, just like his mentor Doug Henning.

A few months later, Gerry McCambridge performed his very first live paid show and received a standing ovation from the enthusiastic audience. Gerry sunk himself deeper into live performing when his parents were preoccupied with their divorce. He studied every piece of magic he could get his hands on, as well as taking speech classes, drama classes and television production classes.

At the age of 15, due to a series of unfortunate events, Gerry McCambridge accidentally stumbled onto his mind manipulation and verbal persuasion abilities. He quickly realized there was a systematic way to convince people he knew what they were thinking. He changed his studies from the art of visual illusion to the art of mental misdirection, also known as mentalism.

Gerry McCambridge continued to perform his live magic shows after graduating high school, but would occasionally include a mentalism routine. As his mentalist skills increased, he slowly phased in more mentalism routines and phased out his visual illusions.

After phasing all the magic effects, and fine-tuning a 75 minute mentalist show, Gerry started performing for Fortune 500 companies around the country. Gerry also became in demand on the "A List" celebrities party circuit as well. After being on the road and performing his LIVE show for more than 10 years, Gerry was growing tired of traveling. Being away from home so much also helped destroy his first marriage.

Gerry McCambridge decided he wanted to find a way for the audiences to come to him every night instead of traveling to them so he could spend more time with his three children. Performing nightly in the same location nightly in Las Vegas was the obvious solution. After visiting Sin City in 1996, Gerry felt he needed marquee name value before returning to pitch his live show to the casino entertainment directors. Gerry returned to New York and spent the next two years in a nasty divorce battle. It finally ended in 1998 and Gerry and his ex-wife parted as friends.

While going through the divorce, Gerry met the true love of his life while performing in a comedy club. Her name was Kim and she fully understood his dreams and goals and admired his persistence and inability to accept no as an answer. They were married soon after his divorce was final.

Gerry McCambridge decided the best way to gain international celebrity was to take his talents to the airwaves in the form of a television special. While writing the show, Gerry's goal was to replicate the LIVE audience atmosphere he was accustomed to performing in. As executive producer, it gave him full creative control over the production. Gerry also wanted to mix in spontaneous remote location shots where unsuspecting credible participants are caught off guard and amazed within moments of meeting Gerry and witnessing his unique mentalism talents.

For months, Gerry would spend several hours a day sitting in a local Starbucks coffee house. He would eavesdrop on many different conversations, and listen to what interested people. He would hear about relationship problems, and dating problems and wrote routines around them.

One routine was inspired because Gerry’s father was a New York City Detective and his father-in-law was a New York City Police Officer. As a child, Gerry grew up respecting the law and the people who enforced it. After the September 11th tragedy, Gerry wanted to show his thanks and appreciation to the Fire Department and Police Department of New York City for all they did. Gerry wanted to make them the stars and contacted both city agencies and asked if they wanted to be on his television special. The Police department graciously declined being on camera, but the Fire Department agreed. Gerry opened his TV special highlighting the firemen.

When NBC's president, Jeff Zucker, heard about Gerry's ideas and overall concept for the special, he immediately knew NBC was going to be the network for the show in the United States. Zucker had witnessed first hand how amazing Gerry was in front of a live audience during a few celebrity parties, and was confident Gerry would be just as amazing on television... and he was right.

More than 6.2 million people tuned in to The Mentalist on NBC in the United States. Millions more watched in Canada, Africa, Korea, the Middle East, New Zealand, India, Thailand, Australia, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. It seemed like one day Gerry was the best-kept secret with the celebrity A-List crowd and the next day he was an international star!

In June of 2005, after the birth of his sixth child, Luke Vegas McCambridge, Gerry McCambridge headed back out to Las Vegas and immediately landed a three-week contract at a local casino. Due to overwhelming audience response, Gerry’s contract was extended, keeping him there for more than 47 weeks. The Legendary Stardust Hotel & Casino on the strip heard about Gerry’s success and offered him a spot headlining in their historic showroom. Gerry jumped at the chance to perform in the same showroom where Siegfried and Roy once started.

In his performances, Gerry McCambridge uses his mentalist abilities purely for entertainment purposes. Being a husband and father, Gerry is very conscious of using his talent in positive and entertaining ways. His purpose is to entertain people and get them involved in the performance without using any fancy props, violent or sexually suggestive images—just intelligent, and thought-provoking material.

Today, Gerry McCambridge is living his dream - performing nightly on a Las Vegas stage and with an NBC primetime special to his credit - proving that patience and persistence does indeed pay off!