1. D
riving home from
church last Sunday, I
stood on my brakes as
the car in front of me swerved
to miss an animal in the road.
It appeared to be too late for us
both: the fluffy, white body was
motionless on the centerline,
and my heart sank. And in the
next moment, I was flooded
with relief and felt the tickling
emotions of pending good for-
tune.
Because the body belonged
to a child’s stuffed, white rabbit.
In 1985, at the age of 25, and
after a year’s worth of open
mic performances, I dropped
out of college and naively
drove across the country from
Georgia to Los Angeles, hum-
ming the lyric from Billy Joel’s
“My Life” (“Closed the shop,
sold the house, bought a ticket
to the West Coast — now he
gives them a stand-up routine
in L.A.”) during the endless
stretch of highway that is I-40.
Preying on starry-eyed kids
such as myself, palm readers
and self-proclaimed psychics
littered the area in shabby little
bungalows that dotted east Los
Angeles. They were also brazen
enough to actually approach the
unsuspecting in malls — which
once happened to me.
By MOLLY PHIPPS
Halifax Media Group
“I’ve always had a fascination
with playing mind games with
people,” said Ronn Winter, pro-
fessional mentalist from Spar-
tanburg. “So I got into magic.
Magic and mentalism go hand-
in-hand.”
Winter started doing tricks
in high school, but he gradu-
ally moved toward mentalism
instead of magic.
He started out performing
at parties and corporate events
across the Carolinas. Last year,
he began performing on stage.
On Saturday, one of those shows
is coming to the Joy Perfor-
mance Center in Kings Moun-
tain, N.C. It will be Winter’s first
show in the area and is titled
“Fate of Mind.”
“In this series, it is com-
pletely different from last year’s
shows,” he said. “This show has
also got a theme to it about fate
and predestination, predestined
events.”
Winter said he will entertain
the audience with feats of men-
talism and mind-reading.
“We will be tossing a top-
secret object out into the
audience to pick random par-
ticipants. We make sure that it’s
random,” he said.
Reading minds
Although he couldn’t say
exactly what he would be doing
in the show, since it’s top secret,
he did tell a story about a previ-
ous show.
“There was a particular
instance where this lady was
to think of a person’s name,
first name only, that she had an
emotional attachment to,” he
said. “She was a different ethnic
group, Indian or something.”
Have a story idea? Entertainment Editor: Jose Franco 864-562-7223 jose.franco@shj.com
books home & garden television
EHerald-Journal
Spartanburg, S.C.
SUNDAY
AUGUST 4,2013
Pam Stone
White rabbits lead to new
adventures, right Alice?
Local mentalist aims to amaze
Mind reader plans
show in Kings Mtn.
Want to go?
Who: Ronn Winter
When: 8 p.m. Saturday
Where: Joy Performance Center,
Kings Mountain, N.C.
Tickets: $15
Info: www.ronnwinter.showclix.com
I’M JUST SAYIN’
Hoops are on fire
BRITTANY RANDOLPH/HALIFAX MEDIA GROUP
Ronn Winter, a professional mentalist
from Spartanburg, will present “Fate
of Mind” in Kings Mountain, N.C.
By DUSTIN WYATT
dustin.wyatt@shj.com
I
t was time to start a fire.
After an evening of hula hooping
inside the Carolina Ballet Theatre in
Greenville, Rachel Wesselman moved
the activities to the parking lot.
She retrieved a can of fuel from the
trunk of her car.
“Bring me a cup of water or a safety
towel,” she told some friends.
Precautionary measures, she said. Just
in case.
“Does anyone have a lighter?” she asked.
She then got out the fire hoop — a circu-
lar metal pole that connects to the outside
of her hula hoop. She stepped into it as
friends put a lighter to five fuel-soaked
wicks.
The hoop instantly turned a bright
orange, and the 24-year-old was surround-
ed by lively, dancing flames. The warm
summer night suddenly became a bit hot-
ter.
“I’ve burned myself a dozen times, but
never bad,” Wesselman said, her face glow-
ing as it reflected the fire. “But the sound is
scary.”
MAIN PHOTO BY JOHN BYRUM/JOHN.BYRUM@SHJ.COM; LEFT PHOTO BY DUSTIN WYATT/DUSTIN.WYATT@SHJ.COM; RIGHT PHOTO BY TIM KIMZEY/TIM.KIMZEY@SHJ.COM
CENTER: Sarah Rothschild, 11, competes with other children in a hula hoop contest on Maple Street in Spartanburg. LEFT: Rachel Wesselman, 24, twirls a
flaming hula hoop in Greenville. She is part of a hula hoop group. RIGHT: Page Rogers twirls some of her homemade hula hoops in her Landrum home.
SEE HOOPS PAGE E2
SEE MENTALIST PAGE E2SEE PAM STONE PAGE E2