Cindythings.com Candy Mentalist Gallery Candy Piddingtons

Meet The Piddingtons! He's Sidney and she's Lesley. They were a famous two-person mind-reading act from Down Under after World War II. Our great friend Barry Wiley is the world's expert on them, having interviewed them extensively and researched them for years, so I know Sidney was once a prisoner of war and thought up his mind-reading act with a friend to kill time. The Piddingtons did all kinds of impressive publicity stunts together and wowed audiences, especially in England. For instance, Lesley once received a thought Sidney sent her while she was a passenger flying in a plane. You can learn lots more about them from Barry's great audiocasette on the Piddington's, released by Martin Breese. A while back we were going to a party at our friend Loyd's. Everyone was supposed to perform something, and a lot of mentalists would be there, so Joe decided we should do the Piddingtons' act. I am not a performer at all, so when I agreed, I didn't know what I was getting myself into. I soon found out I not only had to learn Lesley's complicated part of the act, I was going to have to be a dramatic actress, while of course all Joe had to do was ask me a question every so often and look attractive. We rehearsed all afternoon, and I was terrible. And then I anxiously rehearsed all the way to the party, which was two hours away: "I am getting--it's--I'm seeing--no wait--no--yes--yes, I see it--it's--a-- no--wait a minute, maybe it's not that--it's--oh, okay, now I know--yes--oh--it's a--star!" I got worse with each passing mile. After all that, no one performed at the party. This Mrs. Piddington included. It's a good thing, because I never did figure out my motivation.