NBC Parties net a special for mind master

Gerry Cambridge says he finds it 'double-cool' to meet television's stars.
By ED BARK
DALLAS MORNING NEWS
"The closer you are, the more I can see your eyes and blow your brains out."
Mentalist Gerry Cambridge doesn't mean this literally. He's just trying to get his audience to move nearer to his makeshift stage at an NBC party before he reveals their innermost thoughts.
"I think what he does will shock you," NBC Entertainment, News and Cable Group president Jeff Zucker had said earlier. Most TV critics paid him little mind, but a handful later trickled off to watch Cambridge put silver dollars over his eyes, secure them with five pieces of duct tape and affix a leather blindfold for good measure.
He then correctly deduced what several audience members had written on note paper and replicated a picture that one of them had drawn. He even divined the cell phone number that someone was dialing. There were limits, though.
"Don't write down, 'What did I have for breakfast, psychic boy?'" Cambridge advised.
Upcoming special
Otherwise, he's become one of Zucker's fair-haired boys after first performing at star-studded parties held at the powerful executive's Los Angeles home. A one-hour NBC special, scheduled for this spring, will test whether Cambridge can become the network's answer to ABC's David Blaine.
Cambridge initially had no idea who Zucker was, even though Caryn Zucker had duly informed him, "My husband is very influential."
"I thought, 'OK, I've heard that before,'" Cambridge recalls.
But then he found himself in the midst of the Zuckers' celebrity houseguests, including "Friends" stars Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer and Matt LeBlanc, Larry David of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "Seinfeld" star Julia Louis-Dreyfus. All were suitably amazed and astounded.
"I thought, 'Holy smokes, this is cool,'" Cambridge says. "All my life, I've been somebody who's star-struck. To have the celebrities line up and talk to me, that was double-cool. They all became fans, and I thought, 'Boy, this Zucker guy must have some pull in this town.'"
That didn't take a mental giant to deduce.