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Mathemagician Art Benjamin amazes with his mind
The mathematics professor has been doing a stage act for several years.
Art Benjamin can do mathematics in his head so fast that it seems like magic.
He can spit out the square of any randomly given number faster than a person with a calculator can. Shout out any date of any year, and he will tell you what day of the week it was (or will be) — in a heartbeat.
Benjamin calls it mathemagics, and it’s no illusion.
A mathematics professor at Harvey Mudd College in California, Benjamin has been doing a stage act for several years. Clad in a tuxedo, he mixes in humor and a little bit of sleight of hand and delivers like a showman.
Television has taken notice. Benjamin regularly appears on talk shows, including “The Colbert Report” just two weeks ago.
A native of the Cleveland suburb of Mayfield Heights, Benjamin will return to Ohio this week. He will appear at Youngstown State University on Friday afternoon for a free performance. After the one-hour show, he will answer questions from the audience.
Benjamin has always had a head for math.
“As a kid, I always enjoyed playing with numbers,” he told The Vindicator in a phone interview from Claremont, Calif. “I liked taking problems, pulling them apart and solving them in different ways. It was fascinating to me that no matter how you pull a problem apart, you come up with the same answer. The consistency is beautiful.”
Of course, Benjamin didn’t just wake up one day with the power to do lightning-quick calculations in his head. He learned the secrets and then picked up speed with practice.
Although he did work for a few years as a professional magician, Benjamin’s act is all about math. He employs the presentation style of a magician, but with one big difference: He explains how he does it.
“Almost anyone can learn to do math much faster than they are currently doing it,” he said. “The more you practice, the better you become. It will take a long time to get as fast as me, but anybody can improve.”
Of his show, he said, “It’s not for the audience to see how smart I am, but how smart they can be.”
Benjamin shares his secrets in his Mathemagics course, which consists of three DVDs and an audio disk, along with his book, “Secrets of Mental Math: The Mathemagician’s Guide to Lightning Calculation and Amazing Math Tricks” (Random House, co-written with Michael Shermer and with a foreword by Bill Nye, the Science Guy). It costs $49 plus shipping, or $39 without the book. For more information, go to benjaminmath.com.
The live performances and television appearances keep Benjamin busy. “It’s almost like a second full-time job, but I do enjoy them,” he said.
He’s especially excited for this week’s shows, because it’s a chance to visit his old stomping grounds.
“It’s not hard to talk me into coming to Youngstown,” he said, noting his mother and brother still live in the Cleveland area. A graduate of Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Benjamin said he has many attachments to the area. He will also appear at the University of Akron on Saturday.
if you go
Who: Art Benjamin, mathemagician
When: 1 p.m. Friday
Where: McKay Auditorium, inside Beeghly Hall, on the campus of Youngstown State University
Info: Admission is free and open to the public. No tickets are necessary. McKay Auditorium has a capacity of about 300. For more information, contact the YSU department of mathematics and statistics at (330) 941-3302.