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Two Performance Artists book by Scotch Wichmann
Two Performance Artists Kidnap Their Boss And Do Things With Him
Inspired by my crazy adventures as a performer on the road, this is the story of two performance artists who cook up the ultimate performance: to kidnap their billionaire boss...and turn him into the wildest performance artist the world's ever seen.

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Archive for the ‘Weird’ Category

More Psychic Hacking and My Legs Are Dead

Friday, October 11th, 2024

Fall is here, the leaves are falling, and I’m super excited to say that my presentation on Psychic Hacking at the 42nd Society for Scientific Exploration convention was a success with lively Q&A and a bunch of exciting follow-ups, including possible publishing and research collaboration opportunities. Yay! If you have 20 minutes to spare, and you’re curious whether psychics can hack into secure computers using only their minds, check out the video of my presentation on YouTube.

Click here to watch YouTube video from Scotch's presentation on psychic hacking

After getting bunches of post-conference requests to share my parapsychology Ph.D. dissertation, I went ahead and made it public. It contains all of the experiment details, the results, the data, and my sources. You can download it here, or from the Psychic Experiment website. (p.s., if you work for the CIA, and are interested in reviving the Star Gate project to leverage intelligence from psychics, gimme a call!).

In other news, I had good intentions of running a 100K (62-mile) race east of San Diego, but 91F weather, a 5000-foot climb, and miles of ravines filled with sharp & slippery river rocks got the better of me.

I decided to drop at the 50K mark for my own safety, and because the heat slog slowed my pace considerably. I thought I’d finish the first 50K in 5-6 hours, but ended up finishing it in 9 hours, which meant I probably wouldn’t complete the second 50K before the race’s cutoff time. Nearly half of the runners dropped out early due to heat exhaustion (I saw some getting sick in the bushes), so I feel lucky I finished 50K unscathed, other than being caked in layers of dirt. Looking forward to revenge at my next 100K in April 2025! xoxo

Psychic Hacking & Kidnapping Elon Musk

Tuesday, September 17th, 2024

I hope you had a great summer — how’s it September already?! I’ve been keeping busy writing, training for my next 100K race, keeping the world safe from hackers, and working on paranormal projects.

I’m super excited to announce that I’ll be presenting at the 42nd Society for Scientific Exploration convention Sept. 27-29, where scientists will offer the latest paranormal research on nonphysical beings, crop circles, Tesla, tuning forks, energy healing, and more!

Ad for the 2024 Society for Scientific Exploration conference, where Scotch Wichmann will present on Psychic Hacking

In my talk, Psychic Hacking: Using Remote Viewing to Steal Computer Data, I’ll present evidence from my Ph.D. research showing that psychics can use remote viewing to steal computer data (and possibly even national secrets) from thousands of miles away. Pretty wild!

The conference is streaming online this year, so if you’re into fringe science & the paranormal, check it out at www.scientificexploration.org.

….Andddd, I just learned that my dark caper-comedy screenplay, TWO ARTISTS KIDNAP ELON MUSK, is an official selection at the 2024 Austin Comedy Film Festival!

Adapted from my novel, two performance artists are driven over the edge by their soul-sucking jobs, so they plot the ultimate performance: to kidnap their billionaire boss Elon Musk, and turn him into a performance artist.

Two strong female protagonists? A villainous Elon Musk smoking out with bad boy Joe Rogan? Madcap action and art with danger and absurdity? I guarantee it!

Poster for the screenplay, Two Artists Kidnap Elon Musk, by writer Scotch Wichmann

Parapsychology Ph.D. Complete!

Saturday, February 10th, 2024

Yesssss….. My parapsychology schooling (scientific study of the paranormal) is finally done — I’m a Ghostbuster at last! Lolol.

Building upon declassified U.S. government psychic research, my Ph.D. project tried to prove whether people can steal information from computers clairvoyantly.

I launched a double-blind study where 146 people from around the world tried to psychically sense information about randomly chosen picture, video, ATM PIN, & passphrase targets stored in computers located at a secret location in L.A., with submissions scored by 6 judges. Computers were not networked, had audio disabled, & screens were dimmed to black & shielded.

Many results were statistically significant. From thousands of miles away, some psychics described as many as 7 unique details about picture targets (a=0.05, p=0.000597) and video targets (p=0.000911). Likelihood was calculated to be on par with flipping a coin & getting heads 11 times in a row.

Some people sensed details tangentially related to psychic targets, even when the details weren’t physically present. One target was a short video clip from The Shining. Some psychics sensed blood, loud heartbeats, “a mother on vacation in the mountains,” and other film specifics, even though these details weren’t contained in the actual clip I used — wild!!

I’ll publish full results (600+ pgs!) after presenting in journals & conferences later this year. For fun, here’s one submission:

Parapsychology experiment by Scotch Wichmann showing a glass cathedral dome

Participant's submission successful described the dome features and colors

THANK YOU to my amazing participants, Dr. C. Bishop of Wesleyan U. for his math genius, the U of Sedona for guidance, my 6 tireless judges who judged 1,752 rounds of data, and to KayDee Kersten for being my adventure buddy on this wild ride!

P.S.: Wanna be more psychic? Participants answered survey questions about past psychic experiences, which I then compared to their actual psychic performance. Based on the data, you’ll have more success in your psychic endeavors if you set your intention to be psychic. Participants who BELIEVED they might be psychic were 21.8 times more accurate than doubters. xoxo

RIP Jerry Springer

Thursday, April 27th, 2023

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RIP Jerry Springer. Full disclosure: I loved watching him continue what Donahue, Geraldo, Howard Stern, & Les Crane (1960′s) turned into a live-action tabloid art form. It was impossible to look away. Gimme that lurid sleaze, those profanity-laden fistfights, hurled chairs, all of it — our own American style of rough-and-ready sideshow performance, like watching grainy Kenneth Anger films live mixed with Harmony Korine…. Yeah, it was trashy (and probably partly scripted) and childishly ridiculous and definitely exploitative, but it was also reflective of people I knew and saw growing up….the 1970s-1980s were especially sleazy, gritty, and violent in my formative experience. I especially loved the episodes where people in the margins were given a voice, even if it was sensationalized by the form — maybe seeing Springer episodes like “I’m a witch” or “I like to cross-dress” that were considered so shocking back then helped set the stage for some level of normalization and equity that will eventually come. History will judge. But for sure, those episodes connected with the creative, emotive, sensitive, scared, and wilder parts of me that were rejected (often violently) by my peers — somehow I was not alone. And watching all the cro-magnon haters who Springer would bring on stage to create drama? Maybe seeing them helped steel us collectively to battle the ignorant haters still burning books and banning drag shows today.

Watch this clip of tabloid talker Les Crane in 1964 ask a male guest questions about a thing called “homosexuality.” This was ground-breaking for TV. And as archaic and weirdly quaint as this footage looks, one day people will look back on Jerry Springer episodes and probably feel the same about them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev387WTquB8

The Psychic Experiment is Live!

Sunday, October 23rd, 2022

My PSYCHIC EXPERIMENT is live! As part of my final school project in Parapsychology, and inspired by the CIA’s STARGATE remote viewing program in the 1970s, I’m trying to prove that some people have clairvoyant powers allowing them to “see” data in computers far away — and YOU can be part of it!

Plus, everyone who participates will be entered into a random drawing to win one of three $200 Amazon gift cards!

The experiment only takes a few minutes, so check out the video, and head on over to www.psychicexperiment.org.

P.S. — Once I have enough data, the experiment will close, so don’t wait too long to join the fun!

*** OCTOBER 31st UPDATE! *** It’s Halloween, and the Psychic Experiment has been ROCKETING forward with more participants than we ever thought possible — if you participated, THANK YOU! And if you’re still planning to try it, good news, there’s still time — the experiment closes Sunday, November 6, 2022.

Here’s a quick thank you:

Psychic Experiment Starts October 23!

Monday, October 3rd, 2022

Psychic Experiment by Scotch Wichmann

My psychic extravaganza is finally almost here! As part of my Ph.D. program in Parapsychology (the study of the paranormal), I’m conducting a public psychic experiment to see if people can use psychic powers to see data inside computers.

If you think psychic powers are probably real (and ESPECIALLY if you think you might be psychic), I hope you’ll participate! Starting October 23, point your browser at www.psychicexperiment.org and have at it! 3 participants will also be randomly selected to win a $200 Amazon gift card!

Andddd if you’ll be near Ventura, California on November 4th, swing by the Art City Gallery and Studios, where I’ll be unleashing a new performance art piece with an array of awesome performers! 8PM and FREE!

Hello, Summer

Thursday, June 10th, 2021

2021 has been a wild ride, and it’s not even halfway done.

Due to Covid, this year hasn’t exactly been rife with in-person performance art opportunities, but Ventura’s 5x5x5 series curated by John M. White marched bravely onward via video, thank God.

So, after workshopping pieces in my backyard with mannequin parts, dirt, ladders, invisible skateboards, and bananas, I finally came up with something crazy from my childhood called 1979 Norwegian Choreography for Skateboard & Banana — check out the pics & video! The piece is simple, but it took 3 bone-jarring days to choreograph and shoot, so by the end, my legs were DESTROYED from all of that faux-skateboard jumping.
 
Scotch Wichmann leaping
Scotch Wichmann with banana
Scotch Wichmann with bonus arm

I just finished writing THE OCCULTIST, a new streaming/TV series pilot about a failed archeologist who becomes an occult detective — I’m so so so excited about this one, because it combines my eternal love of Indiana Jones and my obsession with the occult that dates back to my childhood — and the script just became a finalist at the 2021 Los Angeles International Underground Film Festival — yesssss!

Plus, DARK SILO, the script I co-wrote with KayDee Kersten, was a finalist in ScreenCraft’s 2021 Action & Adventure contest after winning Best Original Screenplay at the Burbank International Film Festival. Agents & producers: I am so ready for youuu!

The Occultist, a pilot screenplay by Scotch Wichmann

My preliminary schoolwork toward my Ph.D. in Parapsychology is finally done. It concluded with a thesis paper called The Liberating Power of Image in the New Thought Movement, which is a feminist take on how the concepts of image and seeing in the metaphysical “mental sciences” (Religious Science, Christian Science, etc.) can liberate one from the raging patriarchy in Western modes of being & seeing.

My doctoral dissertation is up next. I’m still plotting what to research — my list is crazy long and growing: metaphysical healing, shamanic & witchy practices, chaos, E.S.P., ghosts, even aliens…. There are too many topics I’m excited about to choose. Maybe I can incorporate them all? Hm….

I hope you found something fun and fulfilling over the past 6 months to keep you sustained & inspired through this pandemic horror show. For me, it was my wife, dog, friends, and a lot of margaritas, followed by tons of running. I’ve racked up the miles from Los Angeles to Sedona, dropped 10 pounds, ran a half-marathon virtual race, and just started training for my 5th full marathon, with hopes of qualifying for the Boston Marathon this year (assuming my legs ever recover from all that make-believe skateboarding…lolol).

Scotch Wichmann running in the desert
Scotch Wichmann running
Scotch Wichmann resting with dirty toes after trail run

So, if you drive past a pale, bony, dehydrated blonde dude who is tripping through the asphalt streets of Burbank like a loon, please don’t run him over! Wishing you a healthy & beautiful summer!

 

Goodbye, 2020

Wednesday, December 16th, 2020

What a year. Coronavirus. Insane politics. Death of Justice Ruth Ginsburg. And still, in the hardest year in recent memory, so many dreamers continued making art. I’ve never been so exhausted, yet so inspired at the same time. I hope you found moments of inspiration too. Here are a few highlights for me:

Since coronavirus canceled most of my performance art shows, I decided to film all of the crazy ideas that I wanted to perform on stage in 2020. The surreal result is called It’s Almost Over, which one viewer called “David Lynch-esque” — the highest compliment for me, everrr.

Experimental, surreal short film IT'S ALMOST OVER directed by Scotch Wichmann

 
Rattle Rattle, the short film I made with KayDee Kersten, made it into 9 film festivals in 2020, and our feature screenplay Dark Silo — which won Best Original Screenplay at the Burbank International Film Festival — moved us one step closer to landing an agent.

My award-winning, clown-comedian friend Natalie Palamides crushed 2020 with her new Amy Poehler-produced Netflix special, NATE. If you didn’t see the live show in Edinburgh, New York, or L.A. (or if you didn’t catch Nat back in her salad days), you’re in luck, because Netflix did an incredible job of capturing NATE’s insane and fearless magic. Don’t miss it!

 
2020 saw me finish a third of my Ph.D. work in parapsychology and metaphysics, with an emphasis on healing and occult practices. My studies inspired me to write a TV/streaming series pilot about a becoming-magician, with more historical realism than most other occult films or shows I’ve seen. Stay tuned!

 
Lastly, with my performances canceled, my primary stress release in 2020 was running up into the Verdugo Mountains that ring Burbank. I covered 1,050+ miles, with 120,000+ feet of vertical gain, which is like climbing Mt. Everest 4 times — not bad. I also did some running in the open desert around 29 Palms, where I accidentally stumbled onto a bombing range, and got chased off by a Marine helicopter ‐ see pic below. What an adventure. (P.S., if you’re a runner on Strava, come be my friend!)

Scotch Wichmann running in Verdugo Mountains near Burbank

Scotch Wichmann in the Verdugo Mountains, with views of downtown L.A. and the backside of the Hollywood sign

Scotch Wichmann running in 29 Palms

Our New Film Is Hitting Festivals!

Saturday, April 11th, 2020

Our new film Rattle Rattle is an official selection at film festivals across the country! Storyline: one of my hands kills the other, and quickly regrets it. See the trailer here!

My creative partner KayDee Kersten did an incredible job with the cinematography, and I discovered that my hands are bitchy, impossible-to-control characters on camera — how did I never notice that before? Haha. We shot the film in our Burbank garage, where our soundstage was my grandma’s old card table surrounded by a circle of homemade felt blackout curtains, while I ran around in a fetching array of leotards. We’re in the running for a few more festivals — can’t wait! Special thanks to North Hollywood’s Wooden Nickel Lighting for the killer lighting setup!

Rattle Rattle, a Scotch Wichmann film
Scotch Wichmann in film Rattle Rattle
Scotch Wichmann film Rattle Rattle chase scene
Scotch Wichmann suiting up in film Rattle Rattle

Exercise While Social Distancing

Friday, March 27th, 2020

Feeling cooped up? These exercise tips won’t help at all. (Special thanks to my neighbors for putting up with this insanity…have a look and you’ll see what I mean…haha).

Comedian Scotch Wichmann