Name: Ben Whiting.

Also Answers To: "The Axe Man", "The Gothic Magician".

Occupation / Title: Gothic magician. Guitar Geek.

Brief Summary: Ben is both a magician and an experienced, knowledgeable guitarist. This is, of course, more or less the finest combination of traits that one can possess. He was pretty much the first and finest enthusiastic fan for my cold reading book, and sent me quite a lot of interesting correspondence on this subject. He is largely responsible for the fact that the 'Online Supplement' for the CR book came into being. He understands that the universe is, essentially, guitar-shaped, and he is very good at finding interesting stuff to share with me, whether to do with cold reading or mind-reading, or in his capacity as my most well-informed and helpful guitar geek.

World Records Held:
Earliest Documented Fan Of The Cold Reading Book
Most Well-Informed Guitarist I Know
Best Web-Trawler I Know (for magic / guitar related info)

Other Notable Achievements & Honours: Ben does dark 'Gothic'-style magic, but in a way that doesn't insult one's intelligence. This isn't easy. (There is plenty of evidence to support this contention.)

Special Powers: Internet excavation and gold-mining. I think I'm pretty handy when it comes to online research, but Ben puts me (and most people I know) in the shade. Ask him if he can find out anything about a given subject, and he's very good at coming up trumps with stuff no-one else would find in a zillion years, and plenty of it too.

Known Weaknesses: There are guitarists who focus on creating interesting, melodic music. There are others, known as stunt guitarists and 'shredders', who specialise in flashy, pyrotechnic displays of speed and raw technique, purely to show off, and whose so-called 'music' may be technically somewhat impressive but is mindless, artless and pointless. Ben prefers the melodic masters, whereas I prefer mindless shredders showing they can play 100 notes a second. I am right, so this counts as Ben's major weakness.

Catchphrase: "I've found this really interesting web site..."