What headline is in the box? Only 'mystifier' knows

A locked case officially goes on display today at Harper College in Palatine containing an envelope that promises to predict a headline from the Daily Herald one month from today.

Will the headline read, "Election enters home stretch?"

Or "Cubs/Sox drop playoff opener?"

Or, given the surprising headlines we've had so far this month, might it be something shocking along the lines of "Obama captures Osama," "Palin guns down Osama," or "Biden proclaims McCain-Lieberman 'more than friends' "?

We'll just have to wait until "mystifier" Mike Super unveils the answer during his 7:30 p.m. show Oct. 4 at the Performing Arts Center in Palatine. (For tickets -- prices range from $12 to $25 -- and other details, visit www.harpercollege.edu.)

"I have not been wrong yet, but it's very possible," Super teases during a telephone interview Wednesday. "And if I'm wrong, I refund everybody's ticket price for everyone who bought advance tickets."

Super is best known for winning last fall's NBC show "Phenomenon" when millions of TV viewers and celebrity judges Criss Angel and Uri Geller voted him the "No. 1 mystifier in the world." Now, Super says he has two new TV shows due out in 2009.

"His stuff looks really good," says Dominik Jachimczuk, 21, who, in his role as Harper College's student events director for the campus activities board, helped book Super. "It's more than just a magic act. He's one of those people who makes it a lot more entertaining than just a simple magic trick."

The first part of Super's show begins today when the locked case with the mysterious, sealed envelope hanging from the ceiling officially goes on display in a glass case near the campus bookstore.

"We got this Fed Ex envelope a week or two ago with a tape in it," explain Jachimczuk of Palatine. "It's put in the box and sealed away until the show."

During that Oct. 4 show, Super will open the envelope and reveal to the audience that his tape perfectly predicted a headline from that day's Daily Herald.

"It's mind-boggling to me. I don't understand how he can come up with the headline," says Chris George, coordinator of student activities and adviser to the campus activities board. "I don't think he's some kind of all-mighty power, so there has to be some sort of trick to it."

Exactly.

"I claim no real psychic ability," Super says. "If someone could see the future, they could stop every wrong from happening."

Or at least, make a killing in the stock market instead of spending the last 15 years touring on the road performing magic shows. Super got even busier after November, when he dazzled the viewers of "Phenomenon."

"As soon as I won -, it went crazy," Super says of his performance schedule. "It was almost like they were auctioning off dates."

The demand pushed his price higher.

"We actually booked him a couple of weeks before he won," Jachimczuk says. "So we got a good deal on that."

Given his good timing with that decision, maybe Jachimczuk should give headline predictions a try.