WATERLOO - Let's get one thing straight. Michael Starr does not bend spoons with his mind.

He bends forks.

Starr, the Cedar Valley's only mentalist, has spent five years mastering psychokinesis, the ability to move objects with your mind. It's only one of many mental phenomena of which he is capable.

"If I'm performing at a banquet, I like to use their forks, though it's not really in good form to bend people's silverware," Starr says.

Except if those people are family.

"I have a lot of bent forks at home," chuckles Beverly Sibbernsen, Starr's mother.

Michael Starr, born in 1969 as Michael Sibbernsen, grew up an only child in Omaha, Neb. He discovered magic at the age of 10, when he went on a school field trip to see a magician perform at a local theater. The magician needed a volunteer and chose Starr for one of his tricks.

And the magic bug bit.

"He used to wake us up at one or two in the morning, whenever he thought of a new trick," Sibbernsen recalls. "Michael has always been curious. We called it an eye-in-the-middle-of-his-forehead type thing."

Science and mentalism "is such a dichotomy, and that's what makes it so fun," Starr says. "In the sciences, you explain the natural world. In magic and mentalism, you break those rules."

Starr performs nationwide, usually at corporate events. Keith West, Starr's Des Moines-based booking agent, says he is well-known by top-notch mentalists.

"Mike is running with the A-group," West says, adding there are only about 100 A-list mentalists in the world.

West describes Starr's stage show as amazing and captivating. West, also a magician and illusionist, says even he is blown away watching his client perform.

"Watching a guy like Michael, you just enjoy it. You don't try to explain it," West says.

Only so much of mentalism can be learned. Starr compares it to singers and actors who, although they have natural ability, also must practice their art to achieve their full potential.

However, unlike singers and actors, who can practice in an empty theater, mentalism can only be practiced in the presence of others. As such, Starr is an avid people watcher; it tests his intuition. And since he doesn't always have access to a big audience, he treats his shows as necessary practice.

Starr's act lasts about an hour. It's comprised of psychokinesis, mental influence and thought reading.

Starr describes mental influence as telepathically telling people what to do, while maintaining an illusion of free choice.

Thought reading, Starr insists, is not an equivalent to mind reading.

"All those deep dark secrets you have, those are yours. I can't get to those," Starr says. "I deal with things that are just floating there on the surface, and I pick them right back out again."

During a Courier interview, he demonstrates this skill. Holding a book facing away from him, he thumbs through it and asks the reporter to say stop. The page is 61.

"Then look at the first word on the page, and think of it," Starr says.

The word is: allowed.

"Would you concentrate on that word?" He closes his eyes tightly. "OK, concentrate on the first letter. Could you look at it as an uppercase letter?"

He scrawls a capital 'A' onto his small notepad. Next, he instructs the reporter to think of the last letter, again in uppercase.

He sketches a 'D' onto the paper. In less than a minute, he asks if the word is "allowed."

It is.

"But what I do isn't an exact science," he says. "Sometimes, I can be wrong. Sometimes being a little wrong or flat out wrong increases the believability of it - as long as I'm not wrong all the time."

Stacey Palevsky can be contacted at (319) 291-1580 or stacey.palevsky@wcfcourier.com.