Magician predicts headline
By GEORGE WELKER
Salem News Staff Writer

Columbiana magician Michael Dustman claims he can predict the news.

He’s even gone out on the limb to predict the headlines of two local newspapers a week before the papers are printed.

But he does not profess to be a psychic or that he has any special powers. He’s just a magician and a rookie at that, he said.

“I don’t have any mental powers,” he said of his prognostication. “It’s just a trick. You think you see it, but you have no idea how it’s done.”

Area residents may catch Dustman’s entire magic act next Saturday at the Harvey S. Firestone Park Festival of the Arts. Dustman will perform at 1 p.m.

Salem News headline
prediction sealed

On Thursday this past week, the 19-year-old Columbiana High School graduate made his prediction of headlines that will appear in next Friday’s Salem News and Lisbon-based Morning Journal. In a room by himself, he scribbled on a sheet of paper what the headline would be.

“It won’t be word for word exactly, but it will be close,” he said, bringing his prediction back into a room full of witnesses.

His predictions were written on signed and initialed paper and placed in a sealed envelope, which was placed in a larger envelope sealed and signed by reporters.

Dustman entrusted the envelopes to the reporters for safe keeping until 11 a.m. Friday, when they will be opened to see if he was correct. Both newspapers will have been printed by the time the envelopes are opened.

There is no way he will be able to change predictions once the envelopes are opened.

He’s predicted a headline once before for his family, he said.

That prediction was that a state court would rule on a high profile case. The actual headline was about a Midwest state court ruling on a custody case that received national attention.
So how does he do it? Don’t ask.

“Can you keep a secret?” Dustman asked jokingly. “So can I,” he laughed.

Dustman has been studying magic since he was about 8 years old, he said. He’s learned most of his tricks on his own, by watching other magicians and by reading books.

He graduated high school in 1992, and is a political science student at Ohio State University. While he’s not in class, he spends his time working at a magic store in Columbus.