Peter Antoniou has become an international sensation, presenting his remarkable and hilarious shows for sell-out theatre audiences, comedy clubs, blue-chip companies, and royalty.
He fuses his amazing and uncanny ability to read minds with razor-sharp wit and improvisational comedy to create unique live entertainment experiences.
Peter claims to be able to peer inside your head, fondle your frontal lobe, tickle your funny bone, and reveal just what you are thinking.
And that's just what he did in his recent audition on America's Got Talent, during which he read the mind of AGT judge Sofia Vergara, leaving Sofia and the entire cast of the show in utter disbelief.
The segment show-casing the fortune-teller's incredible psychic abilities climaxed when he was able to reveal intimate details about the beautiful Colombian-American producer, actor and model's life that she had never, ever before told anyone.
Antoniou first asked host Terry Crews to help him out on stage before successfully guessing where Crews had hidden a tiny item.
He then did the unspeakable, asking Sofia Vergara to hand over her engagement ring, which she did hesitantly.
Antoniou invited all the judges backstage, asking media mogul Simon Cowell to take Vergara's ring and hide it in one of one thousand ring boxes scattered around the room while he wasn't looking.
Meanwhile, he asked Vergara to think about one special part of partner Joe Manganiello's proposal that no one could possibly know about except her.
The psychic successfully found Cowell's box, and with it, Sofia's ring.
But that was not all.
Antoniou was able to reveal to all that the special memory that Sofia was holding in her mind was the rainbow that appeared at the exact moment of her now husband's proposal, leaving the stunning AGT judge visibly shaken.
"How did you know that?" she demanded, stunned.
Watch Peter Antoniou's live audition on America's Got Talent here:
[su_youtube url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49oWFdgUi98" width="700" title=" Psychic Peter Antoniou Reads the Judges' MINDS! - America's Got Talent 2021"]Inclusive, entertaining, interactive, and unforgettable, Peter Antoniou will leave you, just as he left Sofia Vergara, wondering: "Is my mind safe?"
"I'm half-Greek," Antoniou tells the judges and the audience of AGT when complimented on his illustrious beard.
"I came out of the womb like this," he jokes.
Born in London, 31-year old Antonio's grandmother was originally from Greece and moved over to Limassol in Cyprus, where his father and aunt were born.
"We've always felt very connected to both Greece and Cyprus," Antoniou tells Greek City Times.
"My Greek heritage isn't something I consciously think about a lot, but it is baked into the way I approach a lot of life," he says.
"From my whole approach to hospitality and family, to a desire to sit outside with a nice coffee and play backgammon and gossip! It was always a part of our growing up.
"Our traditional Christmas Dinner was always macarounia pastichio, and my Dad barbecuing lamb shish in the British rain! We would also visit the great selection of Greek bakeries in London and pick up kataifi (a personal favourite).
"In fact, now that I've moved to Seattle, I continue on the search to find a replacement supply of good quality kataifi!"
When Antoniou was nine years old, he bought a tarot deck while on holiday "just on a bit of a whim."
"I was always a bit of a weird kid," he says, self deprecatingly.
Ever since then, Antoniou has been fascinated about developing psychic powers and reading into other people's minds. So much so that he has managed to build his talents into a career.
How does one begin to go about this, you may wonder?
"I was entirely self-taught! I think a lot of my development grew out of pure curiosity," answers Antoniou.
"Learning about tarot led to learning about all sorts of types of divination, and then onto all the different types of people who explore knowing what's in other people's minds.
"So I learnt as much as I could from psychologists, hypnotists, magicians, and traditional psychics.
"From combining all this knowledge, I was able to start to develop my skills to be able to tap into a variety of thoughts."
Antoniou credits the Greek side of his family for his supernatural abilities.
"My auntie was always reading fortunes from coffee grounds when we were kids, and always seemed to know more than she should about everything, removing curses, and blessing us," he remembers.
"I think because I was always surrounded by it, I never thought it was unusual to have my fortune regularly told to me from coffee grounds! It just felt natural."
Antonio describes his psychic abilities as two intertwined talents: giving readings for people, be that tarot or other divination tools; and telepathy.
These talents form the two sides of his work, which are as a reader and performing, which ranges from theatre shows, corporate events and appearing as a keynote speaker.
"I have a history in giving readings for people," explains Antoniou.
"In that scenario, I'm using an intuitive approach to divination to get a sense of the issues surrounding a person at that moment, and then help give them new perspectives on how best they can move forward.
"I've never felt a reader's job is to tell people how to live their life. Instead, it's my job to give them a new way of approaching things and let them see what sticks for them.
"In life, we tell ourselves stories, like if a person was in a car accident they might say "I'm so lucky that I wasn't more hurt" or they might say "I'm so unlucky that happened".
"Both stories that can be taken from the incident, that will wildly impact how that person lives their life moving forward.
"It's my job as a reader to pick up on those stories and, with the help of the tarot deck, create new options of stories that might serve that person well.
The other side of his work is the theatre shows.
"Readings are all about putting my focus on the other person; whereas theatre shows are opportunities for me to push my skills and abilities, and show off really.
"For that, I use a whole host of techniques to be able to reveal all manner of things I couldn't possibly know, like the rainbow from Sofia!" he says, referring to his incredible audition on America's Got Talent.
So how on earth does he do it?
Some psychics are able to tap into their abilities simply by being in the room with someone or holding an object that belongs to that person and sensing its history through touch.
However, for Antoniou, he says it's less about messages, and more about impressions.
"Sometimes it's a clear image I can see in my mind, other times it's just a feeling I have to decipher.
"For Sofia, having her focus on such an evocative image meant that I was able to get an impression that I just went with.
"I remain very relieved it was correct!" Antoniou admits.
"When I'm giving readings, it's a combination of mental images and intuitive feelings. So I'll be talking to a person and get a sense of something, and just go with that.
"Sometimes it's an image I just can't shake, or a sensation. There's very little required.
"Sometimes holding an object they own does help, being in the room certainly makes it much easier.
"But I have done a whole bunch of readings over the telephone as well."
Such were Antoniou's talents that he started performing shows at the age of just 17 years old, travelling all around the UK, mind-reading in comedy clubs, variety clubs, and burlesque clubs.
After years of honing his skills in front of live crowds, and moving to bigger and bigger venues, Antoniou started getting invitations from the corporate world to appear at dinners, events, product launches where he would MC, mind read, and get everyone involved and engaged.
This part of the business soon grew as corporate clients began asking Antoniou to appear as a keynote speaker.
"The keynote work built out of those clients asking whether I could teach them some of my skills, as they have cross-over applications in the world of business," he explains.
"It's great to be able to break down some areas of my approaches and share them with other people in such a different field and see how they can take them and flourish in areas I'd never have considered."
When Antoniou moved to America at the start of 2021, he knew it meant starting his career all over again. The touring circuit and client base that he had built up in the UK were now hundreds of miles away.
"I wanted to try and introduce myself to the most amount of people possible, and hopefully jumpstart my career," says Antoniou.
"There's nowhere better I could think of to do that than America's Got Talent.
"It's a worldwide phenomenon that has been running for 16 seasons and launched some incredible names. So why not start out with the best?
"I count myself as incredibly lucky to have been given the opportunity to take part."
After watching Antoniou's live audition on AGT, it would seem that the audition processes prior to the televised performance in front of the judges must have been quite different and less straightforward in comparison to other performances, of say, singing or dancing.
"I've been a professional performer for 14 years now, so I was lucky enough to have a wealth of recordings of me at various theatre shows," Antoniou tells Greek City Times.
"So when it came to showing the producers what I could do, I sent them a few videos of the sort of stuff I did and talked them through how much further I wanted to push my abilities.
"They were very trusting, because the truth is we can talk about how I want the act to go, but it's only when those judges are in the room, and I'm interacting with their minds, that we actually discover how it's going to go.
"So I'm eternally grateful they decided to give me the space to go further, and bring something new to AGT."
And of course, the question on everyone's lips: What are the AGT judges really like?
"From the interactions I did have with the Judges, they were all lovely," says Antoniou.
"Sofia was incredibly gracious to trust me with her engagement ring, which clearly means so much to her. You only need to see her talk about [her husband] Joe to feel the love that she has for him emanating from her. Also, she has such a quick wit; she's the perfect volunteer for interactive stuff like mine.
"Heidi [Klum] has such great energy, Howie [Mandel] is the same sort of wisecracking mischief-maker you see on screen, and Simon is actually lovely.
"I think people see him as the scary judge, but he is someone with a keen eye for finding talent, and is always thinking. Whilst sometimes aloof, I think it's like encountering someone who's good at chess. He's thinking four moves ahead of everyone else, and that's something I can really appreciate.
"Terry Crews was even nicer than I could've thought he would be as well. Such a warm and generous person.
"I didn't get to mingle with any of the acts at the recording sadly, because of trying to keep the set safe with COVID protocols, but something I've found very lovely is the community of acts who are all watching the show as it airs.
"I've sent and received messages [in the traditional manner, not telepathically] from so many of the other acts sending praise and making connections. I think even if we didn't get to meet in person, there is a really lovely bond between everyone who put themselves out there and auditioned for the show."
The AGT audition is just one of many impressive feats that Antoniou has performed on stage using his abilities, wowing audiences.
He recounts another occasion that stands out in his mind amongst numerous others that have left onlookers astonished.
"An experience that I think about often is a point in one of my shows where I was reading a woman's mind, and I picked up on an additional piece of information that she was thinking about.
"I'm always very careful to check with people before I reveal anything I've stumbled across, so I asked if it was ok for me to say it.
She acknowledged she was thinking of a piece of information she had recently received, but not yet shared with her family (who were with her at the show), and that she was totally ok with me being the one to share the news.
"It was then that I revealed she had just found out she was pregnant with twins.
"Applause and tearful hugs later, we moved on with the show.
"But I've never forgotten that moment of being lucky enough to share such a joyous occasion, and the story that kid will have one day that the news of their birth was announced by a psychic on stage in a theatre!"
With all of these supernatural abilities, and thinking back to how Antoniou was able to immediately locate Sofia Vergara's engagement ring in one ring box amongst a thousand, just imagine how convenient it would be to possess such superpowers and be able to apply them to your own life!
Is it even possible for Antoniou to lose something himself?
"All the time. To be honest, I'm not even sure where my house keys are right now," jokes Antoniou.
"Sadly, my own mind is a bit of a mystery to me."
Peter Antoniou received four "YES" votes from the America's Got Talent judges in response to his initial audition and is now under consideration to advance on to the LIVE shows.
There is an upcoming judges' deliberation in which it will be decided which acts continue on in the competition.
With the two-night finale airing live from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on September 14-15, we ask psychic Peter Antoniou if he already knows the outcome of the AGT competition.
"Of course," comes the reply.
"But a good psychic never gives spoilers."
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