We have seen the future... And it's about seeing the future.

Marc Salem's MindGames, which opened at Off-Broadway's Westside Theatre Nov. 17, 1997 for a five-week trial run, and then kept extending, is now officially an open run, with tickets currently on sale through June 2.

Salem, a "mentalist," reads the minds of the audience and guesses where they spent their vacations, what playing card they'll pick, what color envelope they'll choose and what number they're thinking of.

Performances began Oct. 24, 1997 for the show, which has some resemblance to Ricky Jay And His 52 Assistants, currently finishing up its own brief, Off-Broadway revival. The latter show is more about sleight-of-hand than mind-reading.

Produced by David Richenthal, Anita Waxman and Jeffrey Ash, MindGames is neither a traditional magic show nor a hypnotism act, yet seems to have elements of both. Former production spokesperson Mark Cannistraro, at Jeffrey Richards Associates, termed it, "a cross between Penn & Teller and Ricky Jay." Current spokesperson Philip Bond (also at Richards) said (Oct. 20, 1997), "Salem is the world's foremost mentalist. He plays lots of psychological games with the audience and plays with the world of the sixth sense. It's very magical and psychological." Tickets to MindGames are now onsale at the Westside box office or via TeleCharge at (212) 239-6200. But you already knew that...right?

-- By David Lefkowitz