Gili, Mighty!

“Lend me your imagination tonight and you will see that you are capable of things you didn't know you could do. That you too can enter the brain of another and go in search of his or her secret thoughts.” … That is what comedian-mentalist Gili asks you at the start of his 10th show ‘Machtig!’ (Powerful!). That he himself is capable of crawling into the head of his audience, we have known for a long time. More than ever, he now wants to let the spectators shine as the stars of the show. They will experience to their own amazement what it is like to have power over another. Add a lot of humor to that, and you get another authentic Gilial show. Over Gili Met his talent as a mentalist in combination with witty humor, Gili (aka Lieven Gheysen) created a genre of his own. The road to that started with a magic kit when he was 12 years old. Once an adult, he made a name for himself by becoming a finalist of Humo’s Comedy Cup three times. His status as the only magician-comedian in Flanders was a fact. After a series of theater shows, Gili delved into mentalism from 2009. That is: using his five senses so well that it seems as if he has a sixth sense, and with which he lovingly ridicules alleged psychics and clairvoyants. His show ‘Iedereen Paranormaal’ from 2009 was a bomb and subsequently, he got his own television program on vrt, één: ‘ONmogelijk’ (Impossible). Suddenly, all of Flanders knew him. Later followed the shows ‘CTRL’, ‘Charlatan’, and ‘Raar hè?!’ (Strange, right?!), and he toured in France, with series in Paris and Avignon. Besides being an artist, Gili is also the founder of the legendary comedy café De Trukendoos in Harelbeke and of the Comedy Marathon, the annual party in the Capitole Gent in aid of charity. Both initiatives are currently being continued by Rinus Samyn.