Thommy Ten and Amélie van Tass have gained national recognition and been featured on the hit show, "America’s Got Talent." Courtesy photo

Proclaimed the World Champions of Mentalism by the International Federation of Magic Societies, The Clairvoyants will likely amaze their audience when they perform Sunday at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center.

Known to national TV audiences through their appearances on “America’s Got Talent,” the Austrian couple, Thommy Ten and Amélie van Tass, perform mentalism, the branch of magic that encapsulates all things mind reading, precognition and extrasensory perception.

“On one hand, we do magic where we show illusions, where stuff appears and things like that,” said Ten. “On the other hand, we do mentalism or mind reading where basically the magic is going to happen in people’s minds. Our world champion act is every night different because it’s with the audience.”

This part of their act finds Ten moving among the audience, “and they hand me objects they brought to the show. Amélie is blindfolded on stage. They checked her ears that there are no in-ear pieces, and she’s basically telling the audience what they brought and details about the objects, sometimes even the owners don’t know.”

Audiences are typically amazed by this gift. “They are blown away and especially when it’s very personal about them, about their objects,” he said. “For us, it’s normal. It’s different to magic shows because it’s more interactive, and every night is different because we never know what people are bringing, and that’s what makes it challenging for us.”

Born and raised in Austria, Ten became enamored with magic around the age of 10. “I got a magic kit around Christmas and started to perform these tricks in school in front of my classmates,” he explained. “The problem was most of the kids get a magic kit, and it’s the same stuff. So I started to create my own tricks and my own stories about the tricks.”

Every show is different for The Clairvoyants because they never know what people will be bringing. Courtesy photo

At 13, he became the Austrian National Champion of Magic, and later earned the title of German National Champion. “I always had this dream to be a magician,” he continued. “My parents were like, ‘Sure, you will be a magician at some point. I found a hobby that I still love. Then later on, I realized with magic, you can create so many emotions with people because it combines a lot of things.”

In 2011, Ten took part in the Austrian TV show “Die große Chance” (Austria’s Got Talent) and mesmerized the audience. For his final act, he teamed up with Tass. “When we met for the first time, we were on the same page,” he said. “We want to create something unique. We want to create something different about human phenomena. Everybody knows you’re thinking of a person, and suddenly the phone is ringing and that person is calling. That’s already some magic. There must be some connections in the air somehow. And that’s where we started to create basically our act, but bring it on the next level to make it bigger, more magical. So does it work on big stages, like on ‘America’s Got Talent,’ or when we’re on tour?”

It worked. And they got on “America’s Got Talent” a few times, including in July, with judge Howie Mandel declaring, “You scare me.”

“‘America’s Got Talent’ was a big roller coaster,” Ten recalled. “We were almost there every week, in front of 18 million viewers. We had the highest audience rating ever for ‘America’s Got Talent’ in our season. Every week, you want to step it up. You want it more unique, bigger, more challenging, more crazy. That’s what the judges want to see. That’s what America wants to see.”

They were guest artists again in September. “We’re part of the AGT family. That’s always nice that they still have us back after almost 10 years. The producers told us after the final performance that we got the most votes in Hawaii. The Hawaiian audience really loved it and we’re very thankful for that.”

The Clairvoyants perform at 7:30 p.m. Sunday in the MACC’s Castle Theater. Tickets are $25-$65 at MauiArts.org with a limited number of premium seats at $125.