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"[\n\n](http://blog.gq.com/blogs/the-q/seeingvsbelieving.jpg)It sounds like the set-up to a joke: A mystical believer and an extreme skeptic walk into a bar. Actually, it's the set up for a new TLC show, Seeing Vs Believing (airing Sunday, May 2nd at 8pm) in which Ricky Paull Goldin\u2014daytime soap star and the son of a prominent mystic\u2014and professional skeptic Jeff Gurtman travel the U.S., confronting unexplained phenomena.\n\nFull disclosure: I went to college with the skeptic. Extreme full disclosure: We sang in an a cappella group together. Here we talk the paranormal:\n\nJeff, I had to laugh when I saw the promo for Seeing vs Believing. You are now a professional skeptic. \n\n Knowing me, you know I call it like it is. If the show is to be successful, it's imperative that the audience trust me. I feel like I'm a proxy for every person out there watching. Everyone who says, \"This is rigged.\"\n\nThat would be me! I mean, In the first scene, you and Ricky Paull Goldin meet a mind reader in Dallas. \n\n David Magee is a perceptionist. He's friends with Sinbad.\n\nWhere did that guy meet Sinbad?\n\n I don't know. He does celebrity golf tournaments. He's the entertainer of entertainers. Anyway, I was expecting a magician. What I left with\u2014and what I still have\u2014is a series of questions.\n\nMe too. You meet this entertainer of entertainers. He asks you to turn to a page in a book, pick out a word, and concentrate on that word. And then he guesses the word correctly! Do you think he can actually read minds?\n\n I believe he's a highly skilled perceptionist. I was looking around for the cameras. I looked in his ear for an ear-piece.\n\nIn one scene, you travel to a hot springs in Arkansas, a place that may be haunted.\n\n Hell's Half Acre. The locals won't go up there. This one guy wouldn't even speak the name. He won't verbalize it. It's like in Harry Potter.\n\nBecause I know you, I can say this: When things went sour in that cave, you were screaming like a girl.\n\n There were bats in the cave. I don't know. I don't even know what happened to Ricky's face. He got 21 stitches after.\n\nWhat do you think happened there?\n\n I think there are vortes\u2014places with good vibes, and places with bad energy. Whatever it is, be it electromagentic, geothermal, who knows. I think Hell's Half Acre may be one of those places.\n\nLater in the show, you confront a man who survived a vicious tornado alongside his grandmother\u2014and the scene was oddly touching! But there's also a Blair Witch vibe to the show.\n\n There's a little bit of a Ghost Hunters vibe, a little bit of a TLC family drama vibe.\n\nThis is the network that's home to Jon and Kate. Can ghosts compete with marital discord?\n\n Rick's gonna have eight babies.\n\nYou and I sang in an a cappella group at Cornell. How did a cappella prepare you for this TV gig?\n\n When you don't have solos, you have intros.\n\nThat's true. You were always good at talking, introducing the songs. Last question: Ricky is the son of a mystic. Does he have any special powers himself?\n\n He says he's a receiver. He possesses the raw material for it. One time he said, \"Pick a celebrity name, think of it, and look at me.\"\n\nAnd did he guess it?\n\n I thought \"Russell Crowe.\" He got it. But he tripped up on \"Gary Coleman.\" And then an argument ensued that Gary Coleman wasn't, in fact, a celebrity."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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