qwerty will be proud...
Irvine 'memory athlete' wins Fox's 'SuperHuman'
Jan. 4, 2016 Updated 10:11 p.m.
BY KEITH SHARON / STAFF WRITER
Luis Angel has been a ?memory athlete? since 2012, competing around the world and, in a dozen competitions, finishing only once as high as second.
He had never won a dime of prize money.
All that changed Monday night when Angel, 25, a former DirectTV installer who lives in Irvine, was chosen by the audience as the winner of $100,000 on the premiere of the Fox television show ?SuperHuman.?
When host Kal Penn announced that the ?memory master? had won the show, Angel said he thought his opponent and mentor Ronnie White had won. White had remembered the names and phone numbers of 15 women in a segment called ?The Pickup Artist.?
?I was going to go give him a big hug,? Angel said. ?But then they said my name. I couldn't believe it. I was discombobulated for a while.?
His mother, Yesenia Carrion, ran out of the audience to hug her son.
?She almost tackled me,? Angel said.
In the show, Angel was one of a dozen ?SuperHuman? competitors, each with a particular skill. One was a contortionist. One could identify smells. One could recognize music by watching a keyboard without sound. One could identify tastes.
Angel said he thought the contortionist Brandee Mills, who had to move through a maze of lasers while blindfolded, was the most talented. But she touched the last laser.
Angel?s segment was shown in the last 20 minutes of the competition.
He had met 100 members of the audience before the show, which was filmed in June. He had to remember the names and hometowns of five random audience members.
The first was Bailey S. of Mankato, Minn. Angel said he pictured a ?baby with leaves? to remember Bailey.
He was almost stumped with the name of the fourth audience member.
Her name was Paris S. of Chicago.
At first he paused and said he had drawn a blank.
Then he remembered ?the Eiffel Tower in Paris coming out of her curly hair.?
When he got that one right, he pumped his fist in the air and screamed.
Angel barely graduated from high school and has had trouble with his memory his entire life.
In 2012, he began taking online courses taught by White.
Angel said the prize money is going to help him ?give back.? He?s going to contribute some to the Living Waters church in Fountain Valley, where he participates on Tuesday nights to feed the homeless.
He also said he is going to form a nonprofit organization to help orphanages in Mexico.
His mother is from Mexico, and she raised five children.
?She is my inspiration,? he said.
Irvine 'memory athlete' wins Fox's 'SuperHuman'
Jan. 4, 2016 Updated 10:11 p.m.
BY KEITH SHARON / STAFF WRITER
Luis Angel has been a ?memory athlete? since 2012, competing around the world and, in a dozen competitions, finishing only once as high as second.
He had never won a dime of prize money.
All that changed Monday night when Angel, 25, a former DirectTV installer who lives in Irvine, was chosen by the audience as the winner of $100,000 on the premiere of the Fox television show ?SuperHuman.?
When host Kal Penn announced that the ?memory master? had won the show, Angel said he thought his opponent and mentor Ronnie White had won. White had remembered the names and phone numbers of 15 women in a segment called ?The Pickup Artist.?
?I was going to go give him a big hug,? Angel said. ?But then they said my name. I couldn't believe it. I was discombobulated for a while.?
His mother, Yesenia Carrion, ran out of the audience to hug her son.
?She almost tackled me,? Angel said.
In the show, Angel was one of a dozen ?SuperHuman? competitors, each with a particular skill. One was a contortionist. One could identify smells. One could recognize music by watching a keyboard without sound. One could identify tastes.
Angel said he thought the contortionist Brandee Mills, who had to move through a maze of lasers while blindfolded, was the most talented. But she touched the last laser.
Angel?s segment was shown in the last 20 minutes of the competition.
He had met 100 members of the audience before the show, which was filmed in June. He had to remember the names and hometowns of five random audience members.
The first was Bailey S. of Mankato, Minn. Angel said he pictured a ?baby with leaves? to remember Bailey.
He was almost stumped with the name of the fourth audience member.
Her name was Paris S. of Chicago.
At first he paused and said he had drawn a blank.
Then he remembered ?the Eiffel Tower in Paris coming out of her curly hair.?
When he got that one right, he pumped his fist in the air and screamed.
Angel barely graduated from high school and has had trouble with his memory his entire life.
In 2012, he began taking online courses taught by White.
Angel said the prize money is going to help him ?give back.? He?s going to contribute some to the Living Waters church in Fountain Valley, where he participates on Tuesday nights to feed the homeless.
He also said he is going to form a nonprofit organization to help orphanages in Mexico.
His mother is from Mexico, and she raised five children.
?She is my inspiration,? he said.
