Magician Mark Mitton could have used a spell or two on Wednesday afternoon at his appearance in front of hundreds of attendees in the Humanities lecture hall.
Halfway through his presentation as part of the Provost Lecture Series, Mitton closed a window on a computer, only to reveal a woman wearing nothing but a red bikini bottom in a suggestive pose.
Mitton, though, was just as surprised and horrified as the audience. Turns out, the computer being used for the presentation belonged not to Mitton, but to Stony Brook University. The laptop was provided by the university for the purposes of the presentation, says Robert Crease, chairman of the philosophy department.
“This was not [Mitton’s] fault,” he said. “This was a computer provided by Stony Brook University.”
Tracking down where the computer came from is harder than one would think, he said. Stony Brook’s TLT department is typically the department responsible for providing the technological needs for events like the Provost Lecture Series, but it’s unclear who is responsible for putting the lurid content on the computer in the first place.
“It was incredibly embarrassing to everyone involved,” said Crease.
Think reporter Trevor Christian was at the lecture and witnessed the reaction of the crowd.
“It took a second for people to realize what was happening,” he said. “When they did, there was giggling and one person said ‘whoa!’.”
Compounding the issue further was the fact some professors and university staff—perhaps taking comfort in the typically kid-friendly profession of magician—extended invitations to their young children.
“One mother was talking to her kid of about 10,” added Christian.
For his part, Mitton tried to dismiss the incident and move on.
“He pretty much awkwardly giggled and covered it up as soon as he noticed what it was,” said Christian.
The TLT department wasn’t immediately available for comment as of Thursday evening.
Crease, who was in attendance at the presentation, said he wants to make sure something like this never happens again.
“I’m going to make sure that the department responsible for the content is made aware of the incident, and that it doesn’t happen again,” he said.
