In coming weeks, at various points around the city, passersby will be seeing some unusual structures. They're to facilitate an "Amazement," which will continue for over a month, that's the brainchild of famous magician/performance artist Cryptos.

Jamaican-born Cryptos was coy about his plans. "We have the permits, the items are being constructed, and soon they will be placed. I will say nothing more except that the lives of every person in the city will be changed forever."

Cryptos eschews understatement.

Two years ago, he made headlines when a stunt seemed to go terribly wrong…a 12-day flagpole-stand ended with Cryptos seemingly falling to his death, impaled on an iron-picket fence.

On examination, the body turned out to be a dummy. How Cryptos made the switch has never been explained.

Born on the streets of Kingston to a teenaged mother and a father he never knew, Cryptos claims he killed his first man at 11, overdosed on drugs at 13, and found sobriety and salvation at 18. "I should be dead. I should've died seven times. But the angels watched over me, and it must've been for a reason. I remind myself of that every day."

Perhaps it explains why he works so hard at his illusions ("Amazements," he calls them), and at tireless self-promotion. He's on a mission from…"Don't say it, mon. It's not the cliché they lampoon in the movies. It's my destiny."

But is he a magician, or a preacher? Cryptos is known for his exhortations, although his rhetoric is often opaque. For example: "I knew the giver of sleep. He kept his eye on his dream, and achieved it, in a way. But now I wonder if he would approve of this strange amorphous state. I think he would join us. I think he would throw his reds in the river and sing the blues with us. We can never know, may he rest in peace, but this is what I believe."

His cult may understand more than the general public.

And they are legion. There's a whole Cryptos circuit, reminiscent of the Grateful Dead tours of years past, where followers and fans ("Dredheads," after Cryptos's famous hair) follow their showman shaman and share the love.

City officials say that a small grant from the City's tourism promotion fund was paid to Cryptos, whose presence is expected to produce record tourist crowds this season.