The Gala Show of Magic Live 2007
I must state from the outset that my enjoyment of this show was severely hampered by the situation with my seat.
I was sitting in the front row but only three seats in from the side of the theatre. Rarely do I get to see magic performed from this angle. Indeed I saw quite a lot more than I should have while at the same time seeing much less than I would have had I been seated in a more central position.
Added to the seat position was the fact that next to me was a man of considerable size. Now I am no stick insect myself so I shouldn’t cast stones but this (nice) man, while less tall, was seriously wider than me. Hence, no matter how each of us positioned ourselves, we seemed to be invading each other’s space (and please understand that I am being diplomatic here.)
So bearing that in mind, here I go…
I was disappointed with this year’s gala show although it did have some stand out moments.
Raymond Crowe was again sensational with his levitating of a member of the audience’s jacket. Even taking into consideration the late, great Tommy Wonder’s birdcage I reckon this jacket levitation is simply the best zombie effect ever. The best ever. Add his charming, short but high impact hand shadow routine and you end up with a standing ovation. True, standing ovations are much more common in the USA than over here in Europe but never the less, this was the only “unforced” standing ovation of the show. After raving about this guy after the International Show last Christmas it gives me great pleasure to do so again here.
Another favourite on this show was David Sousa from Portugal (the people’s FISM Grand Prix winner.) His haunting music, stage presence and unique manipulation routine went down very well again in general but my seating situation reduced my enjoyment of it for
me.
The MC, Mark Kornhauser was superb. Smooth, confident, efficient and very, very funny. Excellent.
Gaeton Bloom had a nightmare. What ever he was trying to do with the chosen card and a salad simply didn’t do anything at all for me. The fact that a “volunteer” member of the audience, who was on stage for ages and had nothing to do except turn a handle of a device that did nothing and had no reason for being used, was blocking my view of the (in)action didn’t help. The very poor routine was not saved by Mr Bloom’s signature piece of card manips wearing boxing gloves which was “stuck” on at the end of the “act”.
Antony Reed, the illusionist, did various box tricks in between the other acts. Each was ok for what it was and done well and the idea of thus splitting the illusions speeded up the show but two things really won me over. Firstly Antony appeared at the end of the comedy act’s set dressed stupidly in a dress with a showgirl type headdress on (behaviour which displayed an inner depth of confidence) and then he closed the show with a great water chamber escape.
The Evansons did their “mindreading” stuff…Jason Byrne pulled out a lot of birds (the birds didn’t appear to be that happy with their part in the procedure) and Les and Drizzle did a comedy act.
Being the third Magic Live Gala show there are those who think that it will be compared unfavourably with the other ones but I just judge it as another show and as you can tell I only enjoyed it in parts.
I was sitting in the front row but only three seats in from the side of the theatre. Rarely do I get to see magic performed from this angle. Indeed I saw quite a lot more than I should have while at the same time seeing much less than I would have had I been seated in a more central position.
Added to the seat position was the fact that next to me was a man of considerable size. Now I am no stick insect myself so I shouldn’t cast stones but this (nice) man, while less tall, was seriously wider than me. Hence, no matter how each of us positioned ourselves, we seemed to be invading each other’s space (and please understand that I am being diplomatic here.)
So bearing that in mind, here I go…
I was disappointed with this year’s gala show although it did have some stand out moments.
Raymond Crowe was again sensational with his levitating of a member of the audience’s jacket. Even taking into consideration the late, great Tommy Wonder’s birdcage I reckon this jacket levitation is simply the best zombie effect ever. The best ever. Add his charming, short but high impact hand shadow routine and you end up with a standing ovation. True, standing ovations are much more common in the USA than over here in Europe but never the less, this was the only “unforced” standing ovation of the show. After raving about this guy after the International Show last Christmas it gives me great pleasure to do so again here.
Another favourite on this show was David Sousa from Portugal (the people’s FISM Grand Prix winner.) His haunting music, stage presence and unique manipulation routine went down very well again in general but my seating situation reduced my enjoyment of it for
me.
The MC, Mark Kornhauser was superb. Smooth, confident, efficient and very, very funny. Excellent.
Gaeton Bloom had a nightmare. What ever he was trying to do with the chosen card and a salad simply didn’t do anything at all for me. The fact that a “volunteer” member of the audience, who was on stage for ages and had nothing to do except turn a handle of a device that did nothing and had no reason for being used, was blocking my view of the (in)action didn’t help. The very poor routine was not saved by Mr Bloom’s signature piece of card manips wearing boxing gloves which was “stuck” on at the end of the “act”.
Antony Reed, the illusionist, did various box tricks in between the other acts. Each was ok for what it was and done well and the idea of thus splitting the illusions speeded up the show but two things really won me over. Firstly Antony appeared at the end of the comedy act’s set dressed stupidly in a dress with a showgirl type headdress on (behaviour which displayed an inner depth of confidence) and then he closed the show with a great water chamber escape.
The Evansons did their “mindreading” stuff…Jason Byrne pulled out a lot of birds (the birds didn’t appear to be that happy with their part in the procedure) and Les and Drizzle did a comedy act.
Being the third Magic Live Gala show there are those who think that it will be compared unfavourably with the other ones but I just judge it as another show and as you can tell I only enjoyed it in parts.
posted by JJ at 5:35 PM
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