poster1"An Evening of Magic" - 23rd May 2010

I'd like to thank everyone who came and supported me at my one man show "An Evening of Magic" on the 23rd of May at the Customs House Theatre. It was a great night and both I and (I hope) my audience had a great time.

 

Volunteers

That evening a particular highlight for me was the couple that volunteered for my "married couple" routine using a borrowed wedding ring.  Well, it wasn't so much the "couple" that volunteered as the lady volunteered herself AND her husband for the trick.  As any magician will tell you, when it comes to audience participation you have to gently but forcefully get people on stage to help you.  In general people don't want to help you on stage for a number of reasons.  They might simply be shy, they might be conscious about the way they will look on stage or that they might say or do something to make them look bad, or in the worst case scenario they have had a bad experience with an entertainer before.  In my opinion there is no excuse for this and I cringe when I see magicians or any entertainer handle a volunteer badly.  It is such a big leap of faith for someone to come on stage in front of hundreds of people and for a performer to do ANYTHING to embarrass that person is categorically wrong.  I follow the David Devant school of thought which is "Everything done with kindness."  An audience will not thank you for making someone look foolish on stage and I strongly believe that it should be a pleasant experience for someone who is kind enough to come up and help.

So, imagine my surprise while asking for a married couple when a lady put her hand up near the front.  I of course jumped at the chance to get such a willing volunteer on stage and boy was I glad I did.  Her name was Gloria and she was an absolute joy.  Her husband Peter came along for the ride but let his wife have the spotlight.  The first moment came when she explained that they had been married 45 years and that she hadn't had her ring off since they got engaged.  People roared with laughter at her reactions.  She kept looking at the audience and saying "Eeeeee, how's he done that?" and "Right, do it again I've got me' glasses on!" which was just wonderful.  She was so good mainly because the audience adored her, but also because she had a good time and I can't thank her enough for being a highlight of the show.  She even wanted to stop and chat as they were leaving the stage, turning round to say "me' ring even looks cleaner!"...some nights you just don't have to work. :-) To see some clips of Gloria and her husband Peter, have a look at my new showreel on my home page.

The Next Show

People have asked me when I am doing another show.  The truth is that an event like that is a huge task to organise and I can't see me doing another one man show for a while.  I am however performing in a 4 night run at the Edinburgh Magic Festival in my own show "Some Enchanted Evening" from the 7th - 11th of July.  To book tickets for this please click here.

Feedback

Thank you to everyone who has given me feedback about the show.  You ALWAYS learn something from performing on stage and the moment you stop learning is the moment you stop improving.  Luckily it has been nothing but positive feedback.  If you were at the show please feel free to email me if you have something you'd like to comment on.