Now You See Me Live
Magic! Illusions! Danger!
We haven’t seen any of the Now You See Me movies, but B was excited to see the stage show featuring professional magicians and escape artists in action. So back to the Sydney Opera House for the second time this month, just a couple of days before Christmas, this time with Alex coming along too.
On the way in we are asked to take four playing cards from a bin.
What follows is about two hours of sleights of hand, illusions, escapology and mentalism, performed by American Adam Trent, Italian Andrew Basso, Frenchman Enzo Weyne, Canadian Gabriella Lester and Englishman Matthew Pomeroy. There’s card tricks, supposed teleportation, an escape from a water torture box and a live scorpion. There is also plenty of audience participation, so if that’s not your thing don’t sit in the front few rows.
For those of you who might watch, I have no wish to spoil the fun by describing the stunts. Many of them leaving you wondering how they were done, which I think accounts for some of the subdued applause during the show.
Aside from the escapology, which is obviously a largely physical skill on the part of the practitioner (primarily Basso, in this case), magic works by clever contraptions and distraction, along with the fact that our conscious thoughts are preceded by subconscious actions and assumptions. Does free will even exist? Perhaps not, and this is of use to those who would manipulate thought and observation.
Rather than appreciating the deception, I find myself more interested in how the tricks were performed. Of course, this will not be revealed here, so I am left a bit unmoved by the experience. Though I have never watched a professional magic show live before, the performances also feel far too familiar from having sat through too many of the America and Britain’s Got Talent shows that B likes to watch.
If that’s your thing then you will probably enjoy Now You See Me Live. B and Alex certainly did. The audience, many of whom gave a standing ovation seemed to as well. Guess I am a bit disillusioned by magic!
#escapology #illusion #magic #mentalism #NowYouSeeMe #show #SydneyOperaHouse