Living Illusion show review – backstage pass

I was contacted weeks ago from a friend of mine Kevin Ridgeway who would be performing where I live, Battle Creek, MI. I was excited cause I haven’t seen Kevin and Kristen for some time. Our visit was over due and well deserved.

Well he also asked if I was available to work the load in and the show itself. I didn’t hesitate to hang out with a friend and load a show in. Well now comes the review.

I arrived early for the load in and was greeted by Kevin and Kristen along with their lighting/sound guy Jon. We started load in at 11. The theatre had an interesting setup because the loading dock is a half a floor up from the stage level making it for an interesting load in with a lot of the illusions. Kevin and Kristen have it all figured out how to load in a huge show so it all ran smooth. We where all excited cause there was new material they where premiering in this show for the first time. The new material they where premiering was: Jet Turbine Illusion, there are only 4 of these made (I believe) and it took some time to put together and was massive but was extremely worth the time to put together. The end result: the audience went nuts. Then they where also premiering and new video and music for there water torture cell. I have not seen what it looked like before. But I was impressed with what I saw that night. Kristen does and amazing job and you can hear the audience gasping as they watch her in the tank free herself from the chains. A lot of the gasps where from those who couldn’t hold there breathe longer then Kristen ;-). Kevin and Kristen took the water torture cell to the next level. I remember when Kevin first told me about the idea and I was like ok sounds cool would love to see the act. I got to see it on video and in pictures. I liked the effect but didn’t get excited until I saw it in person. Let me tell you, in person it is even COOLER! Job well done guys with your new additions.

Ok, back on track. We loaded the show got the stage ready and set the lights and tested them. Things ran extremely smooth. Now it was time to run the turbine illusion a couple of times. I was the only one in the theatre to watch the rehearsals and I was amazed. Watching it several times I knew the audience would love the illusion not from the size but the effect is so powerful. Well the audience LOVED it. I am still hearing word about it. Once everything was queued up it was time to finalize everything and open the doors and get ready to do the show.

Show time came and everything went off with out a hitch. Great crowd and great response! So when you see them coming to your town – grab a ticket fast. They are amazing people.

Thanks Kevin and Kristen and Jon for letting me be part of the show. It was a great time.

Best,