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Christian & Katalina Elite user 407 Posts |
We had a soft opening late Saturday Night. It went very well. During on particularly dark effect, one person said he almost had a panic attack. I think we have reached the creepiness level I was hoping for. This is a photo of the stage after we had cleared everything. I will post another of the full stage set up later.
This has been quite the process to design and open a 75 minute show. It took about 6 months. Click here to view attached image.
Milbourne Christopher Award for Mentalism 2011
The Annemann Award for Menatalism 2016 Author of "Protoplasm" Close-up Mentalism |
Mindpro Eternal Order 10586 Posts |
Congratulations C&K! Is this running in conjunction of your regular show or in place of for a limited run?
I hope to come see you in the next month or so when I get to that area. |
magic.mind Loyal user 247 Posts |
Beautiful combination of colors, congratulations.
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Christian & Katalina Elite user 407 Posts |
Mindpro...let me know when you're in town. The show will be running inconjuction with our regular show. One of the things we had to plan out very carefully was the very quick turnaround.
Magic.mind..thanks for the kudos. What many performers fail to take into consideration when designing a show, is not only the effects, script, and premise, but also the look and feel of the set. The music. The lighting. Since this is a Ghost show...we chose purple as a striking color not only to excite the eye but also represents a midnight or haunting color. Choosing the right fabrics becomes critical because the type of fabric creates texture on the stage. We also did not want this to be a Halloween show so we stayed away form all of the clique and corny seasonal props. The black curtains have a shimmer which get picked up by the par-cans we have in the back. We chose blues to give it a midnight feel. The show begins as soon as the guest walks in the theater. An usher guides them to their seat and they are looking at a very spooky set. There are objects on display that will be used in the show that a "normal" person will not recognize but will be easily explained during the performance. The odd items create discussion and fire the imagination in the audience. We spent a couple of weeks researching and choosing the right music and voice over introduction for before the show begins. I want them to already have goose bumps before we walk on stage.
Milbourne Christopher Award for Mentalism 2011
The Annemann Award for Menatalism 2016 Author of "Protoplasm" Close-up Mentalism |
theinternetguru Elite user I hacked the Café but I still only have 426 Posts |
Wow this looks terrific. Gratz on this, clearly the result of much hard work.
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mrkmarik Regular user New York 185 Posts |
Smart set up Christian. Was it Play Dead of one of your inspiration while visiting NYC?
I love your book great work. All the Best Marc. |
Christian & Katalina Elite user 407 Posts |
Thanks Guru...it was more hard work than I had initially imagined.
Marc, Thanks for the kind words...and I'm happy to hear you enjoyed my book...what was your favorite effect in the book? Inspiration for this show came from many places. My wife and I toured the country performing for 10 years and took in many mentalism and Spook shows. Of the spook shows we watched, we were surprised how different they all were. I will mention three of the more popular ones. Supernatural Chicago with Neil Tobin, Houston Seance with Jamie Salinas, and Play Dead with Todd Robins. Each one of these had an entirely different feel and presented a different theatrical experience. Even the premises of the shows were vastly different. Interestingly each one treads heavily into mentalism and created a very real feeling that what you are witnessing is more than "tricks" presented in a show. (we could have a very long thread on this alone . . . we'll save that for another time) At the time we already had a couple of ghost/dark effects in our show. We began to formulate a show based entirely on a haunted premise. This is more difficult than one might imagine as you must take in to account what the audience expectations will be. Go too corny and you have a themed magic show. Go too heavy and you might have people crying or upset that you are 'really' playing with the Satan. The question becomes how creepy do you want to go!?! and that is not an easy question to answer or deliver upon. Now the neophytes will immediately say..."yes, I want to scare people to death". There are two BIG challenges. One, it's not as easy as it seems. It takes more than a couple of good 'tricks' to create that type of experience. Two: Just because you can scare people does not mean you have a good show or that it is a good theatrical experience. We have already played our show out a couple of times on soft audiences. (these are lay audiences that give you the feedback you need to develop the show) We have been very pleased on their reactions and adjusted blocking and script to increase the impact and fix weak parts of the show. We had to rip one method totally out of the show and re-engineer a new one because of the blocking problems the other method gave to the stage. Interestingly...the new method came straight out of Annemann. Nice!
Milbourne Christopher Award for Mentalism 2011
The Annemann Award for Menatalism 2016 Author of "Protoplasm" Close-up Mentalism |
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