I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: March 28, 2015] Spencers: Theatre of Illusion

Back in October of 2012 we saw Spencers: Theatre of Illusion.  I saw that they were coming around again, and even though we had seen the show, I remember enjoying it and thought it would be fun to see them again since the kids were a little older now.

I also assumed that the show would be different.  I mean, it had been nearly 2 and a half years.  Sadly, many of the magic acts were exactly the same.  But on the positive side, they were still pretty awesome, and there was a bunch of new material as well.

In my previous write up I said that the pacing was too slow.  I’m sure it wasn’t faster but it didn’t feel slow this time.  That may have been the audience–the room was full of super excited kids and there was plenty of laughter and applause–it worked very well with his leisurely storytelling style (I may have also been anxious last time since our kids were younger and I wanted them to be excited all the way though).

He started off , like last time, by doing a seemingly easy but very cool illusion of tearing today’s newspaper in half. He made some jokes about the paper and then proceeded to rip it up and then reunite the whole page.   It’s pretty cool.

He joked about how everyone wants to see a woman cut in half and proceeded to do it.  C. says he knows how it was done, so good for him.

Then he did something new to us– in a complicated trick, he basically put half a dollar bill inside a lemon.  The details are numerous and were fun to see, and suffice it to say I won’t even try to figure out that one–it was super cool.

The audience participated a lot–he redid the bit where a woman has rings placed through her arm and they redid the spikes of doom, which is a lot of fun.  It’s a good family friendly bit–complete with photo op and a kid who seemed genuinely nervous.

He also redid two fun, full-audience tricks.  In the first, he read the minds of three people–this was very cool  I enjoyed it more last time because this time I spent too much time trying to figure it out rather than just enjoying it.   And in the next one, he had a light-up board in which the audience (in their minds) moved from one city to another on a nine-panel grid.  We all ended up in the same city.  Well last time it worked for me although this time it didn’t.  I’m not sure what happened–but the rest of the family all got it right.

As last time the finale, was a “dangerous” trick, he pushed himself through rotating fan blades.  It left me a little underwhelmed as a finale just like last time.  But C.  enjoyed that one.

Another new trick was the invisible lady.  What I liked was that at the end of the trick he showed a backstage view of how it was done (which proved to be a new trick unto itself.  It was really neat).  And when his wife ended up right in the aisle next to us, T. was thrilled.

In fact T. really enjoyed the show this time. Last time she was little too young to really enjoy it but it was perfect for her this time and she gasped appreciatively many times.

For me the best ones were the simple ones.  He did some tricks that he says were ones he did when he was 8 years old, which were cute.  But the other “simple” ones were really fun.  I’m repeating exactly what I wrote last time because I feel the same way. Even though I knew what was coming, I still loved them.

He did one with a Chinese box that fit inside the box that was inside of it–mind-blowing (possibly very easy, but he performed it perfectly).  The Australian pom pom stick–again, very simple and utterly mind-blowing.  And finally, a simple one with bottle and glasses that, even if I know how he did some of it, I couldn’t figure it all out and he did an amazing job with it.

Last time I laughed at his outfit and his “magician” behavior–slowly raised arms, dramatic flair.  But it’s part of the show and it makes it fun.  His outfit was funny (and we’re not sure how he changed his clothes so quickly.  And I had to laugh that he was using the same music  “Weird Science” That song from The Lost Boys “Cry Little Sister.” Although I was delighted that he used Muse’s “Butterflies and Hurricanes” in one bit.

I enjoyed hearing him talk about all the generous charity work they do.  They were in town since Tuesday working with kids.   So, I decided to support their organization HocusFocus by buying his magic kit, which I think the kids will have fun with.

So they’ve been doing the same basic act for all these years (I mean, at least 3, right) and they still seem to be having a lot of fun (he himself is a great frontman, very charismatic).  So good for them for bringing joy to people.

As I said last time, the magic was great.  And yes, cheese is part of magic, it’s part of the fun.  And we all really enjoyed our the show and our Wawa hot chocolates afterward.