talkmagic.co.uk

Hi everyone!

Here are a couple of clips from my Brighton Fringe show, 'MENTAL!'

Playing for keeps

Real Man's Tarot

POLITE NOTE FOR THE HARD OF THINKING:
'MENTAL!' is my comedy club show. It's intended for people to have a drink and a giggle. I'd never get away with being a Svengali type, nor would I want to try. If anything, the 'serious me' is normally more manic than this.

Oh, and the names of effects have been changed to make it harder to google the methods.

Very enjoyable! Here is a short run through of what I thought of each effect:

Playing for keeps: I've always loved the plot, but in general, don't like the idea of quite a lot of dead time. There was a lot of dead time in the clip, but you managed it perfectly, it wasn't boring, it was funny and looked very clean!
My only criticism was that I think you could of added maybe 15 seconds extra before opening your own envelope, summing up the impossibility of the climax about to happen!

Real man's Tarot: The first thing I noticed was that there seemed a bit of tension between you and the spectator and I had a nasty feeling the audience were going to take his side.
Luckily, although there was probably no luck involved, you seemed to turn it on it's head and make the most of the situation!
I wasn't a huge fan of the effect, I felt like it was a very long process with an ending that didn't live up to the wait. That is a personal thing and I hope you don't find it offensive. I can, however, say that I think it would've been a lot more enjoyable watching it live with the atmosphere etc so perhaps that was the problem. Watching videos of effects can often make them seem longer or longer winded than they really are!


Overall, I genuinelly enjoyed the performance. I like the style, I particuarly liked the first effect and I like you(or your character!

Thanks for posting them Pete!

Thanks Lenoir!

Lenoir wrote:...I think you could of added maybe 15 seconds extra before opening your own envelope, summing up the impossibility of the climax about to happen!

That's not my style, though. I hate it when magicians say things like: 'wouldn't you be surprised if the card in my wallet was the one you chose and signed and shuffled back into the deck?'... well, seeing as you've just mentioned it, and your job is to do magic, I guess not!

Having torn open the other four envelopes, there was only one place where to money could be - and the more eagerly I rip open the envelope and wave the cash in people's faces, the more likely they are to believe it was all above board.

My agenda in performing a bank night routine at a boozy club gig isn't to demonstrate the impossibility of anything or to open people's eyes to the wonder of the human mind. It's to hold on to my money!

I thought James was a brilliant volunteer for the 'Real Man's Tarot' routine. He really got into the stupidity of it. I would never have been quite so 'odd' with him if he wasn't so easy-going. I do wind people up on a regular basis in my comedy club shows, but I think I'm pretty good at sensing how far is too far. And I've never tried to be a sympathetic character. Being sympathetic isn't that impostant if you can manage to be unpredictable.

Cheers,

Pete

Playing for keeps: The first "joke" note really works, but using it three times in a row leads to a long period where you seem to lose the audience. My feelings certainly went from (1) "Funny! Can't wait to see what's in the next one!" to (2) "Well, I guess that joke has been played out. Let's see what's next." to (3) "Ugh." The fourth note was mildly funny for its being different, but by then I had kind of lost the thread.

So, I guess as a spectator, I wouldn't mind being carried through the lengthy routine with increasingly amazing revelations or even just different "cheeky" notes. ("A lady will choose envelope #4" -- this would be slightly less obvious than the first note, but the audience will still realize that it isn't magic at all, so you could play it as cheekily as the first one. Or whatever.)

Even if you kept the messages the same, it might help to emphasize the main point of the effect, namely that the switches aren't for switching's sake but because there is a banknote somewhere. I sort of forgot during the routine that there was cash up for grabs. If I were forced to keep my attention on which envelope you held throughout and where the twenty pounds might be, the final two envelopes ("should've switched" and "cash") might pack more punch.

Real man's tarot: I enjoyed the plot, and you handled your helper very well. I liked the multi-phase approach, as it lets the audience formulate an "obvious" solution that you immediately demonstrate as not correct, leaving them, well, appropriately amazed. I couldn't read the paper on the video, but assuming it was a simple list of the chosen symbols, I think the climax might be stronger if you count the cards and then show the paper. (Otherwise, the "reveal" is dragged out over five cards, softening the blow. After three or four cards, the last one or two are not as interesting.)

By some delightful happenstance, your voxpop footage has your poster next to my former landlord's. It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to paint it.

Enjoyed the bank night effect. I love effects that are large in scale but hinge on a small mechanism. Had me fooled momentarily on the "I told you you should have switched" bit.

Very good, enjoyed both effects.

As you say it's your show for drunk adults, wouldn't a crudely drawn knob for sex get a cheap laugh!?

Harry Guinness wrote:As you say it's your show for drunk adults, wouldn't a crudely drawn knob for sex get a cheap laugh!?

I like to think that the frisky feet take in all persuasions.

How very PC of you ....

Yup Politically Correct Wells....

F x

Although I've only just realised that it alienates people who have a fetish for amputees.

A redesign is obviously called for!

I really enjoyed both clips. I like your presentation style very much. And for me the repeated gag in the first clip would have me chuckling away continuously - I'm a firm believer in 'repetition is the key to all humour'!

Looking forward to seeing the show in Edinburgh.