Monday, August 29, 2005

SPOOK SHOW

the past week has been a very fast paced one for all of us. we had put together the skeleton of the show but it lacked a certain body that is needed to keep the audience enthralled and entertained. i also had to change most of the music in the show and my sound engineers and i often had to go back to the office after rehearsals. rehearsals would end at 11pm on a good day and we would be in office until morning.
after a few days of this regime, i started having a sore throat that did not help at all especially during the show..
we only had a full rehearsal with the sound and everything put together on the day of our first show. what a close shave..
jeff mcbride made some changes to the show and his comments really made the show seem better..
organising preshow was also a headache but it turned out well.

and guess what, rehearsals for MOL Japan starts TODAY!

Monday, August 15, 2005

Friday, August 12, 2005

First city of the tour

Yeehah! Texas - land of cowboys!

But, so far, all I've seen is the theatre and the hotel room. Music Hall is huge; it sits 3000. I don't think we'll be able to fill this hall, but that isn't my worry. I have to focus on the show. I woke up at 6am this morning to attend a TV interview. We drove for about an hour or more to get there. The scenery for the entire journey was grass and more grass! But we had a good five-minute interview at Channel 12 First News.

This was the first interview of our USA tour. Haha, I sorta felt like I was on Oprah. Rushed to rehearsals after that. We met up with George (Charlie), Jeffrey (Mr Low), the
dancers and Richard (our director) at a studio near the theatre. We rehearsed the entire show, including the illusions, without any props at all. We even had a "faux" intermission. Man, talk about using our imagination.

Everyone is in a major state of jet lag and can't focus anymore.

A One Of A Kind, NeveTo Be Seen Again Version Of Magic Of Love

Magic of Love in Dallas - Opening Night

To everyone back in Singapore who’ve watched our show before... you just missed a one time only, never to be repeated performance of Magic Of Love.
It was our opening night at Music Hall, Fair Park in Dallas, Texas. The show was moving along fine - the pacing was good and our energy was high. Up till ...Act 2.

Charlie: "He wants the secret to the Death Trap." (He pulls the cloth away and powers up the huge Water Chamber, aka Death Trap, with 200 gallons of water

The chamber started rotating as per normal. Suddenly, the hatch flung open and all the water started gushing out on the stage. Trust me when I say that everyone just stared silently. The audience was watching in amazement and the crew in disbelief. Many thoughts flew across my mind as I watched the water flood the stage – ‘Oh no!’, 'So this was what it looked like in FISM when water from a tank flooded the stage and into the audience' and 'Let's see how we get out of this mess'.

Thank goodness the water didn't flow down to the audience. After the Water Chamber emptied all the water onto the stage, there was total silence for like 2 seconds. You could literally see both George (Charlie) and my dad thinking what they should do.

The entire act 2 revolved around The Death Trap. How do we continue if the illusion can’t work anymore? You've got to be there to see for yourself how we bailed ourselves out of that situation.

Amazingly, we managed to pull the show off; the audience did not even know that anything had gone wrong and they gave us a standing ovation. Jeff McBride, our Magic Director, and Richard, our Show Director, were totally amazed at how we managed to even finish the show.

After an event like this, I'm sure nothing else can stump us (but I'd better not speak too soon).