|
Club Show
6th Feb - Kennington Avenue Methodist Church, Benfleet
Our first club show of the year took place on Saturday 6th Feb in Benfleet and it was a great night with a very enthusiastic audience who were raising money for the local Scout group.
It was a full show and great to see such a good turnout from the club. On close-up duties we had Wally, Alan, Robbie, Ollie, Adrian, James G, Mick, Leon and Ray. After a subdued opening reaction from the audience, they soon warmed up and by the end of the first half of the evening, it was clear that they were really up for anything we had to show them, and plenty of clapping, cheering and laughter was heard during the close-up session.
After a short break which included a raffle and a coin toss elimination fund raiser, put on by the event organisers, it was on with the second half and into the stage element of the show.
Young James Gilroy was up first in his first ever appearance on stage for the club, and I was really proud to see how confidently he performed. Starting with a mirror box toy rabbit production, he went on to place his assistant into a box where she was penetrated by two large metal tubes and several lethal looking swords. We don’t have many illusions of this nature in our shows, and it was great to see James do so well with its presentation. Well done James!!
Next was Stuart Burrell whose escapology act just seems to get better and better every time I see it. Stuart escaped from a leather strap tightly bound around his wrists; then invited several members of the audience onto the stage to help tie him up with rope and padlock his wrists with chain – needless to say, he escaped right on cue! Finally, a really interesting insight into Houdini’s early career accompanied by an escape from a pair of Derby handcuffs. Nice one Stuart!
Robbie Wood followed – yet another first time appearance on stage at one of our shows, and again it was excellent to see Robbie up there confidently presenting the effect he had chosen – the Vanishing Bandanna. The audience loved his act and were in fits in all the right places!
To round off the show, Richard Graham appeared with three of his favourite crowd pleasers. Starting with the invisible card routine where any card named by an audience member becomes real after loads of comedy by-play; followed up with John Archer’s Collard routine; and finishing off with his unique cards across effect involving huge laughs at the several sound effects triggered through the act.
A great show all round and the promise of a repeat booking for the club next year.
|
