I feel as if it has been a very long time since I stepped on stage as The Steampunk Illusionist. It's actually not been that long, but with the passing of my Father, time seems twisted and unfamiliar. That being said, The Steampunk Illusionist DID return to the stage this week. We had the honor of performing at the Locust Shade Park Amphitheatre in Triangle VA. It's a wonderful venue that holds up to 600 people. The audience is covered as is the stage, but with the hot August days, it can still be a challenge, and it was.
The temperature was in the 80s the day of the show. Though we were doing the smaller version of the
show, there is still a lot involved in the set-up. We planned a rather ambitious show that we felt would be received enthusiastically. Imagine our surprise when we arrived to find we left our closing effect at home. That situation was a crushing moment as we had worked so hard on this new ending to the show. We had all the other parts to the closer, including new costumes and such, but the one key piece we needed was missing. So, we quickly had to reorganize the order of the show. We chose to close with our signature Traveling Bottle and Glass routine. This effect is a popular one among stage magicians, but almost everyone I have ever seen perform it does the exact same routine. Now, there is nothing wrong with the original routine, but we wanted something a little different. Our routine uses two people and has a lot of extra comedy due to the antics of my assistant Denise.
We had a couple new routines in the show which I was very proud of. One is an effect with several feathered plumes. The plumes magically change color, again and again. I think it may be my new favorite routine. The other new addition was the Silk Pedestal which dates back to the Victorian era and plays very nicely. I believe that I am going to expand on this routine and make it more of a feature.
The show also included my Steampunked Disectolator illusion, where my arm gets cut into three pieces. And we also do a wonderful effect with three borrowed finger rings that appear in a most impossible location. All in all, we presented 12 routines in our 45 minute show.
There are more new routines that will be going into the show soon. One which is based on a real Civil War era spy!
