Echoes of the Will Rock (Thurston ?) show are still heard about town. Some of the boys took exception to our rite-up (#91) as being too lenient. Their criticisms focused on his routining of the illusions, playing up, with good excuse, the fact that the audience didn’t know the show was over. On first thought we passed that part by in our praise over the clean cut technique of presentation minus, of course, the Thurston warmth. On second thought we see our critics’ view only too well.
Most big shows we’ve seen, including Thurston’s, did one illusion after another with no rhyme or reason. But, the “governor”, as Dorny for years affectionately called him, did build up his climaxes. Take, for instance, the last act finish with the Water Fountains spectacle. While this was being set, Thurston worked in “one”, generally doing the rabbit production to a box of candy effect with a little girl from the audience. At the finish of this, a trick very judiciously spotted here because it could be done against time and wound up whenever the signal came through that the lawn sprinkling gadgets were in place with the nearest hydrant turned on, Thurston would tell everybody the words we used on the front cover of Jinx #20, in memoriam. He’d explain that in a minute or so he would show them a most wondrous feat of magic from a far country, AND THAT HE WANTED, AT THAT TIME, TO BID THEM ALL GOOD NIGHT AND MUCH HAPPINESS. Then would come the pay-off good-nights to each of the children (generally about three) who had helped at various times, plus one to “dad”, which fitted because of an effect in which one of the children had to pull father’s hair.
Corny ? Decidedly so, in the sophisticated centers, but deadly on the public pocketbooks in the cities averaging 200,000 population. It would take an elderly person to do it, and one with plenty of polish. Will Rock would suffer through using it, but he could improve things a lot by emulating the man to whom he is successor (?) by putting his six card repeat trick just before his finish (sawing) and upon its climax telling all that, to conclude, he would be pleased to present the most talked of illusion ever presented by Thurston, and with the very piece of strange apparatus used for so many years by the master. Then he could step off to stage left, let the curtains part (Rock has a set of “one” curtains that will intrigue you the longer you gaze at the relief work on them), and then make his entrance for the last scene from stage left to approach the set-up with assistants in place.
Thurston’s psychology of “audience resistance breakdown” was perfect in theory and practice. Do illusions with stage presentation and assistant perfection. Then, intermittently, do intimate magic with borrowed children and let the audience feel as though they know you, “an actor, a magician, a showman.” You’d be surprised to know how many people glory in being within a yard of someone “on the stage.” Then go back into the picture frame (proscenium arch) and do another stint of story book marvels. For a full evening show think of two sentences for the two acts. Each sentence is composed of two phrases. The comma between them represents the intimate contact.
Leave a Reply