Transforming/Disappearing/Vanishing The Reluctant Audience

Most of us attend a concert or an event and we know exactly what we expect to see, that’s the reason why we have movie ratings. Trailers, billings, music videos, all of those advertisements place an impression upon us about what we’re going to view when the curtain goes up.

Some things live up to these expectations, some things exceed those expectations and some things fall remarkably short of those expectations. Enter the Rick Wilcox Magic Show. Many people who attend the show have attended theater performances before but not magic shows.

TV magic (these days) is largely dismissed through the magic of cameras and editing. Even in a large Las Vegas performance, the pageantry typically obscures the wonder, intimacy and authenticity that is the “Magic” of magic. (See next week’s blog)

On my first visit to the Rick Wilcox show, I sat in an audience unsure of what to expect, we politely/begrudgingly applauded when we saw the first large illusion in the show. It was a slow starting “Group Clap.” You know, the kind that begins with two or three people clapping and eventually overtakes the entire audience. That’s a reluctant audience because the clapping starts out of what seems to be an obligation/apprehension.

This is how the Rick Wilcox Show starts, and maybe how every show starts for Rick Wilcox, but it is certainly not how it ends! I think that the pace of the show, the variety of tricks, and most importantly the audience participation give the audience a certain feeling of wonder that is individual to each person. This feeling comes to us based upon our age, our background, our mood, our state of mind at any given time. Personal experience is a real thing, remember it is part of the expectation that we have for seeing a show especially a live one. This personal feeling transforms a Magic Show to a MAGICAL EXPERIENCE!

The end result of a great show with Master Magicians Rick and Susan Wilcox is an audience that has come together and claps out of admiration for their personal experience. About half way through the show, the audience is no longer reluctant. They are a part of the show...  some members on stage, some part of a large audience participation illusion, but all have been transformed to allow the wonder and fun of the performance to become a part of their imagination.

In the end, the Reluctant Audience becomes a big part of the performance. Hardened and aged hearts have become youthful and warm again. Signs of aging reveal hidden laugh lines and the slow group claps have become standing ovations by the show’s conclusion.
 

Here's once Audience Member's reaction to seeing Rick's show for the first time.