Magical Weekend......

When the phone rang , I was really frustraed and thought of silencing it. But when I saw the caller, I became very curious to what it might be. It was my friend and a leading magician in the state, Mr. Yona (short for Yoganathan). It was an invitation to join him in one of the country clubs. There was a get together hosted by an MNC and the magic show was a part of it. I couldnt resist the invitation. together with my cousin Mohan, I made a dash to the venue. It was a country club set at the foot hills of western ghat, not far from my place. Greenery all around and beautifull villas punctuating it.
The show began with his usual ' Chaplin act' and continued with a lot of items that involved the guests. The crowd was much delighted with the way things appeared and disappeared. For one with a keen interest in magic and knows all its secret, I was more interested in seeing how the performer stood to the situation. The way he managed the crowd so close and around him.
My interest in magic began ever since I saw small time performers do at my school. Later when I got the chance to really learn the tricks, my interests faded once I knew the secrets. But with a new trick, it once again popped up. Now having known the secrets, my attention goes towards the presentaion. Every performer has his own style. So the same trick is delivered in different ways by each performer depending on how imaginative and innovative they are. Now it was this great person who has bagged several national awards for stage and close-up performance. There was one last act, which he had choreographed and was rehersing for an international competetion. After he called someone from the audience, he made him do the act following his instructions. He made the man scissor through his handkerchief and made him look miserable at the damage he did to his own belonging. Later the particaipant was presented with a new one instead. Then Yona climbed on to a bench and raised a cloth in front of him and instantly dropped it. To everyone's amazement, the magician had disappeared. Wow ... what a show. The secret is simple. But consider his age and an open air theatre, the speed with which he enacted the vanishing act was superb. Sure enough, secrets are the root of magic. But that is not just all. Practice and dedication bring fantastic reults. And this was another testimony to it.