Tricycle Theatre, Kilburn, London. 2nd August 2006
Short version:Good performance. Good mentalism effects. Mostly traditional material. Worth seeing, especially for 13 GBP. Theatre's locale is grotty though. It's about 90 minutes long.
Long version: A slight error in timing meant my friend and I arrived a fraction late for the performance. We were ushered to two vacant seats at the back of an already packed theatre. The Tricycle is a fairly small theatre with slightly raised stage, which was decorated sparsely with two tables, containing his set of full props on display. Seating was on three sides of the stage, although mentalists rarely have to consider their angles.
We joined at the beginning of a poker prediction effect involving six poker chips, six envelopes, five prediction cards, four chairs, and much randomness. Everything was left to chance: the seating of the assistants, the selection of the envelopes, and so on. Naturally, Mr. Salem is good at what he does, and despite all the statistics and probabilities he espoused, he ensured that the color of the poker chips matched the predictions on the back of the chairs, and those written on the (previously shelved) prediction cards. As a magi, I'd criticize him slightly for placing himself between the assistants and audience, meaning it was difficult for those in front of the stage to see the chips being emptied out of the envelopes. But the chair predictions no doubt created a convincer for the doubters.
This segued into the other half of his story on poker - cards. Although not a cardician(sp?), and having not used cards for 30 years, he did a simple deck memorization. Simple, I say, because he only had to indicate which half of the deck each card was in. Alas, the spectators chosen where French and Swedish, and didn't know the English for "Ace of clubs" and kept missing their cues to drop cards or say "No." However, he worked through with great aplomb giving a valuable lesson on how to handle situations using humor and numerous one-liners. This, fortunately, made up for what I felt was a weak routine.
Next (if memory serves) was a book test, although I'm not sure which one it was since I don't do them (yet!) A book was taken from the audience ("You're expecting to be bored, were you?!") and the father of the assistant said "Stop" and picked the first word on that page, writing it on a board. He then transmitted this thought to his daughter standing in front of him. A nice effect, and well received.
Continuing with the children theme, he introduced a toy block with six colored letters printed on it. This was placed in a box and passed around five or six members of the audience. At each stage, a different color was placed face up and Mr. Salem called out the name of each color in turn as the spectator said "No" to each. A good hit ratio here; despite the occasional person erroneously saying "Yes" on their color. After each success he also mentioned what it was about the voice that tipped the method. He has similar hints on his website. Nicely done, and well received.
The next section of the programme dealt with three variations on traditional mentalist faire. Firstly, a version of Kurotsake concerning mafia hitmen using four stones (a victim, murderer, and two witnesses) to select the roles for the participants. No mention of why the victim would have been chosen in the same way (and from the same group) as the hitmen, but no one seemed to mind. Cue bad acting on behalf of the guests, and a set of completely accurate predictions/readings. This ended with a prediction-in-wallet effect of the amount of money the victim had on his person. The number was chosen randomly by the spectator, who also removed it from the wallet. This floored my lay friend, re-affirming my faith in the simple handlings found in Corrinda.
The second was a variation on Bank Night, with an electronic safe and four suitcases containing codes. This was conducted as a piece of pure mentalism, and was enjoyed by everyone... else! Both suitcases and safe look too gimmicky for my tastes, and the whole effect (and its associated patter) was playing on the idea that Marc could have lost a lot of money. Consequently, this didn't cut the mustard for me.
Finally in this trilogy was the infamous smash and stab. He made the obligatory references to his previous "failure" and the danger of the situation, along with a commentary on the "tone of voice" method he'd be using. His version uses a wooden block with three central slots for the knife handle, and edge pieces to hold the cups in place. Naturally he succeeded (as otherwise you'd be reading about it in the papers, and not the web!) and created an audible gasp from the audience. If the previous "failure" was intentional to create PR and even more danger; it worked stunningly.
The evening ended with his signature piece; a blindfolded cold reading of objects presented from the audience and various secrets written down by the audience on cards. He got two doctors to help with the effect, explained through his use of surgical tape, allowing him to use lots of good prepared jokes. The effect is very traditional, but handled brilliantly. The blindfold - since you're a magician, and are interested in this sort of thing :) - involved two fifty pence pieces in the eyes, taped in place, with a bandana to cover. Despite this, Mr. Salem still turned away from the items as he hovered his hand over them and read them. In the cases where the object contained a number (euro note, bank card, etc.), he would also read a few digits from it. He used this to increase the audience fervor, building the tension at each step. This demonstrated great crowd control without eye contact, and excused the fact that he was "reading" a number on a bank note/card that no one else would reasonably know.
His closing remarks included the comment that he wasn't psychic; something that now seems to be de riggeur with mentalists nowadays, that I don't remember them doing in my youth.
Is it mental magic or mentalism? Only Mr. Salem knows the real answer. Although I could reproduce most of the effects through magical means, this might not be his approach. If it is, there's certainly more "misses" than most mental magicians would be comfortable using. But each was done with good humor and great audience participation.
However, this is not the important point. It was an evening of entertainment. And as such, it was very entertaining. He's certainly more of a laypersons performer, but everyone up to intermediate mentalist should get something out of the show.
p.s. Hello to all the Johns!
Post-show comments:
I managed to grab a few words with Marc after the show. I duly joined the end of queue (since I hoped to say more than "good show") and waited. He was it seemed, in a rush to go home. And in even more of a rush when I mentioned I was a magician! However, he was polite, which in my book is more important.
His smash and stab is his own, I believe. I commented that it wasn't a method with which I was familiar and he replied that "that's why I get hurt sometimes" But, like I said, he was rushed, so I didn't get to delve as deep as I would have liked.
I also asked about his lack of TV appearances. He made a comment that specials are useless. You go on. You do your thing. And you go. "No-one gains" was his comment, which I thought interesting and am still not sure how I feel about this. Nonetheless, American viewers have seen him on 60 minutes, apparently. Something us English have not.
My friend and I then left and gave the pub opposite a lot of business, while I deconstructed the effects in my head!
[This post is made available under the license, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/. Attribution made by including my full name and web address present at the top of the article]