Praveen’s Magic Quill

Performance of magic is all about perception. Making impossible possible is impossible. So magicians make the impossible seemingly possible. I had started writing this post nearly a month back, but managed to finish it today. I had gone with my family members to Jadugar Anand’s Magic Show at Kamarajar Arangam near Royapettah, soon after returning from Harish’s new house. Before going inside, I didn’t think much of it. The show was supposed to start by 10 minutes after we parked the car, and even that time the parking lot was near empty! Tickets ranged from Rs.50 to Rs.500, but we decided to settle with a Rs.300 ticket each. We went inside and took our places right in the middle of the 5^th row or so.

The show started 15 minutes late and till then music was being played with music reaching nearly the decibel level of an aircraft taking off! Just before it started, I turned around and gasped in surprised that the auditorium was near houseful!!! It started off with a narration on how Anand became a magician. She said that he is the “World’s Fastest Magician” (Don’t ask me what she meant by it, coz I really don’t know!) and went on to say that he holds 3 Guinness World Records!

And then, finally, Jadugar Anand himself came out, clad in a colourful jiggling heavy magician’s outfit including a cape and a turban! Phew! Poor fellow, would have sweat 2 litres by the end of the show in Chennai Summer Weather! The first thing he did was to define magic as a pleasing and amazing art and exhibition of practiced skills, where the laws of nature are seemingly set aside for innocent entertainment. Soon after, he started with that many magicians do in common.

I was trying to get into the bottom of the tricks and tried to watch closer for any visibility of a trapdoor or the sort, when suddenly, as if reading my mind, Anand said with a “Ladies and Gentlemen, this is a Government building and we are not even allowed to hit a nail into the wall, so forget about cutting holes into the stage. Saying so, he disappeared backstage. Meanwhile, some young hot babes, skimpily clad with mini-skirts started dancing and doing interesting stuff, which obviously drew more applause from the crowd than Anand’s first session.

A few minutes later, Anand came back into view, this time clad in a similar outfit but with different colours. The cool unique tricks were yet to come, he mentioned. Saying so, asked for a volunteer in the audience to assist him for a few other tricks. A college girl wearing a T-Shirt captioned “I hate Internet Explorer” (it was printed with graphics, so that when you see that, you would understand the “other” underlying meaning). Then, Anand did tricks like levitating her, getting out of a heavily locked enclosure, inserting a sword right through her neck and her getting cut using an electric saw. All the above tricks were carried out awesomely, and as expected, the babe was safe and sound as before! He concluded that session by declaring “Your are the medium, but the magic is mine”!

The next and the final session started expectantly with Anand in another set of uniquely coloured typical magician’s clothes. He demonstrated conjuring of a rabbit from an empty hat, and suddenly, much to my surprise, conjured a huge dirty elephant out of thin air! Pretty much impressive, eh? What’s more? It just walked down from the stage, walked past us and out! This is the first time ever I have seen an elephant close range inside a closed hall! Soon, it was time to wrap things up and as a final masterpiece, he made a huge replica of the Statue of Liberty to disappear right in front of our eyes!

On the whole, I was quite a lot impressed and finally felt that it was my money’s worth (much much worth than my SnowFall Experience!). I think he is out of the city for this year and has come to Mangalore I think. If at all you people get to know of his shows going some place around you, mark my words and don’t hesitate to go and watch it! Its two and a half hours of non-stop entertainment!!!