Curtis Adams at the Pikes Peak Center
BY WARREN EPSTEIN
My kids and I went to Curtis Adams' rockin' magic show last night at the Pikes Peak Center. We loved the idea of Adams' show much more than the show itself. Mixing high-energy hip-hop dance, rock-show effects and magic seems like a winning combination, and Adams almost has the talent to pull it off.
Unfortunately, the dancing wasn't quite up to the Britney Spears level and much of the magic was stale or over-hyped.
The worst bit was the big showcase effect. Audience members mark bullets that were then put into a machine gun. The gun was later shot at Adams, who pulled a Neo, making all the bullets suspend in mid-air. Turns out, they were the same bullets marked by the audience!
Again, nifty idea. But cheesily done. The set-up of marking the bullets took forever. The freezing of the bullets looked goofy, and the whole payoff at the end, that these were the same bullets, was silly. If we're not impressed that the man can make bullets stop with his mind, we're not going to be impressed that he can switch a gun clip.
The old "tribute" acts, such as Houdini's "Metamorphosis," didn't work, either. Woman in trunk switches with guy standing on trunk. Been there, done that.
But there were a few unexpected moments of grace and amazement. For instance, at the end of the first act, Adams' appeared to burst into a cloud of confetti. Very cool.
We also liked his work with screens that used rear projection. He would dance behind the screens, and his image would be replaced by one from a projection -- which would do all sorts of weird special-effects things to him. I like this kind of bit because it doesn't insult our intelligence. We all know how it's done. But we're still impressed by the timing and the beauty of it.
Adams may have the stuff to be the next Chris Angel. But he needs to take a lactose-intolerant approach to his act: eliminate the cheese.
My kids and I went to Curtis Adams' rockin' magic show last night at the Pikes Peak Center. We loved the idea of Adams' show much more than the show itself. Mixing high-energy hip-hop dance, rock-show effects and magic seems like a winning combination, and Adams almost has the talent to pull it off.
Unfortunately, the dancing wasn't quite up to the Britney Spears level and much of the magic was stale or over-hyped.
The worst bit was the big showcase effect. Audience members mark bullets that were then put into a machine gun. The gun was later shot at Adams, who pulled a Neo, making all the bullets suspend in mid-air. Turns out, they were the same bullets marked by the audience!
Again, nifty idea. But cheesily done. The set-up of marking the bullets took forever. The freezing of the bullets looked goofy, and the whole payoff at the end, that these were the same bullets, was silly. If we're not impressed that the man can make bullets stop with his mind, we're not going to be impressed that he can switch a gun clip.
The old "tribute" acts, such as Houdini's "Metamorphosis," didn't work, either. Woman in trunk switches with guy standing on trunk. Been there, done that.
But there were a few unexpected moments of grace and amazement. For instance, at the end of the first act, Adams' appeared to burst into a cloud of confetti. Very cool.
We also liked his work with screens that used rear projection. He would dance behind the screens, and his image would be replaced by one from a projection -- which would do all sorts of weird special-effects things to him. I like this kind of bit because it doesn't insult our intelligence. We all know how it's done. But we're still impressed by the timing and the beauty of it.
Adams may have the stuff to be the next Chris Angel. But he needs to take a lactose-intolerant approach to his act: eliminate the cheese.
posted by Mark Arnest at 9:10 AM
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