It was supposed to be an incredible night as “Impossible” – the “world’s greatest magic show” – opened for the first time in Singapore yesterday evening.
Last night, however, the show was wrought with organisational and technical difficulties, and struggled to impress. The organisers were eventually forced to shut down the show after their first act, much to the dismay of audience members.
Mr Nathaniel Dass, 18, was among the many members of the audience who were caught up in the resulting confusion. “I was just very confused. I wasn’t sure if this was part of the show or if it was real,” said Mr Dass. “Loads of people were saying that maybe the show was going to continue downstairs but it was just very chaotic.”
A member of the audience even turned to popular local forum HardwareZone to break the news at 9:21 p.m. yesterday. Forum member ZzslackerzZ posted “Watched act 1 but not act 2. They tell us come back another day.” along with images of the confused crowd.
While no refunds were offered on the spot, people were told to form lines in order to get their particulars recorded to attend a make-up show.
Many audience members were visibly upset and many people were seen leaving the theatre without realising that they could register for a make-up date.
Impossible is made up of a team of magicians hailing from all around the world. Magical Bones, Chris Cox, Aaron Crow, Josephine Lee, Ben Hart, Jonathan Goodwin and Sabine Van Diemen.
Individually, they are considered to be the world’s greatest illusionists. They have been touring the world and have consistently impressed their audiences wherever they go.
Before their maiden show in Singapore had even begun, audience members were already antsy after being made to stand outside Kallang Theatre for close to 45 minutes.
The crowd was also forced to fight their way through the collection of tickets and through the entry. There was no order and everyone ended up pushing and cutting the messy lines.
The chaos continued even when we were ushered upstairs. We were made to wait outside the theatre as the staff refused to open the doors to let anyone find their seats and sit down.
The show, which started 15 minutes late, opened with Sabine performing a trick where she escaped from chains and survived being impaled to death. The act, while exciting, was nothing unusual. Rather, it looked overly-exaggerated and felt forced.
The magicians then took turns coming up and performing their individual sets. Aaron Crow impressed the crowd with his stoicism and his ability to slice a pineapple on an audience member’s head – all while his eyes were shut with wax, bandaged and taped up. Needless to say, don’t try this at home.
However, a trick where he hid a knife in a paper bag and mixed them around felt very dragged out and got old after a bit.
The highlight of the first half of the show was certainly Chris Cox, who is the team’s mind reader. With his energy and slightly inappropriate jokes, Chris had the crowd roaring with laughing. In fact, his tricks just felt the most authentic out of all the performances.
To end off the act, Ben Hart came onstage for the second time to do a trick related to electricity. He transported an audience member halfway across the stage with an explosion of fire and sparks. The theatre was then plunged into darkness for a short while before the lights came up.
It was at that point that a single announcement was made stating that the second act of the show would not be carried out due to ‘technical difficulties’. Audience members were asked to proceed to the ground floor to register to come back on another day.
Many people were initially very confused as the announcement was not an official one but rather something that sounded like it was part of the show. It was only after a few minutes of confusion when some audience members began to leave.
As the audience shuffled out of the theatre, the ground floor of Kallang Theatre reverted to the state at the start of the evening.
The organisers said that the show was stopped because “it was no longer safe for the magicians to continue” and also that the technical difficulties had nothing to do with Ben Hart’s final trick of the evening. AC Music Entertainment also made a Facebook post later that evening.
As far as opening nights go, this one was certainly eventful.
If you are considering coming down for the show, I’d advise you to come simply to have fun. If you are expecting mind-blowing, unique tricks, you are most certainly not going to get it. The tricks are age-old and the delivery was not always the smoothest. For a fun night out, however, this is certainly something to catch.
Let’s just hope that they manage to get through a full performance next time.
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Photo Credit: Impossible
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