ful for our art form.
The mood of the audience is then lifted
with a celebration scene, that could easily
be, and what I assumed was, the finale.
Members of the cast fill the stage with
aerial and floor-level acrobatics. Chloe is
scaling cards into the audience whilst Criss
manipulates lasers. He then starts to spin
like a figure skater and levitates ninety feet
into the gods.
The whole cast takes a bow and when Criss
comes back on stage he receives another
huge ovation from the audience. But that is
not it!
What followed was the most incredible
stage levitation sequence I have ever seen!
It started with Criss standing on the top
platform of a very tall and steep ladder.
His arms are outstretched as he balances
in place. He carefully turns sideways and
then suddenly allows his body to drop so
he is now horizontal to the floor. If you have
seen him walk down the side of a building
on his early TV specials - which he was the
first to ever do - you will know how crazy
this looked. He then begins to walk down
the ladder in this horizontal state until he
reaches the stage floor. With every step underpinned with dramatic music, this alone
is fantastic.
He stretches out his arms to his side and
levitates about eight feet off the ground
before gliding sideways through the ladder.
He then levitates to the top right hand corner of the stage (probably thirty-five feet)
and with his feet pressing against the air he
inverts himself 360 degrees. He flips, spins,
floats and flies like no one ever before.
Reminiscent of Peter Pan meeting crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon....
A large circular sphere glides and spins
revealing all sides while entering from upstage. The best way I can describe this without sounding derogatory is it’s comparable
to a sealed huge Plexiglas hamster wheel.
The top is opened and Criss floats down
straight into it. This next part was very cool
and incredibly baffling. The sphere begins
to spin while Criss continues to levitate
inside before allowing himself to spin in the
opposite direction.
He then floats up into the air one more
time, and your attention is drawn to dancer
who is walking through the audience
VANISH MAGIC MAGAZINE
19