May 2007
There’s “Magick” All Around
By Mike Stasiak
I recently discovered my long-lost childlike sense of wonder
on the first night of “Magick,” senior Geoff Kanick’s two night illusion show at Bellarmine’s McAstocker
Theatre. It is fair to say that Kanick has spend most of his life training for this performance, an elaborately choreographed,
80 minute whirlwind of gravity defying card tricks and clever, engaging escapes set to the slashing chords of 1970’s
Top 40’s rock ‘n’ roll and the haunting, hypnotic sound palette of roger waters era Pink Floyd. Stripped
to their barest, Kanick’s illusions are an impressive exercise in the kind of effortless showmanship that the magic
and illusion business requires.
As a showman, Kanick has a natural flair for the epic and stirring borrowing many of his cues from the modern cinema
to conjure the seemingly impossible- take, for example, the final from Act One. Kanick gleefully cuts a piece of paper into
a crude snowflake, rips the paper up ad swishes the shreds around in champagne and removes some soggy bits of paper, which
he throws into the air while Danny Elfman’s theme from the Tim Burton film “Edward Scissor Hands” washes
over the audience through the theater speakers. Kanick ruffles his fingers a bit, and thousands of bits of paper fly from
his hands into the air, creating a snow flurry that blankets the first two rows and achieves some of the loudest whoops of
the evening from a delighted audience. As his hands flutter and the “snow” rushes upwards towards the ceiling,
Kanick allows himself to smile at his own handiwork.
That said, not all of the effects play out as rehearsed sometimes the “rabbits” are to blame, “rabbits”
are audience members who are selected at random to be volunteers; Kanick selects his rabbits by throwing toy bunnies into
the audience like a bride swinging a bouquet over her head. The audience members, nervous and flighty onstage, can become
stumbling blocks during the show, as was the case with an effect involving two rabbits and their cellular phones. Kanick took
one of the phones, which disappeared under a handkerchief. He then directed the audience’s attention to a lock silver
briefcase hanging 20 feet above stage left. Kanick then ordered the second rabbit to dial the number of the missing phone…which
started to ring inside of the hanging briefcase. The effect as seamless until the briefcase was lowered and the hapless bunny
was unable to open the briefcase (combination zero-zero-zero) and the cellular phone inside of the briefcase went to voicemail.
“Cell phones are such a huge part of people these days,” explains Kanick. “I’m not saying that
a cell phone is an insight into a person’s soul, but it has pictures of friends and places that are important and it
is able to communicate with people you care about.”
Ever since Mickey Mouse battled an army of broomsticks in Disney’s “the Sorcerer’s Apprentice”
to the music of Paul Dukas’ “L-Apprenti Sorcier”, we have known that the score lays an integral part in
any illusion act. Kanick uses the tender, emotional scores of Elman during the snowstorm, and then turns to the swashbuckling
cacophony of Kaus Bedelt’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” soundtrack where the illusionist is called upon to
the deadly clutches of a guillotine.
“Music was a hug part of the show. When it’s really well down we don’t even notice the music.”
Kanick said.
Magick was performed as a fundraiser for Bellarmine’s McAstocker Theatre, and after two sold out performances
the illusion show brought in $2,000 for the theater. Kanick will be attending Gonzaga University in the fall, where he hopes
to break into the theater community full force.
“Next stop’s Vegas!” he jokes at the end of it all, Kanick is a street performer, and entertainer
of the highest caliber who just wants people to feel and appreciate magic the way they used to in the days of their youth.
“Being
amazed is a feeling a lot of people don’t feel often enough,” he says.
