Captain Morgan Pong? -by Marc Savard

Ok. Either I am so out of touch with reality, or this is a relatively new game. Up until about a year ago, I had never heard of Beer Pong. It is a bar drinking game where you bounce a ping pong ball into your opponents cup and if you succeed in getting the ball into the cup, your opponent has to drink.

Blondies Bar & Grill is located in the Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood, right accross from my theater. I see the beer pong tables quite full most of the time, so it seems the game is pretty popular. Maybe I was not aware of the game because I am not a beer drinker. I cannot stand the taste of beer. Never have. Seriously, I think I have had maybe a half of glass of beer in my entire life. Had the game been called Captain Morgan Pong, I might very well be the National Champion. :-)

Marc

In the Photo:
Me, Kris, Teela, David, and Ty.

Both. We will not so all three each!? -by Marc Savard

Both. We will not so all three each!?

I received a text message on my phone with the above phrase. Entertaining, but it made no sense whatsoever. After an explanation from the friend who sent it, and realizing that she was "under the influence" at the time, the reasons what and why became clear.

I spent some time absorbing that text and more importantly, the state of mind she was in at the time. I find it fascinating, that since the beginning of time, all organisms have tried to achieve altered states of consciousness. Man with alcohol, drugs, meditaton, and hypnosis, just to name a few.

Bees drink sap from a lime tree and get drunk, certain birds get high from ants, hedgehogs search for creasote, cats with catnip, lemurs eat giant millipedes to get high, birds on holly berries, even reindeers on mushrooms, and of course, there are thousands more.

The point is, we have explored anything and everything to reach some sort of "understanding" and have tried to tap into the subconscious or unconscious parts of our mind forever. Many religions, meditations, feats of strength, supernatural abilities, etc., all stem from the subconscious mind. None of these "special abilities" can be accessed from the conscious state.

As we continue to evolve as humans, we continually look for that next step in making our mind and bodies to achieve the extra ordinary. Hypnosis is the most effective way to tap directly into that mind power without the "side-effects" of other methods. Religion, meditation, etc, I see as just various types of "inductions" to reach that "trance state". They seem to collectively follow a common path, to let the individual access the subconscious mind. That is where all the power is. At least we think so. ...

Carl Jung discussed the unconscious mind being more powerful than the subconscious. He described the subconscious mind as being "a cork floating in the sea of the unconscious" Does that mean, there is WAY more inside of us, than we can actualize? I love to think that is true.

I cannot wait for the next advancements and discoveries into the inner workings of the mind! I believe, that once you are a student of the mind, you are a student forever. :-)

I would like to leave you with this very important thought that a friend told me not more than a few days ago. It was life changing to her at the time, and heck maybe someday, it might be for you to. She said, "Both. We will not so all three each."

I couldn't agree more.

Marc

Crazy Canadians -by Marc Savard

Ok. As most of you know, the show Mesmerized here in Las Vegas has some adult content. I have never been a fan of adult content and I have never had really done any adult routines since the beginning of my career 15 years ago.

Mesmerized came along and proved to be an excellent opportunity for me in Las Vegas and hence the show was designed to include adult content for the time slot of 10pm as well as the type of crowd that would attend that particular show. We did surveys of our audiences, and though I believe that hypnosis shows can be entertaining without, it seems that Las Vegas wants to see adult routines. All that being said, the routines that I have in show, I have to admit, are pretty damn funny.

At the end of the show, I have the guys audition their porn moves for a porn movie. As you can imagine, it is way over-the-top and hilarious. We actually give the guys a blow up doll to just demonstrate their moves. Ok, let's fast forward to the end of the show where volunteers can meet and greet with Jacky and I, and purchase DVD's of the show to watch themselves being hypnotized...

We are all standing out in the merchandising area, where a group of 4 people are visiting from Canada. The mom, the dad, the daughter, and the daughter's boyfriend who was on stage in the show are talking. The group were laughing hysterically at the boyfriend, and the mom while laughing yet being sarcastic, says to the boyfriend, "I sure didn't like what you did to that blow up doll from behind, Jessie! Especially since you are dating my daughter!" Everyone started laughing so hard, it was hysterical! Crazy Canadians! They had a great sense of humor. Sorry... the Canadians spell it "humour". ;-)

Marc

Oh My!!

So... Last night's show brought out some interesting personalities. I made a guy audition to be a stripper, so... he starts dancing and shows off his moves. That's all fine and dandy. THEN... he goes out to the audience and gives a guy in the front row a lap dance! WOW ! It was over the top crazy! The audience was losing it !! Fun show.

Tonight should be interesting. Jacky Pagone, my onstage assistant will not be in the show tonight. She has another committment that she had in place since before I signed her on. She will be missing tonight's performance, and since it was only one night, I will not be using a replacement. Hardly worth going through rehearsal's etc for one night. Jacky will be gone for 5 shows at the end of this month, as she is going home for thanksgiving. We may find a fill in dancer/assistant for those shows. We'll see.

Marc

The Doctor is in the house

Last night's show was interesting.... lol

Once I got my volunteers hypnotized, the show went on as normal. I went through a routine or two and then began to introduce our hypnotized guests to the audience. I like to have the volunteer say their name to the audience, and then have the audience members who came with the volunteer make some noise, clap, cheer, etc. I do this for a couple of reasons.

1.) I like to know where their friends are sitting. If they cannot see their buddy on stage (bad sight lines) I will move their buddy to a different seat.

2.) I like the audience to know who the hypnotized person belongs to in the audience. It gives them a sense of connection.

3.) I like the audience to see how real these volunteers are. I don't use plants, or have volunteers fake hypnosis, I use real people from the audience every night. So, it is important to me, that they see and talk to that volunteers friends/group after the show.

Anyways, the show rolls on, and one volunteer named Evan, is a man in his 50's I am guessing. He was a physician. Oh my god!, he was hilarious! He was just like Peter Petrelli from Heroes on NBC TV. He absorbed everyone else's suggestions. It didn't matter who I was communicating to, he seemed to pick everything up. It was awesome. Very entertaining for me, I might add. His wife was sitting front row, and she was dying laughing. They had a great time!

Halfway through the show, an audience member was falling asleep in the crowd. So, I awakened her from hypnosis, and continued on with the show. Well, that was not the end of Leslie! LOL. I was conducting the Lollipop Licking Championship on stage, and this lady shows up to the front of the stage and was so angry that she wasn't included. She was so hypnotized that she came from the back of the audience and demanded her own lollipop to compete in the competition. So, we gave her one. She was competing with the rest of them. What a great moment. Funny stuff!

Marc

Criss Angel's Believe Cirque du Soleil - World Premiere

Ummm. Interesting?!

I don't know where to begin.

Last night, my stage assistant, Jacky Pagone and I were invited to the World Premiere of Criss Angel's BELIEVE by Cirque du Soleil. Being it was Halloween night, attending the event in costume was welcomed. So, Jacky and I dressed up. I went as a Jedi Knight, and she as Princess Leia in the slave bikini. People LOVED our costumes, we had several people ask to take pictures with us, apparently there are more Star Wars geeks than I imagined. :-)



So, the show started. I had heard horrific, and I mean horrific reviews about the show, so I was expecting the worst. I don't even know what to say. I feel that the show is a mess. Now understand this, I am not a show critic, but just an audience member. I am not trying to disrespect Criss Angel or Cirque du Soleil as artists, but these are my thoughts.

I feel that the show needs to dramatically change if they want to survive. Typical Mindfreak Criss Angel fans will be hugely disappointed going into this venue expecting to see Criss Angel do his magic like he does on TV. It doesn't happen. The magic in the show is terrible. It is basic magic that is not impressive by ANY means. Quite juvenile to be honest.

I also believe that Cirque du Soleil fans will be disappointed in the Criss Angel segments of the show. His personality works so well on Mindfreak as the show is reality based and rough around the edges. I find that his personaality does not fit in the Cirque environment and at points I felt like someone should just go take the microphone away from him.

I know that Criss and Cirque are trying to do an artistic version of Criss' magical nightmare/dream vision, but it doesn't belong. Mindfreak fans want the TV show live on stage. Cirque du Soleil fans generally do not want a rock and roll dude yelling on a microphone and trying his take on comedy and acting on a beautiful stage with beautiful dancers and special effects. I think this is a marriage doomed from the beginning.

I felt that there was some cool elements. Like the tornado wind storm on stage. Amazing effect, Cirque has outdone themselves on that one. I felt that the Cirque performer that did the aerial act from the flower was really cool, but other than that, I felt that I was looking at my watch, waiting for it to be over. The audience was restless, some left early, they easily had no issues with going to the bar to get drinks and also to take washroom breaks. I was a bit shocked that so many people were leaving their seats. The audience barely applauded and they definately did not laugh at the jokes. There were some instances that you could hear crickets when there should have been laughter. That was painful to bear. As a performer, there is nothing worse that having the audience not be on board with you during your show. I have been there. It is a horrible feeling.

I think there are only 2 options here to improve the show. Get rid of Cirque du Soleil and turn it into Mindfreak Live. Or, get rid of Criss Angel and modify the show to be about a magician's journey through life and afterlife will cool magical effects and more Cirque acts that have amazing talents. I don't see them continuing on the path they are on right now. $100 million into this venture? I think that both options I am suggesting will probably not happen. So I am definately interested in seeing where they go from here.

Like Criss said at the end of his show, "Sometimes you just have to believe." Sorry, this time, I don't.

Marc