Posted on November 10, 2008
This bit was hatched after a very spirited discussion about good MC work (after watching a bad MC). The whole idea is that it gets people clapping early in the show. The premise is that if you are going to say silly instructions like “make some noise” or “put your hands together” you might as well say “avocado”.
“Twice Removed” is one of our favourite magic effects for two magicians. Magically Delicious has 3 performers in it - so we bumpbed it up and changed the presentation a bit. (Actually, every time we perform this, the presentation is a bit different, but the effect is always the same.)
It could be the way that the Magically Delicious group writes or thinks, but we love running gags. Throughout the show we produce a bunch of envelopes as “predictions” and ask people to name something hoping that the prediction will match. They are played as gags… except for the last one… (Oh, and this set list is actually written on the back of one of the extra “prediction envelopes”.)
The “avocado” bit above became a cueing system to the audience to begin the applause, so this was a test to see if just seeing the word (not hearing it) would activate a Pavlovian response. It did. They applauded. (Although we didn’t get the opening for it in this position and moved it to later in the show just before the “Pred Gag pay off” below.)
When it comes right down to it you have to meet people’s expectations. If you are doing a magic show it doesn’t matter how funny you are - eventually you have to do some magic. In this case this “pay off” was for the running gag throughout the show and the group’s last effect. It was kind of a reward to the audience for getting this far and (hopefully) met their expectations.
History of Magically Delicious: This magic and comedy “group” was founded when magician/comedians Tyler Wilson, Ryan Pilling, and Donovan Deschner, joined forces to create a brand-new show using each of their talents. Their premiere show was on October 6, 2008 to an almost sold-out comedy club audience and this set list was from only their second appearance as a group.
The Creation of this MC Set List: This set list (and show) was created to MC the Magic West event “Jawdroppers”, and needed to fill about 30 minutes of stage time. The group met the Monday before the Saturday show to decide on effects and material (nothing like planning ahead by almost a week!). After it was created a two-page summary of all the gags and tricks was created and boiled down to it’s bare minimum on this list as a memory jogger. When performing material in a new sequence for the first time there is a LOT of checking what you have to do next while the other person is on stage.
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