Casino!

Casino is an annual charity fund raising event at Amherst College. Volunteers and organizers transform our dining hall into a casino. With professional black jack and poker tables, steadily spinning roulette wheels, and a semi-formal dress code, Valentine Hall is transformed into a believable corridor straight out of an Atlantic City casino.

Yeah - it doesn't quite live up to the Vegas standards, but... for a college campus dining hall, I'd say they did a pretty good job.

Anyway, for the even took place from 10:00pm to 1:00am Saturday night. It was Casino's 40th Anniversary, so they had maxed out on their resources; organizers had fenced off a 21 and over champagne section upstairs, set up a dance with the school's most popular jazz band, and added a high-stakes raffle. There was a car (I'm hopeless with cars... all I can say is that it was blue and chubby), a plasma tv, iPods, and several other possibilities for raffle winners.

And... they, of course, hired a magician.
Ok. Maybe not. It was a charity event... so, more like, the magician volunteered.

I was going to perform, take random breaks, look around, and join in the underaged gambling fun. However, as I performed by the entrance to the event, a river of people flowed by me. Faces came, stayed for a length of time, and left... only to be replaced by new faces. Because I could watch these faces change, I knew when I could repeat effects. The night was similar to a table hopping gig. The difference? I stayed still, and the guests hopped from table to table.

I talked nonstop for nearly three hours, performing old effects, trying out a few new ones, and swallowing a stutter when the college's President stopped by to see something.

By the time 12:30am came around, my throat screamed out form water. I finally looked at the clock and found that two and a half hours of passed, and I hadn't noticed. I decided to give myself a water, cheese, and cookie break... look around... then performed for the last fifteen minutes.

Those last fifteen minutes, I believe, started out as the worse few minutes of that night. I could perform my effects fine, but I was beginning to stutter. Words that my tongue had previously naturally formed - words that rote memory had instilled into my routine - tripped and fell over themselves. My throat bothered me... and I took constant gulps of water. I didn't want to end my performance on a bad note, though, so I turned to silence.

I've performed in silence before. Silence fits my style, and silence fits the atmosphere that I want to create. Key moments of silence - change in tones - and other things... those seem to be the best choices. But, what if I channel Amherst's magician graduate... what if I channel Teller and perform entirely in silence?

That night, I ended with effects that were visual enough to ignore verbal cues. I remembered that I had fellow magician Eric Sias' favorite toy. I've used them in practice before, occasionally in private friendly performances, but never for the public (other than that one time as Joan of Arc). But they were the perfect silent tools... and, so, the deck became haunted, the glasses flipped up, and the bottles tipped over.

It was... fun.

And that's all I have to say. Thought I'd share. Once Spring Break starts, I'll post some more... philosophical stuff. Right now, though, I just wanted to share my fun. Maybe, in the midst of this sharing, someone would be able to find my lost voice for me.