Magician Anand making impossible seemingly possiblePerformance of magic is all about perception. Making impossible possible is impossible. So magicians make the impossible seemingly possible. I had started writing this post nearly a month back, but managed to finish it today. I had gone with my family members to Jadugar Anand’s Magic Show at Kamarajar Arangam near Royapettah, soon after returning from Harish’s new house. Before going inside, I didn’t think much of it. The show was supposed to start by 10 minutes after we parked the car, and even that time the parking lot was near empty! Tickets ranged from Rs.50 to Rs.500, but we decided to settle with a Rs.300 ticket each. We went inside and took our places right in the middle of the 5th row or so.
The show started 15 minutes late and till then music was being played with music reaching nearly the decibel level of an aircraft taking off! Just before it started, I turned around and gasped in surprised that the auditorium was near houseful!!! It started off with a narration on how Anand became a magician. She said that he is the “World’s Fastest Magician” (Don’t ask me what she meant by it, coz I really don’t know!) and went on to say that he holds 3 Guinness World Records!
And then, finally, Jadugar Anand himself came out, clad in a colourful jiggling heavy magician’s outfit including a cape and a turban! Phew! Poor fellow, would have sweat 2 litres by the end of the show in Chennai Summer Weather! The first thing he did was to define magic as a pleasing and amazing art and exhibition of practiced skills, where the laws of nature are seemingly set aside for innocent entertainment. Soon after, he started with that many magicians do in common.
I was trying to get into the bottom of the tricks and tried to watch closer for any visibility of a trapdoor or the sort, when suddenly, as if reading my mind, Anand said with a “Ladies and Gentlemen, this is a Government building and we are not even allowed to hit a nail into the wall, so forget about cutting holes into the stage. Saying so, he disappeared backstage. Meanwhile, some young hot babes, skimpily clad with mini-skirts started dancing and doing interesting stuff, which obviously drew more applause from the crowd than Anand’s first session.
A few minutes later, Anand came back into view, this time clad in a similar outfit but with different colours. The cool unique tricks were yet to come, he mentioned. Saying so, asked for a volunteer in the audience to assist him for a few other tricks. A college girl wearing a T-Shirt captioned “I hate Internet Explorer” (it was printed with graphics, so that when you see that, you would understand the “other” underlying meaning). Then, Anand did tricks like levitating her, getting out of a heavily locked enclosure, inserting a sword right through her neck and her getting cut using an electric saw. All the above tricks were carried out awesomely, and as expected, the babe was safe and sound as before! He concluded that session by declaring “Your are the medium, but the magic is mine”!
The next and the final session started expectantly with Anand in another set of uniquely coloured typical magician’s clothes. He demonstrated conjuring of a rabbit from an empty hat, and suddenly, much to my surprise, conjured a huge dirty elephant out of thin air! Pretty much impressive, eh? What’s more? It just walked down from the stage, walked past us and out! This is the first time ever I have seen an elephant close range inside a closed hall! Soon, it was time to wrap things up and as a final masterpiece, he made a huge replica of the Statue of Liberty to disappear right in front of our eyes!
On the whole, I was quite a lot impressed and finally felt that it was my money’s worth (much much worth than my SnowFall Experience!). I think he is out of the city for this year and has come to Mangalore I think. If at all you people get to know of his shows going some place around you, mark my words and don’t hesitate to go and watch it! Its two and a half hours of non-stop entertainment!!!
The show started 15 minutes late and till then music was being played with music reaching nearly the decibel level of an aircraft taking off! Just before it started, I turned around and gasped in surprised that the auditorium was near houseful!!! It started off with a narration on how Anand became a magician. She said that he is the “World’s Fastest Magician” (Don’t ask me what she meant by it, coz I really don’t know!) and went on to say that he holds 3 Guinness World Records!
And then, finally, Jadugar Anand himself came out, clad in a colourful jiggling heavy magician’s outfit including a cape and a turban! Phew! Poor fellow, would have sweat 2 litres by the end of the show in Chennai Summer Weather! The first thing he did was to define magic as a pleasing and amazing art and exhibition of practiced skills, where the laws of nature are seemingly set aside for innocent entertainment. Soon after, he started with that many magicians do in common.
I was trying to get into the bottom of the tricks and tried to watch closer for any visibility of a trapdoor or the sort, when suddenly, as if reading my mind, Anand said with a “Ladies and Gentlemen, this is a Government building and we are not even allowed to hit a nail into the wall, so forget about cutting holes into the stage. Saying so, he disappeared backstage. Meanwhile, some young hot babes, skimpily clad with mini-skirts started dancing and doing interesting stuff, which obviously drew more applause from the crowd than Anand’s first session.
A few minutes later, Anand came back into view, this time clad in a similar outfit but with different colours. The cool unique tricks were yet to come, he mentioned. Saying so, asked for a volunteer in the audience to assist him for a few other tricks. A college girl wearing a T-Shirt captioned “I hate Internet Explorer” (it was printed with graphics, so that when you see that, you would understand the “other” underlying meaning). Then, Anand did tricks like levitating her, getting out of a heavily locked enclosure, inserting a sword right through her neck and her getting cut using an electric saw. All the above tricks were carried out awesomely, and as expected, the babe was safe and sound as before! He concluded that session by declaring “Your are the medium, but the magic is mine”!
The next and the final session started expectantly with Anand in another set of uniquely coloured typical magician’s clothes. He demonstrated conjuring of a rabbit from an empty hat, and suddenly, much to my surprise, conjured a huge dirty elephant out of thin air! Pretty much impressive, eh? What’s more? It just walked down from the stage, walked past us and out! This is the first time ever I have seen an elephant close range inside a closed hall! Soon, it was time to wrap things up and as a final masterpiece, he made a huge replica of the Statue of Liberty to disappear right in front of our eyes!
On the whole, I was quite a lot impressed and finally felt that it was my money’s worth (much much worth than my SnowFall Experience!). I think he is out of the city for this year and has come to Mangalore I think. If at all you people get to know of his shows going some place around you, mark my words and don’t hesitate to go and watch it! Its two and a half hours of non-stop entertainment!!!
Anand’s brand of magic
...If at all there was anything in the air, it was magic. And those strange notions of suspicion a mere figment of over-active imagination. The kind that Anand Awasthi (the host) good-naturedly accepts as an integral part of his life and work as a professional magician. No wonder then, as he offers a cup of coffee, he is quick to add, ``Don't be afraid to drink it, just because it's being offered by a magician!'' before breaking into a loud guffaw.
Bringing to the city his show Mayajal - a 9,000 second-long-programme packed with high drama and entertainment - Jadugar Anand returns to perform in the city after a gap of 25 years. Pleased with the response he and his troupe of 55 members has received so far, he is also a bit upset that Puneites will not get to see the highpoint of his performance - the elephant-vanishing trick. ``Because the elephant which I have got from so far has been denied entry into the Tilak Smarak Mandir!''
But elephant or no elephant, the city folk watch in open-mouthed astonishment as Anand unloads his bag of tricks before them. A snake turning into a girl and then back into a snake, an Egyptian mummy coming to life, floating in mid-air, disappearing off the stage and emerging from somewhere in the audience, a girl being transformed into a bear... the list is long.
While Anand is seen to perform these tricks just with the wave of a wand, it's been an arduous journey to reach this stage. And it began more than 30 years ago in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, with the street-side jugglers being his initial idols. ``As the madaris would play around with silver coins, produce sweets out of nowhere, I'd watch mesmerised. Since then, I knew magic was in my blood, and I wished to leave my schooling in pursuit of that,'' he says.
Of course, he did not leave his education half-way, even acquiring a master's in economics. Finding no teacher in the realm of magic, he coached himself. Watching the jugglers, picking up the nitty-gritties, he'd realise where the trick lay each time somebody made a mistake. Beginning with items such as coins and handkerchiefs, he graduated from being a conjurer to doing floor shows and tricks like drinking highly concentrated nitric acid and chewing tubelights till he reached this stage - of performing elaborate shows that emphasise the power of illusion.
``Initially I was into doing the adventurous, dare-devil kind of tricks. Especially since that was the time I had to prove my mettle. Now having found my groove, I concentrate on bettering my stage shows so that the audience has a good time each time,'' elaborates Anand. Though he had been entertaining crowds since his school days, his first commercial show came in 1973 at Raipur when he was just 21, and today, has more than 23,000 performances to his credit, including many on foreign shores.
``I believe that a good item and successful show is one that has given me the greatest satisfaction to perform,'' says Anand, like the two feats that remain unparalleled so far. The first was at the age of 17, when walking in Harry Houdini's watery footsteps, he managed to accomplish an underwater escape in 40 seconds flat. ``Houdini had done it in six minutes, P.C.Sorkar senior in 90 seconds. I just knew I could do it ever since I saw a film on Houdini's original escape in my childhood.'' The second world record was earned from a 200-kilometre motorcycle ride from Indore to Bhopal - blindfolded, with only his instincts to guide him. Both these accomplishments came whilst still at college.
However, as he progressed in his chosen profession, there was a lot he had to give up. The most important being the support of his family, who just would not come to terms with Anand's ways of magic. And whilst still coping with that, came the realisation that magicians could not evoke the same kind of respect that comes the way of other performing artistes. ``It's only a cheap type of curiosity that comes our way. Magic, according to me, is a pleasing and amusing art of exhibition, skill and practice for the sake of innocent entertainment. Using concepts like hypnosis, mesmerisation and effectively exploiting the power of illusion, magicians aspire to entertain their audience. This is not voodoo or witchcraft, as is often wrongly thought,'' he emphasises.
Which is why he cannot understand the apprehension that comes the way of the performers of magic - which is not just a dying tradition, but ``a viable art that earns foreign exchange. And this is even more in our country. Today, we just have a handful of magicians left, who are struggling to keep this unique tradition alive, with no support from any quarter.'' No wonder then, Anand's proposal for the establishment of an academy of magic on the lines of a regular educational institute never saw the light of day.
Bringing to the city his show Mayajal - a 9,000 second-long-programme packed with high drama and entertainment - Jadugar Anand returns to perform in the city after a gap of 25 years. Pleased with the response he and his troupe of 55 members has received so far, he is also a bit upset that Puneites will not get to see the highpoint of his performance - the elephant-vanishing trick. ``Because the elephant which I have got from so far has been denied entry into the Tilak Smarak Mandir!''
But elephant or no elephant, the city folk watch in open-mouthed astonishment as Anand unloads his bag of tricks before them. A snake turning into a girl and then back into a snake, an Egyptian mummy coming to life, floating in mid-air, disappearing off the stage and emerging from somewhere in the audience, a girl being transformed into a bear... the list is long.
While Anand is seen to perform these tricks just with the wave of a wand, it's been an arduous journey to reach this stage. And it began more than 30 years ago in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, with the street-side jugglers being his initial idols. ``As the madaris would play around with silver coins, produce sweets out of nowhere, I'd watch mesmerised. Since then, I knew magic was in my blood, and I wished to leave my schooling in pursuit of that,'' he says.
Of course, he did not leave his education half-way, even acquiring a master's in economics. Finding no teacher in the realm of magic, he coached himself. Watching the jugglers, picking up the nitty-gritties, he'd realise where the trick lay each time somebody made a mistake. Beginning with items such as coins and handkerchiefs, he graduated from being a conjurer to doing floor shows and tricks like drinking highly concentrated nitric acid and chewing tubelights till he reached this stage - of performing elaborate shows that emphasise the power of illusion.
``Initially I was into doing the adventurous, dare-devil kind of tricks. Especially since that was the time I had to prove my mettle. Now having found my groove, I concentrate on bettering my stage shows so that the audience has a good time each time,'' elaborates Anand. Though he had been entertaining crowds since his school days, his first commercial show came in 1973 at Raipur when he was just 21, and today, has more than 23,000 performances to his credit, including many on foreign shores.
``I believe that a good item and successful show is one that has given me the greatest satisfaction to perform,'' says Anand, like the two feats that remain unparalleled so far. The first was at the age of 17, when walking in Harry Houdini's watery footsteps, he managed to accomplish an underwater escape in 40 seconds flat. ``Houdini had done it in six minutes, P.C.Sorkar senior in 90 seconds. I just knew I could do it ever since I saw a film on Houdini's original escape in my childhood.'' The second world record was earned from a 200-kilometre motorcycle ride from Indore to Bhopal - blindfolded, with only his instincts to guide him. Both these accomplishments came whilst still at college.
However, as he progressed in his chosen profession, there was a lot he had to give up. The most important being the support of his family, who just would not come to terms with Anand's ways of magic. And whilst still coping with that, came the realisation that magicians could not evoke the same kind of respect that comes the way of other performing artistes. ``It's only a cheap type of curiosity that comes our way. Magic, according to me, is a pleasing and amusing art of exhibition, skill and practice for the sake of innocent entertainment. Using concepts like hypnosis, mesmerisation and effectively exploiting the power of illusion, magicians aspire to entertain their audience. This is not voodoo or witchcraft, as is often wrongly thought,'' he emphasises.
Which is why he cannot understand the apprehension that comes the way of the performers of magic - which is not just a dying tradition, but ``a viable art that earns foreign exchange. And this is even more in our country. Today, we just have a handful of magicians left, who are struggling to keep this unique tradition alive, with no support from any quarter.'' No wonder then, Anand's proposal for the establishment of an academy of magic on the lines of a regular educational institute never saw the light of day.
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Jadugar Anand is the biggest name amongst Magicians of India
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