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I was totally fine until they put me in a straitjacket.
Perhaps I should explain.
Back up roughly 30 minutes or so and I was just minding my own business at my home in San Jose. Then there was a knock at my door.
I was expecting company, but I had never had visitors like this before.
At the door were three folks from “Champions of Magic,” the hit British stage show that has drawn rave reviews from, well, basically everyone who has seen it.
They were in the Bay Area to promote the “Champions of Magic” upcoming run at the Golden Gate Theatre in San Francisco.
In attendance were Richard Young and Fernando Velasco — two of the five world-class illusionists featured in the traveling theatrical show — who offered to do a few quick magic tricks for me. Accompanying them was show producer Alex Jarrett.
First up was Young, who did things that were so confounding, so inexplicable, so mind-boggling that he kind of made my brain hurt.
Most of the magic shows I’ve experienced have been while seated in the audience, a good distance away from the magicians. I always believed that the distance greatly factored into why the illusions worked so well. This time around, however, I was only a foot or two away from Young. Close enough that we could shake hands. And, yet, he accomplished illusions that left me absolutely befuddled.
How did he solve that Rubik’s Cube in only a second? How did he make a bottle of zinfandel pass straight through our kitchen table? How did he know what playing card I was thinking about — out of 52 possible choices — without asking a single question?
Well, I wish I could tell you. But I don’t have even the slightest clue to how Young accomplished those amazing feats. All I can tell you is that they were awesome to behold.
Then the afternoon turned into something, well, less awesome.
And that’s because Velasco was holding a straitjacket. And he wanted me to try it out, to verify that it actually worked.
And, for better or for worse, I can now vouch for the jacket. It definitely worked, restraining me in a fashion that had me more than a little bit nervous. My best attempts to get out only escalated my anxiety level, especially as I realized they could just leave at any time and I’d be stuck in the straitjacket until my wife got home.
And, really, who knows if she’d let me out or not?
Fortunately, the whole point of the visit from these Champions of Magic was for me to write a story previewing their shows in San Francisco. And I wasn’t going to get much writing done in a straitjacket, so I figured that, sooner or later, they would need to let me out.
Thankfully, it was sooner.
Then it was Velasco’s turn to wear the jacket — which turned out to be way more fun. Jarrett strapped Velasco, who specializes as an “escapologist,” tightly into the very same jacket I had worn. And I had no idea how on earth he was going to be able to get out.
Then he showed me — as he contorted, twisted and generally did things to his body that most bodies could never do — and a few moments later the jacket was off.
Whoa.
It was a relatively new trick for Velasco, who explained that he doesn’t usually try to get out of a straitjacket while standing up. Usually, he is hanging upside down, with a timer set to send two big jaws crushing down upon him, while he works to get out.
But you’ll have to go to the “Champions of Magic” show to see him do that. The show has seven performances Nov. 27-Dec. 1 at the Golden Gate Theatre. Tickets are $59.99- $169.99 at www.broadwaysf.com). “Champions of Magic” also plays 7:30 p.m. Dec. 2 at the Golden State Theatre in Monterey ($55-$99; www.goldenstatetheatre.com).
