Taking the action to the Stritz...
It's been a long time coming, but the first true-blue Kel and Jay performance happened just last September 27 for the UP Circle of Entrepreneurs. While Jay and I have been performing with each other for the longest time, this was the first time we had a full-fledged show based on our interactions, rather than just one of us performing onstage at a time. Seeing as how this event happened so close to the conclusion of the UAAP Basketball Finals, it was natural that much of our ribbing would involve how ADMU beat DLSU in the finals. After all, I'm from ADMU, and Jay's from La Salle... heh.
The night was a perfect stage for Jay and I, as we performed for them amid amazingly great gourmet food that are actually outgrowths of various kinds of street food. Hence, the term st+ritz. The pictures do more justice to what I mean than anything else...
Yummeh.
In any case, we had this event scheduled for a long while already, and we really wanted to floor the audiences with a lineup of magic, mentalism, and of course, comedy. Naturally, the stark contrast between my presentation style and Jay's yielded a lot of good moments as well, seeing how serious Jay was amid my insistence on poking fun at him throughout his act. Nonetheless, the audiences were definitely impressed with Jay's daredevil routines, including the infamous game of Russian Roulette which had members of the audience screaming.
Do not try this at home!
I naturally did my favorite routine of shackles and rope, and for the most part, the audience really got into it, and I managed to pick the perfect volunteers for my routines. It was also cool that we didn't particularly need a microphone as the sound carried over well enough for us to perform without too many hitches...
The rope of doom!
The audience received us very warmly, and it was really fun, as I personally love having an excuse to perform in my white suit and all that... at the same time, it got me to thinking that while Jay and I are admittedly not the most skilled magicians in the country, we make up for it by our ability to connect to our audience in a very unique and interesting way. I'm sure some purists disagree with this approach, but Jay and I build a rapport with our audience to the point that they're less likely to remember the things we did that night, and more likely to simply remember the two of us as performers who amused and entertained them.
Furthermore, the Kel and Jay dynamic is really something that hasn't been quite explored by most other performers. Normally, it's easy to do magic or even mentalism when in a group, assuming you don't have to really interact with the other performers with you. The minute you have to do something as a tandem, the whole dynamic changes, and you have to find a way to reshape your approach at performing, and you have to ensure you don't overshadow each other. It's a delicate balance you have to strike out, but Jay and I have been working on it, and we'd like to think that it's quite a unique selling point, especially since our performance styles, while obviously an outgrowth of our influences (Bing Lim-It, Derren Brown, Richard Osterlind, Penn and Teller, etc...), has taken on a life of its own.
The boys are back!
After our onstage performance punctuated by a mind-boggling display of mind reading, we moved onto doing some good old table-hopping, as Jay treated them with mentalism and card shark techniques, and I took things in the traditional magic direction. It was really cool having the audiences interact with us, because they were very appreciative of our show. It does the heart good when your audience is all smiles and is clearly grateful for seeing your show... =)
In any case, thanks to Brenda, Annelle, and the rest of UPCE for having Kel and Jay over last September! Here's hoping we can entertain you again soon!
For the coming year, you can expect bigger and better things from Kel and Jay. We have a lot of things cooking, and after Laughs And Gasps, Stritz, and countless other endeavors, things can only get more exciting. In fact, the next things we have lined up might void our insurances altogether... heh.
P.S. Yep. That shirt was pink. Or was it purple? =P
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