Prudence and Madness

I was supposed to blog about this last night after I came home from Laughs and Gasps but I got amused looking at the photos and videos I took, notwithstanding that almost half of them were blurry because of uncontrollable laughter on my part (On a side note, I must congratulate myself on being able to get home without getting lost.  QC is rrreeeaaalllly not my turf.  And I had the good luck of finding a cab driver with a good head for directions and an honest meter hehe).

So, there I was early last night, inside the FX, figuring out which way I should take to get to the venue, which I’ve never been to until last night’s event.  I got to Quezon ave (and the friggin’ FX driver decided to just drop me on the other side of the road, forcing me to traverse to the other side while committing a lot of road traffic violations along the way <insert plurk angry emoticon here>) and decided to stop by McDonald’s to satisfy my craving for chicken (any kind of fried chicken, actually, though it would have been more awesome if it were Savory classic chicken) and also to give me more time to think of my plan on how to get to the event venue.

It was a pleasant surprise to find Shari there (while I was gnawing on a chicken drumstick), who’s also wondering how she’d be able to get to the venue.  We also stumbled upon Joy who’s waiting for her friends she’d be going with to the show.

Few minutes after, Shari and I found ourselves at the Vibal Publishing House roof deck (after meeting Azrael at the ground floor) and being welcomed by Carlo and L.A., who’ve come early and found themselves a tambayan at the ticket table.  Manolo was there too, with some friends, and lots of bloggers whom I really don’t know yet.  Carlo, L.A., Shari, and I stopped at the nearby canteen to have some smoke and food, while guests came in groups and gradually filled the venue.

The show started a bit late (and I heard it was because of some VIP) but it was all worth it! (Pictures and videos after the jump…)

This band opened for the show (sorry if I wasn’t able to catch the name and I hope someone can enlighten me on this).  Like what Shari said, it was like watching Sister Act.  They’ve got beautiful, powerful voices and they’re very entertaining to watch.

After some songs, the ever beautiful and sexy Giselle Sanchez took the stage.

I love how she can be so irreverently funny and sexy at the same time.  Bawal ang pikon kapag nanonood ng show niya, I’m sure.  Haha.  It’s all harmless fun anyway.  But we sure can’t stop laughing at her jokes, it makes me think that perhaps, in real life outside of the limelight, she’s probably a natural gregarious, loquacious person.

She had a nice time on stage with some of the male bloggers from the audience.  Take a good look at the photos, you might know some of them:

They’re smiling, but, I’m sure, they’re not at all enthusiastic to be made to dance on stage.  Haha

Azrael being “hypnotized”

Manolo’s Great Escape, though, is a phail (see the next three photos):

Sneaky, sneaky side steps…

There’s the backstage!  But…

Now look who’s not putting out his tongue.  Great escape: Phail

(Next time, when the uploads are done, I’ll post a video of the bloggers dance.  Many would be disappointed, though, to know Manolo did not dance.  Heehee.  Azrael’s good though!)

UPDATE:  Here’s the vid of the bloggers dance with Giselle!

Then, of course, after Giselle’s act is only the opening for Kel and Jay’s performances.  The duo performed both familiar and new tricks and they never fail to amaze.  See the photos below.  (The videos will have to come later, sorry). The Shackles trick Jay getting his volunteer from the audience after throwing a green stuffed toy (allegedly, a green hippo stuffed toy) And somehow I found myself in the middle of all these mentalism and magic tricks, not simply as part of the audience, but a participant.  Jay gave me this, just after the show started: I was very much curious as to what is inside, but then I’ve promised I won’t open the bag, no matter what happens, until the last part of the show.  But then, he didn’t tell me that I couldn’t feel what’s inside, right?  I was thinking it might be a book or something similar.  Well, I didn’t want to spoil surprises and I like keeping my promises so I took away my attention from it for a while. And it helped very much that guest Wanlu, the Ventrillusionist, was a riot to make me forget about that mystery bag!  I remember Manolo saying on plurk that, if Gary Lising was a ventriloquist, he would be Wanlu.  That’s because the guy’s that funny! Wanlu and Don Dominador When he got Don Dominador out, I heard he had to tone down some of the jokes because of the presence of kids in the audience.  But well, I don’t think the kids would mind at all because they’re busy in their own play world.  Haha.  But still he was a riot.  And Don Dominador’s facial expressions are FTW!  Even funnier than the jokes themselves! After Don Dominador, Wanlu got a couple of volunteers from the audience, Carl from The Story Circle and Estelle, Kel’s bestfriend, whom he made into “puppets”: They look good, don’t they?  It’s weird and funny at the same time how those contraptions work.  It make it seem that the volunteers were doing the funny voices and expressions.  Haha!  I want those! Now here’s something I can’t even begin to explain: Photo snatched from Shari Well, of course, in the beginning, it was a whole coffin-like box in which the girl assistant stepped into, wiggling her hands and toes as seen on the appropriate holes to demonstrate that she’s really inside the box.  Wanlu even had that box turned around just so we could see the whole apparatus.  Then all of a sudden, he just pulled that upper side of the box away and what you see in the above photo is the end result.  Wanlu even had the doors to the upper and lower box opened just so we could see that the torso of the girl is in the upper box and the lower part of her body is in the other one.  Too bad I wasn’t able to take photos of this part of the act.  I was just that amazed and I’ve never seen anything like it.  Audience were left dumbfounded. Now that was the “Laughs” part of the show.  And truly they’re not kidding when they said the second half is the “Gasps” part because it all left us pretty dazed and amazed. Watch this part where Jay walked on a bed of broken glass:

And he survived the feat with no visible bleeding wounds on any part of his body. Truly amazing!  Got pretty scared though in the part wherein Mike Abundo had to step on Jay’s back while he’s lying on his face down on the broken glasses.

Kel, himself, did a fire poi spinning, a form of juggling or object manipulation employing a ball (in his case, a ball and chain on fire) suspended from a length of rope which is held in hand and swung in circular patterns.  And quite believably, he did so to the tune of a Rick Astley song.

And for a tall guy, boy, he could dance!  And with fire!

Now for the last act, the mystery bag comes to attention again.  I went to the stage and gave the bag to Kel who told me to put it on the table.  He gave away 3 magazines (Maxim, FHM, and Playboy) which went to 3 girls, Ethel, Shari, and the other girl whose name, I think, is Luanne.  Kel read some pages from a magazine he was holding and asked me to tell him which page he’s going to stop reading.  I was then told to pick two girls and I picked Ethel and Shari.  They were eliminated and Luanne was asked to come up on stage.  She was then asked to tear that particular page from the magazine she’s holding (FHM) and tear it further into little pieces.  I was asked to pick a number from 1-10 and I picked 5.  After 5 pieces of the torn magazine were removed, I took the topmost piece and chose a word from the text.  I have lingered on 3 words but finally I picked one.

But lo and behold! Still Kel was able to guess which word it is that I picked.

A text on the white board that was written even before the show started and before I even got hold of that “mystery” bag

Yes, I chose the word “selection” over “slated” and “complicated”.

What’s more amazing is what’s inside the mystery bag:

It’s an FHM magazine with page 103 still intact and the word selection circled in red ink.

I don’t know how to explain all of those, but Kel and Jay explained that these are just but the power of subliminal messages.  They explained through some videos from early that night that they’ve been giving out subtle suggestions during the entire show that would lead me into thinking of picking the necessary to choices to lead to a desired outcome.

Hmmm, this whole mentalism art is beginning to get interesting.

And so that was it for the night.  Everybody, especially the performers and organizers, are tired but very much happy and satisfied.  All P250 of what I’ve paid is SO worth it and even more.  I’m glad a lot of people showed up, watched the show, and got to help underprivileged but deserving students to get and stay in school through the Giselle Sanchez Foundation, which is the beneficiary of Laughs and Gasps show.

It really was worth it.  I hope there’s another show in the future!

Other bloggers who have posted about the event:

• Laughs and Gasps Photo coverage by Azrael
• A Glimpse of Laughs and Gasps by Shari
• Heart Pounding Laughs and Gasps with Kel and Jay by Ada