Bananas and Magic

Thom and I spent a couple of days in Las Vegas this past week.  On Monday night we had front row center seats to see the Blue Man Group.    We dutifully donned the  plastic cover up garment provided and watched the announcements streaming by on the electronic banner device – “turn off cell phones” . . . “no video and no picture taking allowed” . . . the typical stuff.

About two minutes before the show was to begin, the banner read “we have some special guests in the audience tonight” . . . “Susie Jones please stand up” (Susie stood up looking a bit bemused) . . . “please applaud for Susie – she won the curling championship in the 2006 Olympics” (the audience applauded and cheered).  The electronic banner continued “Thomas Hopkins is also in our audience . . . please stand up Thomas” (Thom dutifully stood up) . . . “Thomas Hopkins is the researcher/scientist who mapped the human genome, let’s applaud for him” (Thomas happily waving to the crowd and hamming it up to wild applause and cheering).  I am cracking up as I realize this is all a joke.

The lady next to me was very impressed with Thom, leaning over to exclaim “Can you believe it?  Is that really him?  The guy who mapped the human genome?”  This lady is a bit put off because I’m laughing so hard I’m nearly in tears.  Through my laughter, I manage to get out – “he’s my husband!  he hasn’t mapped anything!”  The lady then ignored me the rest of the whole show, so I’m uncertain if she thought I was stupid to not recognize someone famous when he was sitting right next to me or if I had inadvertently insulted her by my laughter.  It didn’t matter  – I knew this was going to be a really, really good show! 

We were not disappointed, my human genome mapping partner and I – we had a blast even when we got slimed with puree of banana which was spewed from the Blue Men’s tummy buttons.  I had banana in my hair, on my sleeves, on my shoes, and all over the not so protective plastic poncho.  The Blue Man Group show is truly incredible both in the sounds/music they play and in the subtle and not-so-subtle ways they have of communicating without ever speaking.  If you haven’t seen these guys live or on video, you are missing out.

On Tuesday night, we had front row seats for David Copperfield.  This man is amazing!  A full size 1940′s era vehicle appeared out of nowhere – poof! there it was.  He passed himself through a 3″ thick steel plate and a spinning industrial sized fan with nary a hair out of place.  He got in a collapsible coffin-like box with his head out one end and his feet out the other.  The box then started getting shorter and shorter until you saw his head at one end, his feet at the other, and about 8″ of box in between . . . how did he smoosh himself down so much!?!  I’m telling you I was watching everything like a hawk.

From my front row seat, I could literally touch his feet as he walked by on stage by just reaching out.  I looked under things, over things, through things . . .  I couldn’t see any secret chambers or holes in the floor to disappear into.  His magic is amazing and I’m glad I couldn’t figure out how he does it all.  I like still having magic in my life.

At the end of the performance, during the standing ovation, he reached out and I got to shake his hand!  A minute later, I got to high-five him too!  How cool is that?  Another show you just gotta see.  If you don’t have any magic in your life or in your imagination, you will have plenty of it after seeing David Copperfield perform.  He is truly a master magician.