Thursday, April 29, 2010

Whit Haydn



It is April. In celebration of this blogs one year existence, the whole month will be winner time. Only the coolest and best members of our elite circle of nerds will be featured.

Today: Whit Haydn!

Whit Haydn is one of those guys who is just a joy to watch. His ideas are not ground breaking but his style is timeless and his performances are solid. He is a true magician... his stuff is strong for laypeople (as it should be) and well structured.



This is strong stuff. What else could be said? The audience is involved, the handling was nice, and the structure made even the palm almost self working, as it was done in the off beat.

Whit Haydn does the classics in magic. And he does them well.



But his character is what makes him so great. He is a con man, that is about to teach others how they get fooled by fooling them over and over. Such a nice premise. Again, not new, but Whit does it in such a way that he made this premise his own.

And that brings me to the most important aspect. He takes the classics and makes them his own. Gosh I cannot tell you how much Cups and Balls routines I saw following exactly the Vernon structure. I saw many rope routines who emulate Richard Sanders (even the out of place laughs), Francis Tabary or even the great George Sands. (Who would have been in this list of winners if he was still alive.)

And a great character, combined with solid performances who are designed to have the strongest impact on laypeople is what makes up a winner. Whit Hadyn... I really like you. Keep doing what you do.

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