He Really is the World's Greatest Magician
by Jay and Frances Marshall, Magicians, Authors, & Editors, Chicago,
USA. Reprinted from Trick Talk Magazine, Chicago, USA.
P.C. Sorcar is known to everyone in magic in the entire world, and to
millions in the many countries and continents wherein he has worked. We
knew he had to have a great show, and when we arrived in Calcutta to look
him up, we were trilled to find he was about to open along run in the New
Empire Theatre there. We changed our flight- what magician wouldn't have?
This we could not miss.
We found him backstage at rehearsal and set-up, a task which takes about
forty hours. In fact, the theatre closely completely for one day to permit
this. We found a dozen lovely Indian girls working on silks and flowers,
a stage crew of men lifting an automobile from the alley to stage level
(two floors up), a native orchestra (Sorcar's own) playing wonderful Indian
music with bells, flutes, drums, etc. Everybody had a job, everybody was
busy.
At the box office where Sorcar kindly fixed us up
with seats, we saw the advance booking sheets, page after page of sell-outs
and growing sales, for weeks in advance. The line at the box office was
evidence itself. Just for fun, as we moved about the city, we asked all
sorts of people if they knew P.C. Sorcar. Everybody knew him.
By opening night, he had the front of the theatre
alive with his publicity. The house was full, quiet a few more men than
women, and of every Indian type and region, as characterized by their turbans,
dress, hair etc.
The show ran two and half hours, and we want to go
on record as saying it was the finest all around magic show we ever saw,
that includes Thurston, Blackstone, Dante, Kalanag, and any others of the
greats we have seen in our long magic lives. We base the comparison on
the fact that he had more personnel, more equipment, more variety, his
own orchestra, had taken over a big theatre for months, etc.
Complete description is impossible here. The show
is one of large illusions, and beautiful stage settings, opening with a
production number that fills the stage not only with silks, flowers, clocks,
numerous other items, but with people as well. Sorcar has an ability to
get laughs of the most unlikely situations. In this production number,
girls and boys kept bringing out racks stands, T bars, etc. so that each
time he seemed to have finished, they brought out another empty one, and
sighing, he went back to producing. The audience got good laugh out of
it.
His "Water from India" produced with a dozen assistants
each in the grab of a region of India, and bearing empty glasses, is a
charming thing. priest, in an orange robe, comes in first, bearing a silver
pitcher (very small in appearance) on a tray. He tells Sorcar it is "Water
from India". Now as the assistants come with their glasses, Sorcar calls
out the name of the Indian region, and fills their glasses. Finally they
are all lines up across the stage in a most colorful pageant. Then they
begin to leave the stage one by one, emptying their glasses in a silver
Lota as they go. This Sorcar uses as a running effect throughout the rest
of the show. "My next effect-Water from India" It tickles the crowd.
His "Broomstick" number was captivating. The stage
was bathed in dark blue light, with a city street scene. Dawn began to
come on the city, and people began to move about. A little boy on crutches
was selling newspapers. Sorcar took him off his crutches, used one in lieu
of a broom and put the boy upon it. As the boy remained in midair, poised
on a crutch, Sorcar took the hula hoop away from another playing kid, and
used it over the levitated boy. At the finish of the trick, the little
lame boy threw his crutches away and skipped off stage. (The boy was played
by Sorcar's college student son.)
And so it went - number after number, beautifully
staged, costumed, and presented. He vanished a motor car full of people,
he did an "Eyeless Vision" type of routine loaded with laughs and with
a large committee from the audience on stage - everything he did was in
the best magic tradition.
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