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Audiences in record numbers are streaming into the Waikiki Beachcomber Hotel
to witness the spectacular "Magic of Polynesia" show, a series of spellbinding
illusions by John Hirokawa, Hawaii's premier illusionist. Against a backdrop of
lush Hawaiian music, dance, and landscape, with the panache of a Las Vegas
production, Hirokawa's mind-boggling illusions come to life. Among them:
"HEAD MOVER" - Viewers are left shaking their heads at the sight of a
healthy Maori warrior who, at the hands of Hirokawa, miraculously appears in
pieces, his smiling head at one end of the stage and the rest of his body at the
other. "FOURTH DIMENSION" - In one of his most impossible feats,
Hirokawa disappears, literally, in thin air. His Maori assistant ties him to a
platform, hoists it into the air, and whisks away the cloth to reveal that the
elusive illusionist has, in an instant, escaped. At that moment, free as a bird,
Hirokawa reappears flying across the room over the audience's heads, defying
gravity and reality. Facing the audience from a shrouded box that reveals only
his head, hands, and feet, Hirokawa becomes a master contortionist and bender of
beliefs. As his hands and feet on either side of his head sink and rise into
impossible positions, Hirokawa's head moves in the opposite direction.
"DANCING HANKIES" - The master of illusion can even command white
handkerchiefs to dance the hula - in a jar, across the stage, and in the air.
When he opens the cage in which they have landed, the fluttering white streaks
that emerge are live white pigeons! "DISEMBODIED" - Hirokawa is seen
from head to foot, but something is missing: his midsection. Instead, in the
space between his head and feet, viewers see through the box into the mountains
at the rear of the stage. "METAMORPHOSIS" - Houdini's "Metamorphosis",
a signature illusion for Hirokawa, shows his tucking his assistant into a bag
and then locking her in an escape-proof crate. Within seconds Hirokawa, defying
lock, matter, and time, exchanges places with her. "DEATH BED" -
Fifteen hundreds pounds of steel and spikes hang ominously over Hirokawa, who is
chained from head to toe in "the world's most dangerous illusion". In the 60
seconds it takes to bum the rope that suspends the spikes, Hirokawa frees
himself. In one of the show's most chilling moments, the deadly steel crashes
into an empty death bed. "FINALE" - The cast enters a Hawaiian hut in a
lush tropical setting, and a curtain covers the scene for an instant. When
Hirokawa removes the cloth, the hut and cast have vanished. Within seconds, the
entire cast reappears in the audience, while viewers watch in awe as white
pigeons flutter from the back of the showroom into the mountains on stage.
Time: 6:00pm - 7:30pm/8:30pm - 10:00pm |
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