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‘Mindplay’ performance review

MPTea-Jeff-Lorch

Years ago I read a book about how memory works. It involved creating a mind palace. Ironically I can’t recall the name of the book so I had to look it up. ( Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer)  Obviously the technique didn’t work for me but mentalist/performer Vinny  DePonto has put it to good use in his new show Mindplay at the Greenwich House Theater.

I enjoy shows when I am amazed ; I don’t want to know how a mentalist performs his trick because  that would just spoil the magic for me. As with many other shows, this one makes extensive use of the audience because, after all, the best testimony to a performer’s skill is in watching the participants’ honest reactions. (OMG! How’d he know that?) 

When we first entered the theater, we were asked to write one word describing a feeling, emotion or memory on a card in a small envelope, indicating our first names and seat numbers. These envelopes were tossed in a fishbowl and  throughout the 80 minute show, DePonto selected envelopes and picked people to join him onstage. This technique involves the audience immediately, whether we were selected or not .

Throughout the program, he awed us as he guessed names and places, many of them obscure. (I can’t give too much information about the tricks themselves because it would risk ruining the show for anyone who goes.)

DePonto refers to himself as a playwright and a performer and perhaps that’s the downside of this show. He went into detail about his grandparents, especially his grandfather losing his memories as he got older. He shared his own background and pictures as a boy.  But this cast a pall over the show as he suggested his own anxieties about memories he couldn’t control.

And, quite frankly, I wasn’t there for that. The moments when DePonto ‘knows’ things about his subjects were astounding but certain chaotic staging symbolizing memories out of control darkened the mood.

DePonto is genial, smiling and very likable. He also seemed very sensitive and attuned to his subjects. At one point he ‘knew’ something very private about a subject and had the tech guy turn off the mic as he whispered in her ear.  Her expression as he talked to her showed he was right on the mark.

More interaction with the audience and less dark personal stuff would have made this show far more entertaining because quite frankly we were there to be astounded and entertained.