Mike Super-Illusionist/Magician

Mike Super

The McPherson Opera House

By Lydia Lowe
(photo courtesy of the official website)

     Mike Super made an appearance at The McPherson Opera House on Saturday night to a nearly sold out crowd.  

     The night started with a video wall that welcomed the crowd to the venue and then passed on information about the night's performer.  Mike Super won the reality show Phenomenon and was on America's Got Talent, where he took second place.  Since then he's won a variety of awards for his work.  

     A darkened theater welcomed Super to the stage and then the crowd sat there in wonder as Super created seemingly endless illusions that couldn't be explained.  I was skeptical because magicians are not my thing, but I have to admit that some of the illusions that Super did even had my attention.  At some point during the show I was completely taken in by the stage show and Mike Super's talent.  The show was broken up into two segments and during the second segment he took finger rings from three audience members and linked them together.  They were actually linked.  I'm not sure how he did that or how he separated them to give them back to the audience members.  It was amazing!

     After the show, Super greeted the audience out in the lobby at a meet and greet.  He took pictures, signed autographs and even ran into someone who he knew which made his day.  It's a small world.  All in all, a terrific evening. 

On The Air @ The Eisenhower Center

On The Air:

A Salute to Radio Stars From the '40's

The Eisenhower Center

By Lydia Lowe
(photo by James Lowe)

     This was the opener to the Tony Orlando appearance this past Saturday at The Eisenhower Center.  Lynn Rogers portrayed five well known entertainers from 1940's radio and Chuck Carson portrayed the NBC announcer.

     Rogers started the show as Bob Hope.  He had the look, the lines, the mannerisms, and the overall tone of Bob Hope.  You had to keep reminding yourself that this was an actor portraying Bob Hope.  He was very good and stayed in character throughout the performance.

     When Rogers went to change costumes to become Red Skelton, Chuck Carson took over entertaining the audience.  He did live reads of commercials from the era.  They were very entertaining.  It was hard to believe that at one time these commercials were taken as truth and made complete sense to radio listeners.  Now they sound so archaic and knowledge has advanced so that it was laughable to hear the claims.  One of the commercials recommended Camel cigarettes and stated that 4 out of 5 doctors smoked these, so they must be the best ones. It made me wonder how the commercials of today will be viewed 60 years from now. 

     Rogers became three more characters over the course of the afternoon: Red Skelton, Jack Benny, and Jimmy Durante, before returning to Bob Hope and closing out the show.  Carson kept us entertained as the NBC announcer throughout the show.  The jokes were old and many in the audience had heard them for years, but good humor, it stands the test of time.  Old jokes are still funny.

     It was a great way to open for Tony Orlando.  The crowd loved it.  It's always good to share a good laugh in good company.