Off-Broadway Access Review -
Mind Mangler

General:

• the stage is framed with two layers of bulb lights and a whole lot of sparkles that occasionally accidental strobe

• I did not need earplugs for this show

• some of the audio to switch between various segments is kind of startling but you get used to it over time

• I definitely missed some cues here cause it moved really fast, there were only like 4 different lighting settings so you get to know what to expect fairly quickly!

• there are pink lights on either side that point on the audience, they appear every now and then throughout

• Audience participation - there’s a lot of it. If you’re not in the first ~4 rows and you don’t volunteer or deliberately do any of the interactive things, you can skip it with the exception of two bits (which I will explain when we get there) Almost everyone in the first 4 rows was used at some point. That being said, Mischief knows how to do audience participation in a way that is not terrible. I generally hate that stuff unless it’s from a Mischief show

Pre-Show:

• semi-loud music, blue lights pointed kinda at the audience, and slow spinning stripey/spirally lights on each wall and also onstage. And in the screen graphic

• at 4 min after the show is meant to start there is a red roaming light on the audience for about 1-2 minutes before the show starts

• also! If you want to write a secret for the show to use, they have paper for you to do that

Act I:

• Mind Mangler’s entrance includes scentless smoke and flashing red/blue lights

• blue bulbs flash during the color reveal

• “the grand illusion” - white moving light over audience

• “psychic bond” - blue bulb lights turn on one by one around the stage

• the lighting changes on “sleep”

• quick/loud audio and light change after audience member exits

• “hypnosis” - green light washes over audience

• “sleeping gas” - noise and scentless fog at audience for like 3 seconds

• “IBS” & audience member exit - quick light shift

• “mind v. machine” - loud noise and light wash over audience

• “play chess” - bulbs change

• “human radio” - light pointed at audience, followed by audience participation (he walks through the audience and puts a thing over people’s heads that “reads their thoughts”, it was maybe 4 or 5 people) 

• the secrets bit is 3 secrets, the first two only directly involve 2 individual members of the audience (who put in their secrets) and the third is full audience participation, explaining it would spoil the bit entirely so if you’re worried about this send me a message and I can tell you how to get out of it!

Intermission: pre-show music & lights came back, though there were moving lights on the audience as well. Opt. audience participation to walk up and scramble a rubik’s cube to put in the thing

Act II:

• exact same flashy entrance situation as Act I

• “rare occasions where I am” - quick light change

• loud music when audience members go on stage

• “to your brain” (that is approximate, I didn’t get the specific line) - bulbs alternate, loud sound cue

• “Las Vegas” - flashing bulb lights for ~15 seconds

• “costs are crippling” - same cue as “Las Vegas” for 5 sec

• same light cue while he is mixing around the glasses

• “touch the dead” - blue light moving over audience for about 5 seconds

• “select member of the audience” - moving bulb lights and moving light over audience

• bending spoons - snaps quickly change the lights

• crash noise at the end of the spoon bit

• at 60 sec left on the timer, red lights move over audience

• small flashing of the bulbs when they take down the box, then alternating when the curtain opens

• lights move over audience during bows