So after years of denying any family-ties, I decided to put aside my unfounded annoyance (well, just try and have a civil conversation after that downer) and see this guy's show. The last-minute tickets were very affordable and after the cashier made 22 euro's disappear out of my wallet, I ended up on row 6, seat 1, in a very comfortable red pluche chair at the Nieuwe Luxor.
What can I say? If you expect a show packed with illusions, magic tricks, fireworks, sound-
effects, near-naked showdancers and a Hans-look-a-like-dancer, that's exactly what you get. I forgot that I'm not really into that sort of thing; I prefer zombie- and vampire series, British detectives and the odd play that doesn't exceed my limited attention-span of 2 hours. In all fairness, Hans is very good at what he does. He is the personification of a showman, with a very good hairdresser. And although his jokes sometimes got more response than his illusions, I was astonished at some of the things I saw (or rather, didn't see). With my mouth wide open I stared at the stage, trying to figure out where that trapdoor was (there must be one) or double curtains or something. My analytical skills turned out to be useless when it comes down to magic.But after watching a few too many variations of the 'sword-in-box-covered-by-curtain-followed-by-swop-of-Hans-with-other-blonde'-trick, I got bored. There, I said it. Come on, changing swords for blades, curtains for sheets and boxes for perspex containers, doesn't change the essence of the trick. But he also made a lot of objects float and made some winebottles appear out of nowhere (well, a cardboard tube, actually). And I liked the flying bits. Mostly because I would love to hang from a ceiling in a harness myself. Well, rather than sitting in a box with someone poking blunt swords at me, anyway.
Hans also had some guests. Since I'm not a pet-person, the parrot-whisperer wasn't my cup of tea, the two Asian
acrobats were pretty amazing (yes, she is standing on his head and she also did a pirouette on his rightarm), but I was very impressed with the two men who worked their magic on a pole. That came out wrong; they were just incredibly muscular and only wore small sweat pants. I'm making it worse. Their trick didn't involve magic, 
just pure, rockhard 8-packs, doing push-ups sideways whilst hanging from a pole. I can't even do three crunches at dance-class without whimpering, and these men would climb up and down the 'crow's nest' with arms only, their legs straight up in the air. There was also a pair of comedians who where very funny (no clowns, thank goodness, I hate clowns). One of them pretended to be a robot and blew up a balloon and... Oh, it just sounds silly now; I guess this really is a matter of 'you should have been there'. The guy is a great illusionist and can put together a great show, but for me, it was a one-time only experience. Until I bump into Hans at the next Klok-family reunion of course.
Now that would be a real surprise.
