ENTERTAINMENTS.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 September 1922, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS.

THE GREAT McEWEN. A CLEVER PERFORMANCE. The Great McEwen opened his New Plymouth season in the Empire Theatre last night before an appreciative audience. From the nature of certain demonstrations it is at once understood that Mr. McEwen controls a wonderful power and is himself a great exponent of the higher phases of mental science and hypnosis, but for the purpose of his opening performance he confined his experiments in mesmerism to staging various humorous scenes. The acts aimed to amuse and the audience was kept in a merry mood. The entertainment opened with a series of exceedingly clever sleight-of-hand delusions with a pack of ordinary playing cards. These the magician frankly confessed were mere tricks, and after puzzling his watchers he showed how the tricks were done. He next demonstrated the wonders of mental science and auto-suggestion with the assistance of a committee of six men from the audience. In the second half Mr. McEwen laid himself out to provide amusement. Another volunteer committee having been provided the entertainer first placed them under hypnotic influence, and by various ridiculous suggestions brought forth shrieks of laughter from the audience as his subjects tried to recall a lost memory or control a rubber nose. Perhaps the most humorous situation was to hfound in an imaginary, football match, wherein the subjects enthusiastically “barracked” for the side of their choice, and loudly proclaimed the prowess of popular local .players. Interludes were furnished by Miss Dorothy Saint, a tallented elocutionist, who naively explained a mother’s troubles in preparing seven “kids” to see father march in a procession, and the two Marcelle sisters, whose rendering of “Peggy O'Neill” was so much appreciated that they were recalled numerous times. McEwen will appear again to-night. To-morrow night he will give an entire change of programme, including experiments in mixed magic, Hindu, Oriental, Scotch and other nationalises being introduced.