One Year Of Wonder
This week marks one year since we launched The Wonder Room at voco Grand Central Hotel in Glasgow.
A first birthday is always a special occasion. It feels like the first big, proper milestone, and one I’m immensely grateful to reach.
The Wonder Room was an idea I had over 12 years ago. I recently found a notebook with ideas for shows and show titles and The Wonder Room was near the very top of the list. I had written lots of notes underneath the title with ideas for routines and themes for the show. It’s interesting to see how it evolved now thats come to life.
This project first launched in 2020 and was due to kick off in April. It had sold out for the entire year and was nothing like the iteration of the current show. Obviously 2020 turned out to be a total shitshow with lockdowns and a pandemic affecting families in unimaginable ways. We decided the right thing to do was cancel the show and refund all tickets.
The months that followed were unbearable. As a performing artist who relies on connecting with audiences in a room, trying to navigate the virtual performance space was terrible and I was terrible at it.
The hotel, who I’d worked with twice before, a 16 month residency in 2015-2016 and then a month long residency in 2019, had been bought over and the rooms I’d used were being converted to bedrooms. They no longer had a space for me to host a show.
I was gutted, but undeterred I continued developing the idea in the hope that I’d finally find a place to host a weekly show. I had researched other potential locations but something was holding me back. I think I just believed there might be a road back to the Grand Central Hotel somehow.
And it was to be. I was contacted by the hotel as they’d been bought over again and the bedrooms were put on hold so they’d renovated two meeting rooms which could host the show on weekends. I had viewed the rooms and although they looked great, they just weren’t the vibe I was looking for. I asked about some of the empty rooms, which were still building sites, and asked if there was any way I could lease the room and turn it into a dedicated performance space for the show.
The hotel were very quick to respond and they were keen on the idea. Within a couple of weeks we’d agreed a lease and we finally had a home for The Wonder Room.
The room after the walls had been plastered and painted. New carpets were still to be fitted.
The space was literally a building site; no carpet, dust everywhere, no window coverings, an a load of building materials scattered around the room . It was going to take a long time to get it show ready. The hotel were great in getting it stripped back to blank canvas to give us the perfect starting point to turn it into the space it is now.
Starting the design process for the room was fun. I’d played around with a lot of colour schemes and ideas for backdrops. I wanted the space to feel ‘unexpected’. When people walked through the door, I wanted there to be a feeling of stepping into a space that was not what they thought it would be, but something that instantly engaged them. I’ve always liked the idea of the experience starting before the show has started. The hotel does this naturally with it’s grand entrance, stunning staircase with chandelier and the beautiful dome ceiling of the champagne bar. But the room had to shift people’s minds and they had to feel like they were stepping into an actual performance space, not just a room in a hotel.
First mood board for the design of the room.
After weeks of scrolling Pinterest and creating mood boards, we finally settled on a colour scheme, lighting, layout and seating.
The colour pallet for the show was something I was conscious of. I wanted a feeling of luxury but it had to be dark and classy. I also wanted it to be different to other shows I’d seen in other parts of the world.
We opted for a dark teal with gold accents on the lighting and frames. The walls are a neutral grey with grey seating. We played around with different colours from the up-lighters, starting off with green and later opting for purple. We installed a new backdrop with hanging Edison bulbs that give a soft back lighting and allow me to have different lighting stages throughout the show. I made the curtains myself and my dad helped me install them.
We created a little sound and lighting bar to light the performance areas and play the show music. We added some subtle show related artwork and props to the walls but largely kept it minimalistic.
The layout of the room for a show of this type is very important. It’s critical to the overall experience and something that is very intentional. The normal layout of rows of audience facing the stage is common for any kind of performance. For The Wonder Room, I wanted to to feel immersive. One of the themes in the show is connection. The seating arrangements create a feeling of connection as the show take place at a round table and the audience is seated around the table, facing each other as well as the empty space where I stand to perform the show. This creates multiple points of attention allowing the dynamic of the show to shift around the room, not just at the front stage area.
The space was looking great and we were finally ready to open.
Writing a show is one of the most difficult things to do. As well as developing the material and creating the magic routines and writing the script, you need to turn all of this into ‘a show’. Nobody just wants to sit and watch someone do tricks at a table for over an hour, do they?
This is the craft. This is when the magician needs to tell a story and create a performance that builds to a climax, that teases out the show themes throughout and creates tension and laughter at the right moments and has enough texture and changes in dynamic that the audience maintains a level of engagement for the duration of the show.
Then you need to think about timing, structure, the order of the routines, the blocking of each routine and use of space, the interaction with the audience and choosing the right people to take part at key times in the show.
And finally, the lighting and sound need to elevate the performance and bring out the desired emotion at the right moments.
One of the reviews left on Trip Advisor said “The magic is inspiring. The amount of work that must go into this is phenomenal” It’s nice that some people recognise how much work goes into creating a show like this.
Over the past 12 months, the show has really evolved. The opening night was very different from our anniversary show one year on. I’m constantly finding new moments and little subtleties that constantly improve the show. Those little 1% improvements are so important. It keeps me engaged in the show and always thinking about how I can make it better.
Creatively, it’s been such a joy bring this show to life. As a project, it’s basically been a one man show in every aspect of it. I wrote the show, directed the show and designed the lighting. I produced the show, created original magic routines, created all the branding, designed all the marketing materials and built the website. I even composed some of the music in the show.
And then I perform the show. Every week. We’ve sold out every show, mostly through word of mouth. This is always a good sign that you’re doing something right.
It’s such a privilege to host my own show, in my own little performance space in such an iconic venue in this city. I never take for granted the responsibility as an artist to present a magic show that hopefully the magic community and fellow magicians are proud of.
We’ve welcomed guests from all over the world, as well as some of the best magicians in the country, my best friends and family. More importantly, we’ve welcomed some new friends to the show, some of whom are experiencing a close up magic show for the first time. I truly believe that magic as a performing art should sit shoulder to shoulder with music, comedy, dance and theatre and all the other performing arts that people hold in high esteem. I hope that audiences that have attended the show have taken something from it and more importantly, enjoyed the experience.
The show would not have been possible without a number of people.
Clare Williams was the first person I met at the hotel and welcomed me with open arms. That kicked off almost a decade long relationship with the hotel that is still going strong all these years later.
The current team at voco Grand Central Hotel have been nothing short of amazing.
Shona Ferguson has been the driving force behind this current project and has been such an amazing support from the moment we met.
Wendy Johnstone, along with Shona was an incredible support in getting The Wonder Room off the ground in 2020 and has always helped in any way she can.
Katie, Amy and Kevin have also been an absolute dream to work with and done everything they can to make this project a success.
Marcello, the General Manager for agreeing to give me the opportunity to make this whole thing happen.
All the staff at the hotel who always go out of their way to make everything run smoothly and make me feel like part of the family.
And lastly, to you, the audience. I’m grateful to every single person that has invested time and money to come and see the show. You sitting at that table with me means more to me than you’ll ever know.
If you haven’t yet been to see the show, wonder awaits…
One year of wonder, and hopefully many more to come.
R x
