JIN PRESENTS: "Battle of Wits"
by @jin-out on Brave-Smoke's Corner
View my bio on Blurt.media: https://blurt.media/c/bravesmoke 
(Please first watch my rehearsal session on this routine: https://blurt.media/w/kHpYYUZqoSS4XPme7ur7TW)
Firstly i must give credit to Rene Lavand, as this is his routine "El Cumanes". The story is mine. Between this and "Duel Of The West", i would have to say this attains first place in my repertoire if only by a margin. These two pieces define my style. I am in search of a third piece that i have yet to create....but someday soon i shall.
This performance of my storytelling piece really defined my style as an artist, as a card magician and represents the many years as a lover of the Art of Magic. I am very proud of this rendition and it's always a feature of my one man shows.
Taking inspiration from the Shakespearean format in play writing, i always try to sequence my routines to achieve the best possible experience. It is better to have a good show-infrastructure rather than haphazardly mashing everything together to make a show.
If for an hour long show, this piece would be considered the "half-way point". The entire duration of the show before this half-way point is crafted in a way that allows both the audience and storyteller to develop a rapport together.
The first opening piece would be a monologue piece to set the stage...something like "Thirteen Silences" or "My Spades and I" (aka Darwin Ortiz's "12 The Hard Way"); then comes the interactive pieces, light pieces with a flavour of humour....effects like "The Flight Of The Invisible Card", or a whimsical piece like the "Cavorting Aces"; about two light pieces to build rapport after the opening piece, which makes three effects strung into a routine...approximately 20mins would have passed in the show.
Now we come to the half-way point, where the tone of the entire show must change, as the show after this half-way point plunges into my philosophical storytelling style...pieces such as "Duel Of The West" (another of Rene's excellent routine that i have made my own), "Poker Along The Deep Sea"...or even "Battle of Wits".
The story behind this piece is about my time in Hong Kong, the place i truly call home. There is some fiction to the truth, some truth to the fiction.
Hong Kong, especially a place called Temple Street, will always have a piece of my heart. Over the years whenever I go back to visit HK, i would always spend many nights in this massive market place district located in Yau Ma Tei. During the daytime the place is a normal place of hustle and bustle, yet when darkness descends and the nightlife comes, this place truly comes alive, taking on a seedy nightlife; hazy with lots of triad cigarette smoke and black cars filling the streets; neon signs; prostitutes, escorts and con men of all shades (chess hustlers, majong hustlers, three card monte hustlers, pickpockets, street kids, forgotten souls by the wayside with broken dreams and a bottle of Tsing Tao Beer. It was Temple Street that turned me into a "Back Alley Moth"...
[center]Dazzling and flashy things
before my blurred vision,
amongst others in this alley
direction windblown
confirms my slow scrying.
High and unreachable things,
my resolve is set to see.
Here i traverse.
Here i remain.
Against the walls of this alley
confirms my slow denying.
Beautiful and Ugly things...
what are these memories...
that i risk all for one touch,
all to be warm;
what are these memories...
assaulting my base logic.
Out of this back alley
confirms my slow dying.[/center]
Photos of Temple Street in Yau Ma Tei always brings a tear to my eye. I miss this place so much. I close my eyes and can bring up all the sounds, the images of the people...i wish i could tell you the aromas coming from the BBQ, the Clay Hot Pots cookin on a open stove, the boiling soup, the fishballs, the ice cream, the street workers, the fortune tellers, the tourists, my people. I can see it all in my mind.
This story is for outcasts such as myself.
I hope you do enjoy this performance!