Head smashing goodness...

This past weekend was the second Saturday Night Saloon down at the Vampire Cowboy's Battle Ranch - Episode 2 of Hack.

Perhaps needless to say, the event was a success despite every effort by the New York MTA to suspend service on multiple subway lines. At one point in the evening, I performed a very simple "stunt" during Hack. My character, Cal aka "Gunslinger", reaches a level of frustration with his compatriots at Carson Capital - the fictional hedge fund where the former hacker characters are employed as IT security. I was directed by John "Dirty" Hurley to display this frustration in an overtly physical way, and so... I did. I decided to have Cal smash his head into an upstage facing door. A little stage magic, and - POW! a loud ringing thud, the door rattles in its frame and I spin around to angrily stomp back to my scene partners with nary a wobble in my step. I didn't think much of it at the time, but apparently, some of the audience was rather stunned. How'd I do that?

There was a time when in my youth, I may have considered simply actually head banging the door, but let's face facts. That's dopey. Bad-ass maybe, but dopey certainly. So in order to make this little trick work all it takes is a little practice, timing, and oddly enough, some basics of magic and illusion.

Every magician or illusionist relies on fooling not just the human eye, but the human mind. I bring this up on my stage combat blog because the underlying principles that make stage combat both safe and effective are very similar to those that the "Frantic Amaz-o" uses to saw someone in half. In short, it's misdirection. Look over here, while I do something else over there, and presto.

In brief, Cal approaches that door three times, the third time, head butting it. The audience is given a pattern to view, in the first two approaches. By the third time they see me go to the door, they know I'm not going through it. No one thinks anything of me turning that knob so the door can open and close freely. They know I'm not going through. I rear my head back drawing audience focus and setting up the expectation that I'm about to slam it forward. When I do quickly bring it forward, I've already simultaneously opened the door about a half inch - misdirection! My head comes nowhere near the door, as I quickly slam it shut with the hand on the door knob. There's a loud BANG! and I let the door rattle a bit in it's frame, like it's been hit. With my face.

As any magician will tell you, the follow through is crucial. The rapid spin around to face the audience gives them a chance to see my face as I stoically react to having just smashed my forehead into a solid door. Blink a couple of times and stomp back to the front of the stage and do my best to look like 6'4" of tough guy in a skinny 5'8" bag.

Granted, it's not combat and more of a stunt but the principles are the same. The audience has a mental shorthand for what they believe they are seeing, and don't focus on the minutiae of movements made by the performer provided they don't "contrast" with the mental picture of expectations they already have in their minds. Since I already set up the expectation that I'd have my hand the doorknob each time, there was nothing unusual about me actually using it. And the movement was so subtle and quick that it appeared that my head had actually knocked the door partially open for a split second, adding visual merit to the already resounding sound effect I had created.

About hand to hand combat though - a common misconception in stage combat is that every punch has to have a "nap." The sound of an impact, usually done by a performer slapping a hand on a part of the body not easily visible to the audience. If it's done well, it sounds like Indiana Jones punching out four Nazis at once. However, I don't know that I've ever seen someone take a punch in the head that sounds like a slap. It's usually a very quiet thud. Not something that'd be audible beyond a few feet.

I don't know why I brought that up, but it seems like we're focusing so much on incredible sound effects with our combat that we've made our stage combat exactly that - beyond credible. Bring some "magic" into play though, and through misdirection and sleight of hand/fist/head we get something much more real.

But enough pontificating... I'm going to be late for my pistol class if I hang around here much longer!