By Sebastian Kanally, Times Chronicle
Reveen the Impossibilist is bringing the “world’s funniest and most amazing stage show” to Venables Theatre in Oliver on March 15. The show has Reveen taking you on a “superconscious journey” through dynamic demonstrations of the human mind.
“I’m always thrilled to share the excitement of our show to new audiences because once people experience it it really changes the way they think forever,” Ty Reveen said when he spoke with the Times Chronicle.
Ty is excited to be performing in the area and does have a personal connection to the Okanagan Valley. When he was growing up on the road with a traveling show, his father thought that life on the road did not provide the optimal space to focus on education so he sent Ty to Vernon Prep boarding school where he attended for three years.
In addition to this Ty’s brother lives in Kelowna. He noted that “oh we love the Okanagan Valley, I would love to move to Oliver, I certainly like their wine, it’s on my dream list.”
Reveen and participants on stage at the “world’s funniest and most amazing stage show” Contributed photo.
Ty is the “Next Generation” magician and hypnotist of the Reveen dynasty. Ty Reveen launched the second generation of the show in Las Vegas in 2011 with “Reveen the Legend Continues,” whereupon the finale his father Peter Reveen passed his tuxedo on to his son. Peter passed away two years later in 2013 after performing internationally and coast to coast in Canada for decades.
Ty said that at the time his father “started touring there were all these movies coming out, with Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Orson Wells, depicting hypnotists as these mean, tortured, demented human beings that would bring havoc everywhere they would go and ruin peoples lives.”
People claimed hypnotism was “black magic voodooism” and therefore Peter “was insulted because he studied nothing but medical manuscripts.” His goal was wanting to show people how positive it was, Ty added.
In 1955 Peter used his skills acquired from all the medical manuscripts he studied on the topic of hypnotism, and developed a unique show. One that would make people laugh and at the same time prove that hypnotism is a “vital science and valuable therapeutic aid to help people overcome nervous tension disorders and fear,” Ty explained.
Peter Reveen. Contributed photo.
When speaking with Ty, the ideas of hypnotism, positive suggestion, and understanding the different parts of the mind come alive as not only a show but a philosophy for life.
“It is purely the power of suggestion, so when it is applied in a positive manner you can do tremendous things with it,” Ty further explained. “You realize that once you relax your self-conscious mind, you open up the door to deal with the powerhouse of the mind which is the subconscious. The subconscious is really the computer of the mind, the powerhouse, it allows us to achieve virtually anything we want in life.”
“The conscious mind really holds us back because it is attached to fear, risk management, it’s negative by its own nature . . . the whole conscious mind is really a fear factory, and the subconscious mind is more where the potential of human thought is unlimited.”
The impact of his father’s show over the decades, and now the second generation of the show is clear. “The people that see the show, I think it is quite obvious that these people are able to go on stage and ordinary people become stars in the wildest, funniest show that has left audiences crying with laughter all over the world,” Ty explained.
He continued, “what we do is we relax their mind, we put them into the spotlight, we give them a suggestion that they are going to take on a particular character, and they walk into the spotlight, and with absolutely no training and no idea what they are going to do moments before and do what seems to be impossible.”
Ty explained that he and his siblings were all born on the road of the traveling show, which created quite a unique space to grow up in. He said they “were brought up in the inner circles of the biggest magic societies in the world.”
The Reveen show will be at Venables Theatre in Oliver on March 15, 2023. Tickets are $45 and can be purchased at venablestheatre.ca.
