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Derek DelGaudio's In & Of Itself (2021, D: Frank Oz)

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Derek DelGaudio's In & Of Itself (2021, D: Frank Oz)

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Old 01-23-21 | 06:07 PM
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Derek DelGaudio's In & Of Itself (2021, D: Frank Oz)





Derek DelGaudio’s In & Of Itself is a new kind of lyric poem. It tells the story of a man fighting to see through the illusion of his own identity, only to discover that identity itself is an illusion. An intimate and powerful exploration of what it means to be and be seen, the film chronicles Derek DelGaudio’s attempt to answer one deceptively simple question, “Who am I?” His personal journey expands to a collective experience that forces us to confront the boundaries of our own identities.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11916302
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/in_and_of_itself
Old 01-25-21 | 11:20 AM
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Re: Derek DelGaudio's In & Of Itself (2021, D: Frank Oz)

Seems interesting. I’m sure it makes more sense if you watch the whole thing.
Old 01-28-21 | 07:22 AM
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Re: Derek DelGaudio's In & Of Itself (2021, D: Frank Oz)

Watched this last night and it was pretty amazing... hard to understand how he did some of these things...
Old 01-28-21 | 11:01 AM
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Re: Derek DelGaudio's In & Of Itself (2021, D: Frank Oz)

That letter thing was pretty crazy. I liked this but very, very slow burn. It is mostly about the story, not necessarily the magic.

Clearly the end stuff he was being fed the info but not sure how. Was looking to see if he had an earpiece but couldn't see anything.
Old 01-28-21 | 12:23 PM
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Re: Derek DelGaudio's In & Of Itself (2021, D: Frank Oz)

No idea how the letter thing worked... the brick thing that one can be managed, I enjoyed it, his card stuff was incredible
Old 01-28-21 | 12:23 PM
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Re: Derek DelGaudio's In & Of Itself (2021, D: Frank Oz)

Watching the trailer, I guessed that the whole thing (including the audience) was part of the narrative for the real audience (us) to enjoy.
Old 02-21-21 | 07:20 PM
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Re: Derek DelGaudio's In & Of Itself (2021, D: Frank Oz)

This was entertaining, but I was expecting more. His show seemed only tangentially related to the point he wanted to make, as opposed to really reinforcing it and driving it home. His card work was impressive, but the other illusions less so.

Spoiler:
The brick was easy. Just have someone in the city with a brick and send them the location as soon as it’s determined during the performance.

On the letters, I’m curious if the people who got them determined whether they were actually written by the person they thought they were from. If yes, I’d assume once people bought tickets, some were selected and someone reached out to their social networks to see if anyone wanted to send them a letter. If no, for a whole lot of people, it’s pretty easy to garner some intimate details of their life from their online presence.

As for the end, he could have a transmitter anywhere under his clothes to receive code. He also could be wearing infrared contacts to see invisible ink and his staff could have been putting up labels for rows throughout the performance somewhere within his line of sight. Honestly, closing on this one kind of hurt my enjoyment of the show, as it seemed to so transparently be a ‘trick’ that the people getting emotional that he knew the label they picked came off as a bit silly. Delgaudio’s display of emotion also took me out of it, as it was so clearly acting. I don’t care how sad a story is, you don’t naturally cry the 500th time you tell it.


That probably sounds harsher than I actually feel, as it was a creative evolution of the ‘magic show’ and I think it’s admirable he came up with something original. It was an enjoyable watch, but I’d just seen and heard it talked up way too much and was expecting something more profound.

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