The Mystery of Being Scott Silven

When I scheduled an interview with illusionist/mentalist Scott Silven about his show The Journey, it didn’t occur to me that since he’s in Scotland and performing in association with The Broad Stage in Santa Monica, our interview time would actually be the start of his day rather than the end of it.

“I got up an hour ago,” Silven says at the start of our Zoom interview which took place at 7:30 PM his time. “I’m trying to be on Los Angeles time. Outside it’s complete darkness here. It’s been really fascinating getting used to that time zone. I’m used to adjusting when I’m touring, but here it’s been interesting to try to keep up the stamina to get up when everyone else is sleeping.”

We have all had to change our lives around the pandemic. Silven is no exception. But for illusionists the pandemic seems to have been a blessing in disguise. Many magicians and mentalists have discovered how to create shows that work well in the virtual world we’re all having to rely on for entertainment.

“I think for magicians it seems often easier because magic is such a visual medium and you can watch someone do something astonishing,” Silven offers. “I thought it would be more challenging because it is mentalism and is about developing a rapport with the audience. I thought this might not just work trying to connect with someone on the other side of the world. What I found is you actually have more audience engagement than you would in a theatre because they are comfortable in their own homes and relaxed into the experience. We also have such desire to connect. We live in such fragmented time and that’s why I decided to design the experience to create a special experience that transcends the Zoom experience.”

We’re told in The Journey that we are in Silven’s childhood home. He tells us the mythological story of Callie. Is that story true? Are we truly in his childhood home?

“Hopefully the story speaks of a greater truth. So it doesn’t matter to me if you truly believe in the story. The themes of the story of home, place, connection, your place in the world and what defines you, that’s what I want you to take with you, more than the reality of whether Callie is real. I myself don’t know if the story is true. It’s one of those Scottish myths I’ve known my whole life.”

Silven’s response to this actually being his home, given the advanced technology employed during his show, surprised me.

“Amazingly we are in a home. We are in a drawing room off my home. As you noticed we have an incredible crew. We are using broadcast hardware. We basically built a Broadway stage in the drawing room of my house – which is kind of incredible. We had a lot of offers to do this on a stage, but I wanted to do this in my home.”

Audience members are asked to check in approximately 30 minutes prior to the start of the The Journey. I noticed when I watched a performance that my camera was active once I signed on. Much of mentalism involves cold reading an audience. A mentalist, such as Silven, can get a sense about a person just by observing them. Was he able to use that time to figure out whom he wanted to participate and what they might offer him?

“That’s such a good idea. I wish it did. Unfortunately we stream the show from Scotland and the venue takes the responsibility for the audience. We don’t actually have access to the audience until the show starts. For me the big challenge is I have to very carefully consider who I choose for audience members for each effect. In a live experience you get to see them, but in this show I don’t actually see the audience. I really am picking audience members at random and hoping for the best.”

For Silven’s show to have maximum emotional impact, audience members must be willing to share intimate details of their lives and have something with deep personal meaning at their side. While he does share limited details about his life in both The Journey and in interviews, it struck me that filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock (of whom Silven is a fan) could have been talking about the illusionist when he said “I have a feeling that inside you somewhere, there’s somebody nobody knows about.”

“I think there is power in mystery. I like, as a performer, only revealing certain aspects of myself that an audience can engage with, but still leaves a realm of mystery, a realm of light and shade. The challenge of mentalism is that people feel you can truly see into their souls and their deepest and darkest desires and I don’t want to come across as that kind of person.

“Everything I speak about in the show is absolutely true: the location of my home, my childhood possessions and I think allowing the audience access to that space as well is a vulnerability in itself. I think I allow enough of myself in that experience where we are genuinely engaging and going on that journey together.”

Scott Silven’s The Journey is available at The Broad Stage through November 15th.

Photo: A screen grab from The Journey (Courtesy Journey Productions, Ltd. and The Momentary)