TenTigers
09-29-2005, 06:16 AM
to pick up where Yum-Cha left off (out of respect for the memory of GM Chan Tai-San, I felt this should be on a separate thread) I have seen this guy (not GM CTS)do his demos in Chinatown for years. One of his students is about 60, and by far the worst actor I have ever seen. The guy just hams it up so bad. He is also the guy who goes into the sneezing fit, or gets blasted back, shakes his head and goes, "Whew!"
Ok, so he's doing his demo in some Community Center in Chinatown, and now he has his daughter (about 20something) doing it as well. She is giving electric Ch'i jolts from her body and guys are getting blasted. So I'm sitting there watching, and I lean over to the guy next to me and say,
"Hey, you buying any of this sh**?"
and he laughs and says,"Naw, man. It's all phoney"
So I say, "so if I give you ten bucks, will you grab her a$$ in the hallway?-just to see if you get shocked."
He almost spit up his drink.
There is this other guy who does the same sort of thing, but I saw a demo clip, and at the part where everybody is supposed to fall down, there's this one student who missed the cue, looks around and THEN falls down. It was so obvious, I was emabarassed just watching.
I can certainly understand showmanship in a demo. I can understand hamming it up a bit. I can understand setting up your breaks, it's a demo, you test yourself in the privacy of your own kwoon, but for the public, of course you will do a sure thing.I understand all the spears, swords,iron bars on the throat things.
But what I can't seem to get through my thick little head, is why people-some of them quite accomplished Martial Artists, perform such hokey, ridiculous, obvious baloney, like the above mentioned Ch'i Kung demos? You gotta know that everyone knows it's nonsense.
Ok, so he's doing his demo in some Community Center in Chinatown, and now he has his daughter (about 20something) doing it as well. She is giving electric Ch'i jolts from her body and guys are getting blasted. So I'm sitting there watching, and I lean over to the guy next to me and say,
"Hey, you buying any of this sh**?"
and he laughs and says,"Naw, man. It's all phoney"
So I say, "so if I give you ten bucks, will you grab her a$$ in the hallway?-just to see if you get shocked."
He almost spit up his drink.
There is this other guy who does the same sort of thing, but I saw a demo clip, and at the part where everybody is supposed to fall down, there's this one student who missed the cue, looks around and THEN falls down. It was so obvious, I was emabarassed just watching.
I can certainly understand showmanship in a demo. I can understand hamming it up a bit. I can understand setting up your breaks, it's a demo, you test yourself in the privacy of your own kwoon, but for the public, of course you will do a sure thing.I understand all the spears, swords,iron bars on the throat things.
But what I can't seem to get through my thick little head, is why people-some of them quite accomplished Martial Artists, perform such hokey, ridiculous, obvious baloney, like the above mentioned Ch'i Kung demos? You gotta know that everyone knows it's nonsense.