When, about 2 years ago, I wrote a review of Brynolf & Ljung’s new “magic show Stalker“, I wrote “something has made the pieces of the puzzle fall into place”, and later ” I hope that Stalker is also a commercial success for the guys, because there is no doubt that this is a great artistic success for them.”
My hope turned out to be true! After an extensive Swedish tour with packed houses, Brynolf and Ljung have now moved the performance to New York. They premiered on April 1, 2024. All reviews have been very positive! Right now they score 85% on Show-score which compiles ratings from reviews. Even the giant Wall Street Journal gave them a great review. It is a totally different treatment, compared to the stingy parsimony that Swedish media is characterized by. Most Swedish newspapers refused to review the show when it toured, and only a few have even mentioned its success in New York. If it doesn’t involve free booze, mythomania or fake merits, then Swedish culture and entertainment journalists are not that interested.
When you see friends succeed, it’s hard not to feel involved, and on the surface, it might be seen as justified. When Jonas Ljung was a new and green magician in the early 90s, we met once a week at Comedia Teaterbutik in Gothenburg where I ‘pushed’ his development with creativity exercises and challenges… but if I’m being completely honest, then it took an alarmingly short time for his solutions to my challenges to be over my head, and I had to sit there with a stiff smile and say “that was a nice variation!” while inwardly thinking “How the hell did that happen!?”
I first met Peter Brynolf a few years later, maybe around 1997, I don’t really remember. On one occasion I visited him and his family, the goal was to talk about his ideas for an act, but instead I flirted with his grandmother, much to his consternation.
2002 participated he in “On Stage“, a week-long workshop, which Peter Rosengren and I organized together with the Dutch legend Tommy Wonder, which one might assume made an impact. On the other hand, I don’t think he ever performed the amazingly complicated goldfish trick he created there.
Several years later I was hired as a magic consultant for their successful TV series “Street Magic”, I think it was for season 2, but there was unusually little I could contribute. For one thing, our respective artistic tastes had gone in completely different directions, so very little of what I developed fit in with what they wanted to do. Additionally, I couldn’t quite adapt to the requirement that everything must be “Youtube-safe” – ie. that all filmed material must withstand being examined frame by frame without finding any clues. The expectations for my participation were quite high, and I did not live up to them at all, but left an unusually weak impression. Rather, they left a bigger impression on me than the other way around, because I have since been filled with admiration for the lengths they are willing to go to create an illusion.
So, as much as I would like to be able to say that I had a hand in Brynolf and Ljung’s success, the truth is that they did it all on their own. All I can do is stand up and applaud, and say “Congratulations! This is well deserved!”
