What was your Magic Mike experience like? I went opening night in midtown Manhattan and knew I had a good crowd when cheers broke out as Ryan Gosling made his first appearance in the Gangster Squad trailer and there was applause when Channing Tatum made his entrance in Magic Mike walking from his bed to his bathroom nude. It was only an 8:40 p.m. showing, but we’d clearly all hit a happy hour beforehand and there was audible appreciation shown throughout the movie — both for the comedy (Big Dickie Richie’s penis pump, Dallas teaching The Kid to dance) and the moves (people clapped for Tatum’s solos).
I also saw the film Saturday night in Chelsea with a different group of friends. I had high expectations for the audience when we walked into theater 4 and found a DJ. Two male “models” were on hand to dance with patrons and award prizes (like the Magic Mike T-shirt my colleague Sandra Gonzalez received). The pre-show’s emcee seemed to think this crowd was a little tame — “Did you guys actually come here sober?” — and it was. We still got an audible response for Tatum’s entrance and laughter at all the right moments, but there was no spontaneous applause. (There was, however, a theater worker handing out tiny boxes of Crunchy Nut cereal as we left, which I’d like to think was a marketing plan by Kellogg’s and not just a coincidence.)
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