The bland magician

The whole city of bangalore was going agog about the magic show that was about to happen that day. John, the greatest magician of his times was going to perform the show. The show was titled "Magic Journey". John was planning to take the audience for a ride with his bountiful tricks. The show was all set to begin. It began with a prelude from Mohan, one of John's best buddies. Then the stage was all John's. John began with the trick of "Disembodied Princess". It was performed to utmost perfection. He expected a thunderous applause from the audience. Oddly enough the audience remained silent. John did not give up. He followed it up with a brilliant execution of the "vanishing bird cage" trick. To his utter dismay there was no response from the audience again. He then conjured up a series of tricks. But the audience were obstinately silent. His final trick "bullet catch" was over. No response yet. John was totally abased by the audience. Even though it was a brilliant performance by John, the response from the crowd made it a bland magic show.
It was time for the valedictory address. Mohan was back again on the stage. As soon as he uttered the word "Now", the whole audience stood up on their feet and they gave a standing ovation to John. Now John started realizing the situation. It was all Mohan's trickery. He had requested the audience in his prelude not to laud John's performance. Mohan wanted to give a pleasant shock to John as his birthday present. Yes that day was John's birthday.