LIZ TOONKEL: MAGIC FOR ANIMALS

☆☆☆☆

The Fringe can get pretty hectic, with shows that don’t even start until the wee hours of the morning. Many such shows are completely dead on weekday nights. The fact that Liz Toonkel could pull a whole first row at her nearly-midnight time slot on a weekday is an impressive testament to the reputation that she’s built for Magic for Animals in the brief time that’s she’s had in Edinburgh so far.

Magic for Animals is deliberately onion-like in its construction. There is little time to think that it’s going to be a standard, classic magic show. Toonkel struts out in her instantly iconic outfit and briefly plays that role, but soon makes her way to what she’s really here to talk about: animal rights (it would be a shame to reveal too much in a review beyond that). There’s a lot in the show for vegans and vegetarians in the audience to love. A highlight of Toonkel’s animal rights themed magic, and in fact one of the effects that gets at the heart of the show is her take on the kind of sleights usually seen in coin tricks but using pearls, and performed in conjunction with a discussion of the abusive nature of pearl farms.

But the true highlight of Magic for Animals is less the trickery and more the perfect, beautiful construction of the show itself. It does touch on serious themes, beyond animal rights, but Toonkel leads the audience to where she wants them to go gently, using a reassuring succession of magic tricks to wind her way to the central thesis point of her performance.  Each trick and story gradually and gracefully leads her to her point, with the structure of the show functioning as the pearl shielding both audience and performer from what’s at its heart.

At the reviewed show, Toonkel played to an audience that was impressive for a weekday, but it was nevertheless an intimate performance. The close scrutiny perhaps didn’t do her magic any favors, some of the mechanics of her effects felt a little clumsy. This didn’t really affect the overall impression of the show. There’s so much more than magic going on, that while the tricks are used illustratively or connectively the magic itself isn’t the point. It wasn’t every trick, there were several great reveals that felt smoothly done.

Vegetarian or vegan feminists who love sequins may be the most obvious target audience, but Magic for Animals has a wide appeal. The way that Toonkel uses magic to tell her story is genuinely beautiful and interesting, the magic feels entirely, consistently in service of the story—magicians and magic fans might especially appreciate this.

YOLLIN LEE AND DAAN HO: COLLAGE

☆☆☆☆

Fringe newcomers Yollin Lee and Daan Ho present a beautiful array of magic tricks in their debut Fringe show, Collage. While the tricks that Lee and Ho perform might not be fundamentally unfamiliar to their audience, there’s a real emphasis on presenting the magic in an aesthetically appealing manner, which is very effective. From the opening sequence of sleights performed in a specially lit picture frame, to a paper-cutting reveal to a mentalism effect, magic has rarely looked so gorgeous. And in a Fringe year with several examples of this effect, Lee presents an exceptionally wonderous interpretation of the classic interlocking rings.

The other appeal, which if it is not unique is definitely at least incredibly unusual, is a specific stunt that Ho performs. Magicians often intersperse their proper magic with scary, dangerous stunts, but, without giving too much away, this one is definitely a huge change from the usual spikes or knives that magic fans are used to. It’s a memorable moment for just how weird it is, in the best possible way. Ho is evidentially well practiced at performing this, it goes off without a hitch.

Lee and Ho generally have a good rapport with the audience, inviting the odd individual up to generate prompts and witness the magic up close. However, a story themed on them trying to pick up women in bars using magic felt a little off. Luckily for them the participant they chose played along, but seeing two men laugh about using trickery to hassle a woman they pulled up from their audience into kissing them didn’t come across well. In a way it was the perfect misstep for their show—Collage is themed on how each one of us sees the world a bit differently, and as men they may not have had the experiences that might make that sequence a bit uncomfortable for the women watching them. A slight change in the way this is presented could easily turn it from an uncomfortable moment into a thematically appropriate acknowledgment of the limits of their own perspectives. However, aside from landing unfortunately close to the finale, this did not cancel out the wonder of all the rest of the show.

Between the beautiful magic and delightfully bizarre stunt work, Collage is well worth a visit. Lee and Ho are charming performers who will hopefully make Edinburgh a regular stop on their touring circuit.

SIEGFRIED AND JOY: LAS VEGAS IN EDINBURGH

☆☆☆☆

Siegfried and Joy make a strong impression from the moment they step out on their Las Vegas in Edinburgh stage. Wearing instantly iconic outfits of gold suits, silver shoes, and purple velvet shirts and accessorized with star-shaped sunglasses, they dance around their stage performing bits of classic magic. Luckily the outfits compliment the magic rather than overshadow it. Like their classic outfits jazzed up with more glitter than any other magic act this Fringe, they take classic magic and jazz it up, lending the tricks their sparkling personality and making for an incredibly fun show.

Siegfried and Joy are equally instantly noticeable for the great relationship they build with the audience. Siegfried greets every audience member with a high five as they enter the venue, sizing them up and welcoming them in straight from the outset. At the reviewed show they also dealt well with audience interruptions during their set. One man in their front row had to step out midway through, and while they playfully hassled him on his way out, they also welcomed him on his return. They also faced a brief heckling from an excited child in the front row, and responded to it by first making him laugh in the moment and, later on, giving him a co-starring role in their finale that he was enthusiastic to partake in. Toward the end of the show, they did come across as mildly bullying a woman who didn’t seem to want to come onstage, but when they did pull her up she appeared to be having fun with them. That moment aside, they were perfect models of how gracefully to deal with the vagaries of a live audience.

They performed some excellent magic as well. From the very start, when Siegfried licks his scissors before dramatically cutting Joy’s rope, they perform with their perfectly, hilariously ridiculous Vegas-inspired style. They’re really a three-person operation, and the occasional appearance of a young woman throughout the show is a genuinely funny and respectful take on the “female assistant” trope. A highlight is their bottles and glasses effect, which is well performed by all of them—although they may look to take more care when removing these props after this section, to avoid breaking the illusion. In a strong effect featuring just Siegfried, Joy, and an audience participant, they perform a card finding effect that many magic fans will have seen before, but with an added wetness element that only serves to make the final reveal more impressive. A lot of the stage time is taken up with magic themed humor, with tricks designed to flash, but when they get down to it they also have some genuinely fantastic reveals.

The real highlight of the show is the perfect intersection of stage chemistry and showmanship that is evident in every step that Siegfried and Joy take onstage. They spin each other regularly, often start a new trick by rubbing noses, and create an amazing, excited atmosphere over the course of the hour.

MAGICAL BONES: SOULFUL MAGIC VOLUME II

☆☆☆☆

Ever a popular one, Magical Bones’s shortened run for his new Fringe show has resulted in reliably busy showtimes. Soulful Magic Volume II may feel less polished than his previous year’s show, but it has all the trademark tricks (magic and otherwise) that make Bones worth a watch.

 A key feature that sets Bones apart is his breakdance background, and his dance skills rival even his impressive magic skills. In addition, showmanship doesn’t get much better than Bones moonwalking his way through a card selection, breakdancing to warm up for a Rubik’s cube solve, and doing a backflip to find a chosen card.

Bones also tends to use his Fringe shows to shed light on Black history. This year he highlights Ellen Armstrong, the first female black magician to tour her own show in the United States. He performs a themed effect to make Armstrong memorable in the minds of his audience. While the Fringe magic scene is still largely white it’s slowly but surely diversifying, no doubt at least in part to the success of Bones himself, who has always allowed his heritage to enrich his performances.

Soulful Magic II drew a large audience, and Bones gets a large number of them involved in the magic. An early mind reading card effect gets a whopping nine audience members involved, from the comfort of their seats. The audience establish their willingness to lie for him from this starting point, but he doesn’t let them get away with it—they don’t have to pretend to be impressed when he gets going. In the performance reviewed, the most trusting participant joins Bones for his dangerous bag trick, but while she proves willing to put herself in danger for him ultimately no audience members are harmed in this show.

An eternal highlight of Bones’s performances is a card finding effect performed to a bespoke hip hop soundtrack. No other magician imbues a standard deck with so much character and even cheekiness. Even if somehow nothing else about his performance appeals, he’s worth seeing for this effect alone.

With a very limited run by Fringe standards, Soulful Magic Volume II is well worth a ticket. It’s the less formal Bones, making friends with the audience, hanging out before his big UK tour, and showing off some of the cool things he can do.

ARRON JONES: ROCKSTAR MAGIC

☆☆☆☆

For Arron Jones’s second Fringe, he continues his trend of performing magic shows that no one would think to ask for in his new show Rockstar Magic. Here Jones, true to title, performs magic like a rockstar. There’s lots of music, plenty of card tricks, and even more hip thrusts than anticipated. Jones is the magician to go to when you think you’ve seen it all.

The show is perfectly themed in rockstar style magic. If there are digressions, they’re well reasoned enough to feel like they fit in, and engaging enough that no one in the audience is thinking too hard about it. Jones chats to his roadie Al throughout the performance, a helpful presence who assists with props and audience management, and generally adds a pleasant extra presence to the show.

The magic is well themed and all goes to plan. A highlight that the participants all seem to especially get into is an instructional section on how to smuggle drugs through an airport. While no concrete lessons are learned, probably for the best in case there are any airport staff in the audience, Jones displays his mind reading skills to perfection. Jones ends the show as both a rockstar and a magician, with an incredible keytar performance and a final reveal to send the audience on their way.

With such a specific theme, Jones draws an enthusiastic audience who instantly engage with his character. While his trainee drug smugglers were particularly keen, everyone brought onstage at the reviewed show seemed delighted to be in closer proximity to Jones, and played along with all the tasks and activities he assigned them. Jones reacted perfectly to interruptions as well, claiming responsibility for breaking a stray glass with his mind without skipping a beat.

Jones may be developing his trend of performing magic shows that no one would think to ask for, but by the end of one of his shows the audience will be convinced that it’s exactly what they always wanted. He’s fully committed to the bit every step of the way with this high energy performance. Those feeling that late afternoon slump will leave Rockstar Magic feeling energetic enough to take on the world.  Ladies, gentlemen, and everyone in between, bring your spare underpants to toss on the stage.  Just try not to faint when he walks through the audience.

DIMIS MICHAELIDES: IT’S MAGIC, BUT IS IT ART?

☆☆☆

One of the joys of the Fringe is getting to peek inside the cool buildings that dot Edinburgh’s landscape. It’s Magic, but is it Art? is in one such building, in what feels like a small, old church hall with a lovely arched ceiling framing the stage. As performed by magician Dimis Michaelides, the name is not 100% representative of the content of the show. While there is some conclusion drawn about the nature of magic, the majority of the stage time is devoted to illustrating art through magic—ostensibly to draw the parallel, but in practice it feels more like a magical art history lecture. This isn’t a bad thing, it’s a different kind of lens through which to view magic, and it does ultimately succeed in its aim.

It’s Magic takes the audience through the history of art, painting by painting, illuminating each piece through magic. The tricks themselves aren’t anything that magic fans won’t have seen before, but the way each trick is presented is well themed. Some tricks are easy to connect to their respective painting, like the opening effect featuring the classic cups and balls alongside the painting The Conjurer by Hieronymus Bosch, which features this exact trick. Michaelides creates a lovely connection between past and present audiences—when it comes to being tricked by magicians maybe society hasn’t changed that much. Other connections are more tenuous, but also perhaps more fun. A card finding trick is set up using a Freida Kahlo-esque dream story, which may be a bit of a stretch but is sold by Michaelides’s commitment to the bit.

Michaelides draws his thesis from scholarship about the visual arts, that modern art is typified by its requirement for interpretation by the viewer. For magic to be art it must therefore require the same level of interpretation, by provoking the viewer to think beyond how the trick was achieved. Michaelides actually does not illustrate this with a magic trick but rather with a magic adjacent stunt-like sequence featuring eggs carefully balanced on playing cards. The delicate nature of the stunt, and the props used, are symbolic of the delicacy of the UN commitments to improving the world, a topical theme touching on climate change and general global wellbeing.

It’s always fun to see magicians differentiate their shows with their other interests. Michaelides does this here both through his knowledge of art and in highlighting art from his native Cyprus. It feels like the kind of show that couldn’t have been performed by anyone other than him.

Is it just magic or is it art? The show itself is certainly art, even if the magic performed often feels more illustrative of the art than elevated to art on its own merit. It’s certainly worth a watch, it educates as it entertains and feels like an hour well spent. Fringe-goers often hear about that illusive phenomenon of the “hidden gem” show, and here in a little theatre watching a lovely little magical art show, the audience may very well congratulate themselves for having found one.

CHRIS COOK: ARROWS

☆☆☆☆☆

Chris Cook has been a Fringe institution for a full decade, and celebrated this milestone with a one night only show Arrows in his home, the Voodoo Rooms. Arrows contained all the classic Cookery his fans have come to love, but as much as it’s a celebration of Cook’s full body of work, as the title suggests there’s one stunt effect in particular that’s highlighted as exceptional. It was both a celebration and genuine entertainment from a superstar performer, and for one Monday evening in August it was the place to be in Edinburgh. 

Arrows was as much a personal celebration for Cook as it was a show for the audience, which came through in several ways that only made the whole event more enjoyable. The audience itself was fantastic, with the majority consisting of personal friends and family or fans who were all immediately 100% behind everything that Cook said and did onstage. Cook even invited his girlfriend to join him onstage for an adorable final segment, and she briefly upstaged him with her perfect comic timing, getting one of the biggest laughs of the evening. 

The magic involved was mostly familiar favorites, cleverly put together to form a cohesive theme around the titular arrow sequence. The jazz magic style of the first few tricks seamlessly blended with the more structured arrow-based second half. A highlight was a card corner trick that Cook performed with one of the Voodoo Rooms staff, who seemed incredibly excited to be included onstage. 

However, the main point of the show was the arrow bits themselves. Cook had performed this neoclassical take on a bullet catch in a few previous Fringes and it’s a fan favorite—it retains the show of physical invulnerability from Cook, the magician, but shares this experience with an audience participant, and adds an aspirational element that is focused on Cook and his participant but that the entire audience can get involved in. It’s intended as a challenge to the audience to take concrete steps towards following their dreams, but of course art is always open to interpretation. It can equally have an effect on audience members who have just taken a big step towards following a lifelong dream, and come in to the show doubting if they’ve made the correct decision. Watching a charismatic man in a stylish outfit do an impossible thing and then say it’s worthwhile to follow your dreams can be oddly comforting, and a great reminder to those who are already living out a childhood dream of how lucky they are to have been able to do so.

Arrows was the perfect celebration of Cook’s first ten years of Fringe performing. Here’s to many more.

HYPNOTIST MATT HALE: TOP FUN! 80S SPECTACULAR

☆☆☆☆

With the popularity of Stranger Things, eighties nostalgia is at an all-time high. However, that show itself is pretty scary. Some might prefer if it were an interactive comedy featuring pop music and led by a hypnotist, and those people are the target audience for Matt Hale’s Top Fun. With a vibe not unlike the silent disco dance party that regularly terrorizes Edinburgh city centre this time of year, but safely contained in a Fringe venue for the ethical fun seeker, Top Fun has been a regular sell out, and after experiencing it, it’s no surprise.

Hale is both a master hypnotist and the life and soul of the party he creates in every show. He has many willing volunteers at the reviewed show, and has no problem getting them hypnotized.  If the odd volunteer seems to have snapped out of the hypnotic state a bit early, they play along in their own way.  Hale has great rapport with his participants, and they clearly want the show to succeed even when the tricky business of hypnotism reveals its unpredictable nature. None of the activities he has them do are especially embarrassing; it’s a safe environment for those wanting to experience hypnotism.

Everything about the show, from the entry and exit music, to Hale’s outfit, and to all the activities performed by the hypnotized participants, is perfectly themed to the eighties. It’s impressive just how well he sticks to the theme, there’s not a single song or moment that isn’t impeccably eighties. Here in the birthplace of the Proclaimers (or about two miles from the birthplace of the Proclaimers, depending on your stance on Leith’s independence from Edinburgh) their most famous song is given the prominence that it deserves, and is well received by the audience.

Hypnotism is always a popular one at the Edinburgh Fringe, and with the on-trend eighties theme, Hale is proving especially sought after. However, as he points out, it’s not just him doing a trick, hypnotism is a give-and-take exercise, and the audience doesn’t really need to be hypnotized to have a good time and do silly things. Hypnotism may give his onstage participants permission to act a bit silly, but Hale himself gives the rest of the audience permission to be silly too. Top Fun lives up to its name, it’s truly a top fun place to be this Fringe.

BARRY POTTER AND THE MAGIC OF WIZARDRY

☆☆

At a show called Barry Potter and the Magic of Wizardry, the audience has to have a good idea of what they’re getting themselves into. Potter does not disappoint. The magic may be recognizable by those who have seen muggle magicians, but there’s plenty of Hogwarts-magic style props and more wizardry puns than you can shake a hippogriff at. The execution did face some issues at the reviewed show, but he pressed forward with admirable professionalism.

Potter has a decent rapport with the audience, but surprisingly given the type of show, seemed to have trouble connecting with the younger audience members. One youngest was admittedly overly chatty from her seat, and he shut her down pretty harshly for an overactive toddler, calling her narcissistic and telling her that not everything is about her. It would have been an understandable, if unfortunate, reaction from a non-performer, but for a magician performing a self-aware childish kind of show it felt far too unkind. Potter was better with a young boy who joined him onstage for a coin trick, who had a great time getting in on the magical fun.

The magic performed was well themed but had a significant error on the day that the show was reviewed with the final reveal. As much as it’s a shame to end on an error, the rest mostly goes to plan, and if the patterns are familiar, it’s all perfectly themed. Potter uses familiar props, such as a golden snitch and photos of the Harry Potter film characters, to perform his effects. He tells a Harry Potter style story throughout the show, but a highlight is his playing card retelling of the original story. This did hit a few snags at the reviewed show but was nevertheless creative and engaging.

If it wasn’t perfect when it was reviewed, Barry Potter and the Magic of Wizardry was still a great time, thanks to the irrepressible professionalism of Potter himself.  There are plenty of fun reveals even when things go wrong, and errors of some sort are inevitable in a month-long live theater run. Harry Potter fans looking for a dose of nostalgia peppered with the best kinds of bad jokes need look no further.

COLIN CLOUD: AFTER DARK

☆☆☆☆☆

Scotland’s number one export may be petroleum (which surprisingly surpasses the beverage category) but its number one boomerang export is apparently its mentalists. After Dark sees the return of Colin Cloud’s magnificent hair to the Edinburgh Fringe stage after four years away, and Edinburghers have given him a warm welcome- the reviewed show was to a packed audience that queued all the way around McEwan Hall.

Many might remember Cloud’s incredibly extra approach to showcasing his mentalism abilities, and they will not be disappointed by this show. It’s a common final reveal for a magician to have a prediction to read out at the end of the show that demonstrates that they knew everything was going to happen, and Cloud is no different—except that he wrote and posted his predictions to a member of the audience several months prior to the show, and had that audience member bring the envelope up on stage at the start of the show. It was like a scene out of a Doctor Who finale, which was undoubtedly intentional. Cloud also demonstrates what is either a very impressive ability to know what is on IMDb pages, or a very sad but still kind of impressive encyclopedic knowledge of the whole of IMDb, in a mentalism feat that gets the whole audience involved in the fact checking.

This year Cloud has a new message, a new way to add meaning to his magic, by drawing on his own journey toward mental wellbeing. Cloud illustrates how random chance can feel like a guiding force toward the future during times of distress, using an origami fortune teller much like many would have used as schoolchildren to read audience members’ minds.  This feels like classic Cloud work. To visualize a personal low point, he switches gears into the kind of stunt work that his fans may be less used to seeing him perform. The stunt he performs usually comes across as kind of gross, but here, accompanied by the retelling of his story, it feels oddly wholesome and uplifting—it’s the overcoming of the physical danger that’s emphasized, more than the introduction of it. The story of his past is of overcoming that physical harm by lucky chance, but the danger presented onstage is overcome by choice, with the skill and practice of his profession.  Cloud demonstrates his personal growth even in the retelling of a personal low. 

After Dark may be initially presented as the return of the king, and that’s very much the case. However, he’s a changed king, and here he shares the life lessons he’s learned with all the ability and flair that made him renowned in the first place. Edinburgh welcomes his return to the point that his huge venue may very well be sold out for the rest of his run, but those lucky folks who have bought tickets can be sure they won’t regret it.  Cloud once again sets the standard for excellence in mentalism at the Fringe.