☆☆☆

Burritos, milkshakes, and magic are an unfortunately unusual combination. Each one of them is great on its own, but together? Unbeatable! The only place to experience this incredible trinity at the Fringe this year is at Alex Kouvatas’s show Movie Magic, in the basement of Burrito’n’Shake, handily located on a key tourist thoroughfare.

However, aside from providing a frankly iconic combination of refreshments, Kouvatas’s venue did not do him any favors. Staff crossed the stage with some regularity and the music from the restaurant was audible in the performance space. Such are often the trials of the newer PBH venues. The space has a great potential, and hopefully with a bit more experience of the benefits of hosting they will treat their performers with more respect.

Kouvatas was nevertheless unstoppable. Some of the more notable aspects of his performance actually did not include magic tricks. In the show reviewed he performed at times in two languages, neither of them his native language, to ensure that Italian-speaking members of the audience were included as well as the English-speaking majority. He went out of his way to get them involved in ways that were accessible to them. Kouvatas included all of the audience in his show. A participant in the show reviewed was especially enamored of his prop banana, reported to be “pleasingly soft and fun to play with”. While her delight with and repeated caressing of his banana did briefly distract Kouvatas, and indeed the entire audience, this only increased the audience’s engagement.

The magic was well performed and themed to the movies. Kouvatas brought along a special movie card deck, so audience members could choose the movies he themes his tricks on. A moment that feels especially on brand for a magician is when he uses a card trick to try to get one of his participants to fall in love with him. While the participant at the reviewed show did not leave her partner for him, it was a fun romcom take on the effect. That being said, if Kouvatas’s magic could use any advice, it might be on the timing. There was the occasional moment, for example with is escapology trick, where it felt like the timing wasn’t quite right—but this did not detract too much from the overall enjoyment of the audience.

His inclusivity of the whole audience sadly did not always have a positive effect. One participant got a little too enthusiastic and grabbed Kouvatas’s bottom to try to catch him out on a trick. He laughed it off, and even got the rest of the audience to laugh through the uncomfortable moment, an impressive testament to his professionalism despite overt and unacceptable (even if unmalicious) harassment.

While touching his bottom is not advised, Kouvatas’s delightful banana is freely given to a chosen participant, just one of the many reasons why Movie Magic is worth a visit. Kouvatas is an inventive and engaging performer who will get the whole audience involved in the show.

More information on Alex Kouvatas can be found here.