Month: August 2023

YOUNG AND MOXIE

☆☆☆

Putting on a show as a new magic duo and invoking the names of Penn and Teller in all your marketing is a bold move, even by magician standards. It’s impossible to imagine anyone living up to a straight comparison to the stage chemistry of one of the most famous magic partnerships alive. Nevertheless, seasoned magician Cameron Young and Moxie Jillette, daughter of the Penn half of the esteemed pair, make this attempt together as Young and Moxie.

Young and Moxie take an appropriately sneaky approach to getting around this potential issue. They take full advantage of Moxie’s famous parent in their marketing—which can’t be faulted, the Fringe is a notoriously brutal market and it’s entirely reasonable to take advantage of every angle one has to get an audience—but then are quick to frame it as more of a magical apprenticeship for the younger Moxie than a traditional partnership. And if it does feel a bit like a partnership of convenience, they do have a better stage chemistry than might be expected of a pair that did their rehearsing over Zoom.

Most of the stage time is given to Young, the teacher in this scenario, although in contrast to his regular Fringe solo shows his work is peppered with Moxie’s snarky commentary. Young’s tricks are performed with his usual precision. He warms up the crowd with his favorite, predictive magic, and gets everyone thinking through his selection process so the whole audience feels involved.

Maybe it’s just that Fringe audiences are more accustomed to Young’s approach, but Moxie’s take on both magic and performing feel especially exciting. Her version of a classic effect, performed in front of the audience but really just for one person, breathes new life into a tired prop. Her running commentary on Young and his magic is hilarious and apt; her insightful perspective on magic makes the entire production that little bit more interesting. If magic shows had live commentators like sporting matches Moxie would be a perfect fit for the role. While she’s great when speaking to others, whether exchanging banter with Young or vibing with her audience participants, like many younger magicians Moxie comes across as slightly nervous in her monologues. The prevalence of this shortcoming amongst younger magicians would indicate that it is best remedied by the experience that she is currently building.

Young and Moxie is a worthwhile hour of a show, for both performers and even for the spark of their stage chemistry. However, both Young and Moxie simply radiate too much Main Character Energy, in the best possible way for two magicians, for their paired show to feel like a sufficient experience of either of them. While Young’s many fans can also catch him solo at the Voodoo Rooms this year, Moxie’s only available as part of the duo for now. After a glimpse at her unique approach Fringe audiences will surely be equally excited to catch her solo if and when she feels ready.

More information on Young and Moxie can be found here.

JAMIE LEONARD: FOCUS POCUS

☆☆☆

Jamie Leonard is a tough Fringe act to catch. Over the past couple of years he has put on mini runs (by Fringe standards) of just a day or two. Undoubtedly by the time this review is online he will have once again vanished for the year like the proverbial elephant. While the magic might not have been flawless, Leonard is a charming performer and well worth an hour of the audience’s time.

Focus Pocus included a good mix of magic styles, there was something for everyone over the course of an hour. As the audience members entered the venue Leonard asked them to write a random word on a blank card, and the purpose of this was left a mystery for the majority of the show to great effect, with the timing of the reveal calling back to one of his early tricks and ensuring a positive last impression. Not all of the tricks went so well to plan, but Leonard only ran in to a couple of issues and was quick to salvage what he could. Focus Pocus is decidedly comedy magic, and that attitude of not taking himself too seriously served Leonard well when things didn’t go as perfectly as he might have hoped.

In a small venue early in the afternoon, Leonard found few volunteer participants, but enough to not have to resort to picking people at random. He establishes a strong rapport early on, and is mindful of the variety of age ranges in his audience. When his participants pick a naughty number for him to use for one of his tricks, he comments on it directly enough to get a laugh from the adults but obliquely enough that he hopefully didn’t prompt any awkward questions from the younger children.

Appropriately for a comedy magician, Leonard is a funny guy, with great comic timing, especially when joking with his audience. If the magic isn’t perfect yet it seems reasonable to attribute that to his youth, he doesn’t mention his age but joking about homework certainly makes him sound on the younger side. But it’s his calm attitude towards mistakes and distractions that comes across as the best sign for the future of his performance career; the ability to not let setbacks derail a performance is perhaps the most important quality in any performer. Fringe audiences may have to wait until next year to catch a glimpse of Leonard’s magic, but they won’t be disappointed by his performance—regardless of whether or not the tricks go right.

More information about Jamie Leonard can be found here.

SUHANI SHAH: SPELLBOUND

☆☆☆☆☆

A newcomer to the Edinburgh Fringe, Suhani Shah presents a semi-autobiographical show with Spellbound. While she does deservedly brag a bit—about winning over her parents’ approval to devote her life to magic at a young age, and managing to find daily audiences as a talented youngster—she’s relatively humble about her current renown in her home country. To imagine her place in India’s cultural consciousness, UK audiences might find it helpful to picture Derren Brown as a woman with about ten times the Instagram following.

Shah’s easy rapport with the audience emerges from the start. She has a personable stage presence, and audience volunteers respond to her like she’s an old friend. At the reviewed performance some may have been a little too friendly. One of her first participants in particular was eager to shoot his shot with her, apparently in front of his wife, and Shah integrated their banter as a running joke for the rest of the show. Shah asks for volunteers before picking on random individuals, and she has no lack; in the reviewed show she did not need to resort to pulling up the unwilling.

The actual mentalism that she performs is nothing short of flawless. The basis of many of her effects will be familiar to magic fans, but she adds her own twist. Shah tells the audience about her childhood pitching up in a venue for months at a time to perform, and rightly points out that the Edinburgh Fringe is her natural habitat. One of her well personalized effects is her retelling of how she convinced her parents to allow her to lead this life, a blindfolded trick using her father’s handkerchief and a piece of her mother’s chapati dough—or here, a bit of dough she brought along and an audience member’s handkerchief. She responds blind to prompts in varied ways, allowing for new reveals to the same trick.

While acknowledging that everything that she does is a learned trick, Shah does not shy away from doing her level best to convince her audience that she’s genuinely magical. In a clever bit of show planning, the most fun element of this comes after she winds up a more traditional mentalism routine, when the audience is expecting another set-up but instead gets the immediate gratification of more magic. She doesn’t reveal anything that could potentially cause embarrassment, and in fact tells a funny story about when she learned to avoid that, but the details she discusses are specific and personal enough to make it a highly memorable moment in the show.

By Shah’s account there are at least a couple of similarities between the Indian and the Edinburgh Fringe magic scenes. In both cases there are very few female magicians and even fewer mentalists. As far as this publication is aware, Shah herself is the only female mentalist at the Fringe this year—although we welcome correction if any other female mentalists at this year’s fringe would like to get in touch. Spellbound may be Shah’s way of introducing herself to Edinburgh but it feels like the launch of a new Fringe superstar. In that endeavor Shah can only be a success, everyone in her Spellbound audience will be eager to see more from her.

More information on Suhani Shah can be found here.

MARIO THE MAKER MAGICIAN

☆☆☆☆

While 11AM on a Fringe weekend morning might feel like an early start to adults, the kids in Mario the Maker Magician’s audience were bright-eyed and full of excitement. In his self-titled Edinburgh Fringe premier he gives them ample opportunity to burn off their excess energy, quickly establishing a pantomime-adjacent performance style that gets them all involved and keeps them engaged. The focus is always on the children, but Mario gets the adults involved too when he needs a participant with a little more focus or who doesn’t mind a bit more teasing. And no one, regardless of age, could fail to be enchanted by his magic, brought to life with the help of his adorable robots and grounded with the educational bent of his show writing.

It’s that motivational and quasi-educational element of the show that makes it feel especially worthwhile for families with young children. Mario includes famous artists and scientists in his act, using their work to inform his own and making them stick in the minds of his young fans. He also takes the extra step to draw motivational conclusions from each famous individuals’ lives, encouraging the audience to live their lives to the fullest. It’s a classic conclusion to come to for a children’s act but is presented in a way that is memorable and effective.

Mario’s magic is presented adorably. His brightly colored shoelaces and red clown noses are used to great effect to kick off the show. Children (and adults) who find themselves coveting the clown noses need not fear—without giving too much away, they may not feel this jealousy by the end of the show. Later tricks involve Mario’s very sweet homemade robots, who seem to have minds of their own but never fail to be hilariously magical. A highlight here is a robotic play on the classic cup and ball trick, which has never before felt so delightfully silly. 

Adult participants in Mario’s show face some playful teasing, but his child participants are treated like the VIPs that they are. The children who join him onstage are made to feel magical and made integral to the show, the focus squarely on their own hopes and dreams, which Mario celebrates and encourages them to pursue.

Mario the Maker Magician is a popular children’s show to see this Fringe; even on a classic rainy Edinburgh morning, on the first weekend of the Fringe, he had a very nearly sold out audience. But luckily for the children’s guardians it’s not one that they will dread to sit through, there’s enough to keep them amazed and entertained as well. Housed in the inflated purple cow, Mario is a worthwhile family destination.

More information on Mario the Maker Magician can be found here.