☆☆☆

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.