☆☆☆

It can be difficult for lunchtime shows to attract weekday audiences. Phillip Northfield—Mind-Reader?: Obsess did manage to get a small audience at the reviewed show despite the day, timing, and rainy weather. While one friend group had a self-imposed magic ban for this year’s Fringe due to disappointment last year and had come by mistake, even they left with smiles on their faces. Northfield took full advantage of the crowd he had, still delivering a full show.

Obsess is about obsessions, how they make us who we are and should be celebrated. It’s a nice message from a performance art that, like many, calls for some level of obsession from its practitioners if they want to be considered successful performers. Northfield brings some level of non-magical obsession to the show with his demonstration of a Rubik’s cube solve, but this is such a common magic effect it feels adjacent. He shines a light on how hard magicians must obsess to learn the skills that they perform.

The magic that Northfield performs by and large is a tribute to how much he has obsessed over it. His card shuffling sequence is certainly entertaining, with one handed moves that he makes look deceptively easy. While his actual trick ran in to some trouble, with a participant calling him out for switching out the card she pointed to even without her glasses, Northfield recovered the effect for a nice if somewhat undercut reveal. Most of the magic goes to plan, with a series of mind reading effects that see Northfield successfully reading the audience’s thoughts.

With small audiences,  participation is inescapable and building the show can feel like a collaborative experience, as there are times when there are as many or even more members of the audience on the stage as off it. Northfield balanced his participant use well, ensuring that each audience member had an approximately equal time onstage with him.

Obsess is a really lovely tribute to the work it takes to become a working magician. While the reviewed show was perhaps hampered by the weather and time of day, it could easily be a great option for a start of the day show, particularly for Leithers on their way in to town to enjoy the Fringe. Northfield’s perspective on magic gives new insights into the art form.