☆☆☆

Comedy magician Sean Harrington doesn’t even wait until showtime to hit the audience with the jokes, considering his pun-y show title Sleightly Funny. As promised, the show contains laughs and magic. At the reviewed show on a drizzly weekday afternoon the attendance wasn’t huge, but really solid considering. Harrington has a good balance of jokes and magic that keeps the audience entertained.

The magic is nearly all well performed, with just one keynote and unfortunately very brightly colored prop sneaking a peek at the audience behind Harrington’s back before its official reveal. An early coin routine is a highlight, well performed by Harrington and immediately grabbing the audience’s attention. Elsewhere Harrington performed some great magic-themed comedy, as exemplified in a mind reading sequence with a carefully placed audience participant who played along happily to great effect. It’s in moments like these that Harrington really shines. He mentions the similarities in approach of both comedians and magicians in entertaining an audience, and it’s clear that this is an avenue that he is passionate about exploring, and one that he is well equipped to demonstrate to audiences.

With a small audience naturally everyone got involved in helping Harrington with his magic. Harrington is friendly with his audience, and they are happy to join him—as with the participant in one of his magic comedy segments who unquestioningly played along to help Harrington create a funny moment for the rest of the audience. While there is one participation moment that is a little bit more nerve wracking, living in a country with nationalized healthcare takes some of the pressure off of the participant. And of course, Harrington is always in control.

These days everyone could probably do with a laugh break, and for the next few days Sleightly Funny is here to provide it. Harrington is a funny performer and skilled magician. Magic and comedy fans won’t regret spending time with him.