4 Stars

PETE FIRMAN: SUPER DUPER

☆☆☆☆

‘It’s fucking magic.’ Pete Firman says this as a joke, but those three words are his show in a nutshell. Blunt, irreverent, and frustratingly riveting, Peter Firman: Super Duper is a manifestation of ‘how the hell did he do that’ in sixty minutes. Often, to enjoy a magic show, an audience needs to apply a suspension of disbelief, not because the magic is poor, but because you are rational. But in Super Duper, you don’t need to try with your belief, because Firman has deftly claimed it for himself within mere minutes of walking (or rather, appearing) onstage.

Firman is the master of ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ magic, a slick professional whose show rattles with hilarity and wonder. There are absolutely no seconds of dead air in this performance; he fills every moment with his pithy wit. Caught up in these bursts of intense enthusiasm and crackling humour, the audience is drawn wholly into his remarkable illusions. His tricks were magic classics, but done with such skill and ease that even someone looking in all the right places wouldn’t see how they were being fooled. Not that anyone could possibly hope to look in those right places.

Firman interacts easily with his spectators, both in the case of his participants and of heckling members of his audience who might dare to get up in the middle of the show. (Oh how the tables turn.) His humour is harsh enough to be hilarious but not too mean to cross a line, and means that even if someone has stood up in front of you to sneak off the the bathroom, Firman still keeps full command of your attention.

Pete Firman: Super Duper is a brilliant magical performance that will guarantee you an amazing night of bewildering illusions and breathless laughter.

Originally published here.

More information on Pete Firman and his performance dates can be found here

TWISTED CABARET

☆☆☆☆

Word of advice: the four stars you see here are only for the brave at heart. Twisted Cabaret is a thoroughly terrifying, thoroughly fantastic and hilarious show of cabaret madness.

We are welcomed at the door of Twisted Cabaret by two resplendently dressed men, guaranteeing a delightful show of the most talented variety artists around. But misfortune has struck, they say! Most of our promised entertainers are on a bus stuck at the border! (Which border, we may wonder? Are they stuck at the border between Britain and France? That’s awfully far from Edinburgh). But all is well, for it turns out that our host would like nothing more than to do every single act himself, assisted only by his grumpy ‘producer’ playing the role of the hunchback emcee.

The success of Frank Olivier in his delivery of this cabaret renaissance man is almost frightening. He has a near distressing acuity at every one of the parts he plays. He jumps from sword swallower to fire eater, juggler, unicycle-riding ballerina, and more, showing unbelievable talent in every role he assumes. Sure, the audience does not really imagine that he has transformed into a stiff Hungarian man when he comes onstage to swallow swords, but that does not make the feat any less astonishing. And every one of these personas maintains the high-energy enthusiasm and hilarity to convince people to participate in somewhat (very) embarrassing bits with him.

In drawing upon audience participation, Twisted Cabaret definitely straddles the line of suggestiveness. Although generally not pushing the participants to do anything too heinously humiliating, and allowing for participant choice, the pressure of the crowd somewhat takes away the legitimacy of that consent. Nevertheless, if you are brave enough and want a good story to tell your friends, make sure to take a seat in the front row.

The interactions between Olivier and his participants are painfully hilarious, but the show would not be complete without the deadpan delivery of the producer turned hunchback, Paul Nathan. His few moments to shine prove that he is a talented magician in his own right, but his more background role to Olivier works as an easy and complementary dynamic.

In noting that this show is for the brave heart, I do not refer only to those shy of participating. The truly terrifying part of this show comes at the finale, with Olivier demonstrating some of his most impressive and shocking skills. I will not give anything away here, but suffice to say, many members of the audience were peeking through their fingers.

 

More information on Twisted Cabaret and their performance dates can be found here

Originally published here

MAGIKO

☆☆☆☆

A simple set, a modest stage and enough enthusiasm for magic in one man to inspire his audience to audible, astonished gasps. Magiko, with Siegfried Tieber, is an absolute triumph of close-up sleight of hand and mind reading magic.

Performed with tools as simple as a deck of cards, a glass and a book, Magiko invites us to ponder our belief in what is considered ‘supernatural’. Do we believe in luck? Fate? How can someone influence us, without us even realising it? Magiko doesn’t provide answers, instead it tests the answers upon which we had already decided.

The magical illusions of this show would seem to be simple but only in the sense that they are performed with a sparse range of tools. However the effect done and the wonder that is inspired is anything but ordinary. To reactions of utter bafflement, Tieber proves repeatedly that our eyes (and certainly his hands) cannot be trusted. Even after achieving this response, he magnifies it by slowly leading the audience through some of his tricks, telling us exactly how they happen yet, even when ferociously focused, it is impossible to actually see the trick. One moment things are as they appear, the next the unexpected has occurred at the very tips of his fingers.

Despite this obvious technical skill in sleight of hand, the most captivating part of Magiko is the passion of the magician. Tieber has a sense of personal marvel that is absolutely infectious and irresistible. This eager energy is the reason hardly one minute of his show lags. When waxing poetic about the whims of fate and occasionally reminding us of stories that we have not forgotten, Tieber’s enthusiasm ensures that his audience stays at rapt attention.

An important part of Magiko invites the audience to ponder whether, if given the chance, we would choose information or mystery. Regardless of what you may answer in that situation, it is advisable that you do not leave this show a mystery to yourself.

 

More information on Siegfried Tieber and his performance dates can be found here

Originally posted here

ALEX THE MIND READER

☆☆☆☆

(It is so inherently frustrating to my sense of order that this magician didn’t use a colon in his show title like almost literally everyone else does that I want to add one in for the title of this review anyway. Alex: The Mind Reader. Or, alternatively, Alex: the Impressively Adept at Dealing With Claustrophobic Environments).

Picture a mentalist in your mind. Unless your expectation has been tainted with the visage of Derren Brown or perhaps Simon Baker, you probably will summon up an image at least a little like Alex. Dashing in a dramatic mustache, I would have known the man walking past our queue was the mind reader even if he hadn’t put his face on the flyers.

The start of the show was a bit slow, people shuffling into their places in the compact little room, and then filling out the little slips of information that Alex would attempt to glean from us. But everyone was excited right from the start, and that was a really positive way to start a show.

And straight from the start, Alex amazed. He received gasps and applause from his apparent ability to read faces and minds and even pass his ability onto unsuspecting audience members. But one of the best elements tying the entire act together was his wit. Alex thoroughly commanded the room, despite obvious discomfort of the overwarm venue.

Alex the Mind Reader is a genuinely brilliant show, and I think Alex could easily have filled a much larger theater. But he certainty didn’t let the small size diminish the sense of wonder that his show created.

You can see Alex the Mind Reader at 1:30pm at Laughing Horse @ The Counting House on August 21st and 22nd.  

+Extra note- So, after I saw this show I decided I had to drag my friend along for the performance the next day. We were there half an hour and started a queue of people before I realized it wasn’t even on that day. We were so embarrassed we ran off without mentioning this to the other people who had lined up- on my recommendation of the show #sorrynotsorry

 

 

More information on Alex McAleer and his performance dates can be found here

RENZ NOVANI: SPELLBINDER- MAGIC AND MYSTORY

☆☆☆☆

I’m not a mentalist (yet?) but when I sat down at the beginning of Renz Novani’s show, I made a prediction. That prediction was that for his review I would be writing: “well, maybe Renz Novani is a good magician, but I can’t tell because I can’t see a goddamned thing except for the hair of the lady in front of me.” But like I said, I’m not a mentalist.

The room was tiny. Everyone was squashed together, and the rows of seats were only at two levels. The “stage” started right where the “audience” stopped, and it was tiny itself. But what could have been suffocating actually worked for the show.

Mr Novani’s affect was flawless for the space, and for his material. He didn’t try to be overtly theatrical, a choice that by making him seem bigger would have made the space feel even smaller. Instead, his show was like a conversation. We were visitors at Mr Novani’s, and he a kind host. And like any good host, he exuded sincerity, and seemed to connect deeply with his audience.

I’ve mentioned earlier that I as a rule don’t go onstage or interact in the acts I see. Well, I broke that rule last night. I didn’t plan on it, but the room was so small, I couldn’t exactly hide. And when I was picked, I just went with it. I was initially worried that my preexisting obsession with mentalism and fascination with the exact things he was doing would mess the show up because I was thinking so much, so I guess it’s a blessing that when I’m in front of crowds I lose the ability to think. I won’t go into too much detail about the trick itself, but all I can say is that I was amazed by his talent. At so many points I was tiny slivers of a whim away from making wholly different choices, and yet the trick worked- the prediction that Mr Novani had secured, earlier, with another audience member, was right. Because of choices that I made and numbers that the audience picked.This ability wasn’t limited to but one trick, either. He again and again left members of the audience dumbfounded with his mentalist ability and readings of their deepest wishes.

He genuinely had astonishing talent, and at the same time expertly presented his material in a manner that made a grim little room cozy and captivating. Combined with a brilliant finish, Mr Novani’s show really does leave you feeling weightless.

Renz Novani’s Fringe show is at Spotlights at Merchants Hall, at 8:40 pm until August 25th.

+Reviewer’s note: I left this show a little stunned, and not just because of residual nervous energy from being onstage. Of all the magicians that I’ve seen as of late, his particular talents were exactly everything I’ve ever wanted to study, understand, be. The beautiful mixture of clever tricks, calming but firm stage presence, and a deep understanding of and ability to work with human psychology is exactly what captivated me about this world in the first place. His ability to imbibe it with a sense of enchantment struck me on a deeply personal level. Also, I want to steal all his books.

 

 

More information on Renz Novani and his performance dates can be found here