4 Stars

THE POLDARK SHOW: STAGE HYPNOTIST

☆☆☆☆

The beautiful venue choice and staging perfectly sets the scene for the style of The Poldark Show—Stage Hypnotist. The audience enters a church hall to find a velvet draped stage, and the sense of classy grandeur is a constant throughout the show. Hypnotist Poldark is clearly a master of the craft, balancing respect for his participants with showmanship and entertainment for the offstage members of the audience.

Poldark’s brand of hypnosis is notable at this Fringe for its calming, meditative qualities in a field that currently seems to favor sharp, loud noises as a methodology. The Poldark version is more pleasant on the audience ear, even providing a relaxing environment for those who did not put themselves forward to be hypnotized. No one method of hypnotism will work on everyone, but at the reviewed show Poldark had a very respectable success rate, that gave him ample supply of hypnotized individuals for his demonstrations.

There is a gently comedic element to The Poldark Show, in a respectful and family friendly way. The hypnotized participants are not asked to do anything embarrassing. His final hypnotic demonstration is less for comedic effect and more just for the wow factor. Even those who have seen a wide variety of other hypnotism shows are unlikely to have seen anything even remotely close to this. Poldark has a kind stage presence, and at the reviewed show some who did not manage to get hypnotized or were awoken from that state during the performance even played along just to try to help him out. However, ever the professional, Poldark spotted them quickly and found opportune moments to quickly ensure that they were okay and invite them to return to the rest of the audience.

The hypnotism takes the majority of the show’s run time, but Poldark does still take a moment to get the whole audience involved in a warm up imaginative exercise. It may start similar to an exercise often used in this kind of show, but once again Poldark demonstrates his unusual take on stage hypnotism—it’s actually a completely different exercise to what the audience probably anticipates.

The Poldark Show is without a doubt the place to be this Fringe for a pleasant hypnotic experience, whether as an onstage participant or a curious onlooker. Unfortunately the reviewed show was the final one of this Fringe, but Poldark will be heading out on tour, and will hopefully return to Edinburgh someday. Fans of being hypnotized or watching hypnotism are advised to look him up.

RICHARD WISEMAN: THE INVENTION OF MAGIC

☆☆☆☆

The Invention of Magic isn’t really a magic show. It’s more properly a lecture on psychology and magical history, albeit distinctly from the perspective of a magician, Richard Wiseman. Wiseman even has a slideshow of psychological illusions and history to accompany the lecture. It’s perfect for those who miss the fun bits of school, learning from engaging lecturers, without having to suffer through the assignments and exams that are a necessary evil of structured academia.

The structure of discussing history or science before performing a magic trick will be familiar to magic fans. The discussion is usually a fairly perfunctory element of the performance that feels more like an exercise in building anticipation than a genuine attempt to educate. Wiseman has created a similar model, but with the emphasis switched. There is education ahead of magic, but the educational component is the important bit, and the magic is more of an illustration than the primary draw.

Given that, the audience is for the most part talked to rather than interacted with. The one primary moment of audience participation involves the entire audience in the same trick, which makes it an especially interesting variation on a classic. It’s one with a long set up, rumored to have made Churchill himself late for work, and involving the whole audience keeps everyone engaged for what is ultimately a great reveal.

Fans of magic will enjoy learning more about the history of the practice. Wiseman mainly discusses an inventor of magic called Paul Curry, which, even to many unwitting fans of his work, may be an unknown name. Wiseman reveals that many popular effects and puzzles are descended from Curry’s work. Curry was evidentially an influential figure in magical history and it’s great to see Wiseman putting in the effort to keep him alive in popular memory.

In case prospective audiences needed yet another reason to attend The Invention of Magic, Wiseman is performing on the PBH Free Fringe, as a means of raising money for that organization. Often described as the fringe of the Fringe, the PBH is the only venue that is both free for artists and audiences, single-handedly working to keep the arts accessible to everyone in Edinburgh. In the spirit of Curry creating magic that would go on to amaze future audiences he would never get to meet, Wiseman is working to preserve the future of accessible art for the next generation.

ADULTS ONLY MAGIC SHOW

☆☆☆☆

There are a lot of reasons that audience members might find themselves in the Adults Only Magic Show. There is of course the obvious: dicks. And, perhaps surprisingly: well themed and executed magic tricks, and a wholesome friendship between two performers, magicians Sam Hume and Justin Williams, who have been working together for a decade. The high energy Adults Only Magic Show delivers on all fronts.

Fringe magic fans may be most used to shows with just one magician, maybe two if they’re lucky. The Adults Only Magic Show has not just two magicians but an extra two performers, emcee/glamorous assistant Magnus “Danger” Magnus, and the sexiest assistant in the history of sexy assistants, a topless man called Richard Sullivan. While Hume and Williams are undoubtedly the stars of the show, their auxiliary performers are on hand to hype up the crowd, help out with props, and contribute to the general nudity of the evening.

It’s easy to look at the marketing for this show and assume that the emphasis will be entirely on the sex appeal of the performers, but the magic is very present and very well done. Magicians tend to perform their reveals with their own distinct flourish, but few reveal quite as much as Hume and Williams in the name of a good trick. Hume also makes time for the performance of the first card trick that Williams ever saw him perform. In amongst the nudity is a level of sweetness that can only come from two close friends who are palpably enthusiastic about making magic together.

Hume and Williams take the bribery route to getting their audience participants enthusiastic to join them onstage, with drinks tickets and even at times actual drinks. The worst audience participants may have to go through is some temporary light stress and respectfully aggressive flirting. It’s clear that Hume and Williams keep an eye on each individual’s boundaries and limit their interactions depending on the personality and preferences of who they get onstage.

Adults Only Magic Show may not be for everyone. The promotional material makes it clear that the show contains nudity and sexual humor, so hopefully those who aren’t interested in that will self select out of the audiences. There is an absolute appeal for those who are into men. And even for magic fans and magicians, it’s interesting to see a sexy take on magic performed with such clear passion for the magic itself. In addition to showing off their bodies, Hume and Williams will show their audience just how adaptable magic is as a performance art.

SIN CITY CIRCUS SISTERS

☆☆☆☆

Anyone who goes to Sin City Circus Sisters expecting a standard Fringe magic show will be disappointed in the best possible way. While there are enough magical elements for it to feel like it technically qualifies as a magic show, there is also a significant emphasis on circus-style stunts. They still look impossible, but instead of achieving that effect using magic, they’re actually doing it. Stacey Stardust takes care of most of the magic while Lygia Way does most of the stunts, and they each assist each other to help make the show so incredibly impressive.

The finale lurks onstage like a Chekov’s box and it’s no surprise that it’s a highlight. This style of big illusion work is not often seen at the Fringe. When it is, the implied allusions to a more traditional era of magic can feel misogynistic, unless the magicians take extra care to frame it an a progressive way, or have a male cast member in the traditional “magician’s assistant” role. Seeing an effect like this performed by two women isn’t usually an option, given the demographic tendencies of working magicians, and seeing it here feels very wholesome.

Given the style of Sin City Circus Sisters, specific audience members are not often called on to participate in the show. The odd task might be assigned to an audience member, but it will be simple and quickly dealt with. Stardust and Way keep all the attention on themselves, and as there are two of them they can take on a lot of the tasks often given to the audience. Magic fans may have seen jugglers in other acts coerce a stranger to lie on the floor so the juggler can juggle knives over their poor victim’s body, but here Stardust puts her body on the line for Way to juggle over. The stunts may at times be dangerous, but Stardust and Way never place the audience in harm’s way.

The presentation and outfits of the circus sisters are noticeably sexier than Fringe magic acts tend to be. Based on audience reaction at the reviewed performance, the surface level sexiness works as intended, but it also feels exaggerated in a cheeky, ironic nod to the history of women’s roles in magic acts. Maybe this is the sexy exorcism of voyeurism in magic that the art form requires to move forward. Or maybe, it’s just sexiness positivity. Either way, definitely a positive aspect of the show.

Sin City Circus Sisters is, above all, a lot of fun. Way and Stardust joke that they go well with alcohol to encourage drinks purchases at their PBH venue, but the audience doesn’t need to drink to enjoy the amazing levels of skill on display over the course of the show. If they don’t return to Edinburgh, they’re worth a ticket to Vegas.

CHRIS FLEMING: MILLENNIAL MAGICIAN

☆☆☆☆

Chris Fleming’s Millennial Magician features several PowerPoints and quasi-educational content about what makes a millennial a millennial. Some of this will be genuinely educational, even for millennials.  In particular younger millennials who did not grow up in the UK may learn a few new cultural references, although there are absolutely universal cross-cultural elements of the millennial experience that are celebrated. However the majority of Millennial Magician is devoted to the second half of the title, and the magic that Fleming performs is consistently fun and consistently perfect.

One of the highlights of Millennial Magician is Fleming’s magical take on beer pong. Like so much in a magic show, this may have been at least in part due to the audience participant chosen at the reviewed show. Fleming had a magician’s trick method to introduce to speed the game along, but the participant he chose immediately revealed himself to be a champion beer pong player, sinking shots with apparent ease. Fleming didn’t allow this to disrupt the magic but took a moment to celebrate the physical talent of his participant. The reveal was nevertheless impressive, perhaps all the more so for coming on the heels of this unexpected display of talent. It’s also a genuinely inventive take on a couple of standard magic tricks joined together in a creative way, appealing to the magic fans in the audience in search of novelty.

Like the champion beer pong player, Fleming’s audience participants look to be having a universally great time. At the reviewed show participants were willing to trust Fleming with their phones (which to a millennial is perhaps an even bigger deal than trusting him with their life), join him for an impromptu dance break, and drink his mysterious liquids to verify his magical talents. Fleming is an approachable performer and the audience enjoys taking part in his magic.

Millennial Magician is a strong Fringe debut and an all around great way to spend an hour in the afternoon. Fleming’s fun personality and interesting takes on magic will make the time fly by. Anyone who manages to snag a spot in his show this year will leave curious to see what else he can come up with, and hoping that he finds his way back to future Edinburgh Fringes.

More information on Millennial Magician and its performance dates can be found here.

TIM LICATA: CLOSE-UP AND PERSONAL

☆☆☆☆

Anyone in Edinburgh who commutes up and down Leith Walk will be familiar with the name Tim Licata, resident magician at the Joker and the Thief pub. And after watching his Fringe show Close-Up and Personal, they may be tempted to stop by the pub specifically to watch his magic. In Close-Up and Personal Licata reveals his family lore through magic, acting, and occasionally even dance.

The dancing is both a surprise and an unexpected highlight. Licata recounts the start of his love of magic by performing a ‘70s themed routine, complete with props commonly available in beginners magic sets and his delightful dancing. Those in the audience who were not alive in the ‘70s may suddenly find themselves wishing they could travel through time just to see whatever it was that inspired Licata to create such a performance. Although after Licata, it will surely fail to live up to expectations.

Each one of Licata’s magic routines is perfectly themed and placed in the story that he tells about his life and his family. The card tricks in particular are exceptionally fun to watch, whether themed on the more standard topic of a family member’s skill at poker, or the ridiculously entertaining presentation of a card trick to illustrate a story about a serial killer. Many magicians joke that for those who aren’t particularly fans of card magic card tricks can be boring to watch, but that will not cross the mind of anyone in Licata’s audience. The card tricks may not have necessarily gone to plan at the reviewed show, although Licata integrates the perceived missteps so readily that it’s difficult to tell if they were genuine errors or dramatic flourishes to underscore the points of his stories—a true sign of a great magician.

The participation in Close-Up and Personal is  mostly volunteer with a bit of random selection. The more involved participation is done by the volunteers, or those selected by a random choice game with easy moments to opt out for those who prefer it. Licata is kind to his participants, even pouring a couple of them drinks. In a close up venue and with Licata’s friendly presence, participation in his show feels more like joining in a fun game than being put on the spot in front of strangers.

Close-Up and Personal is one of the cozier magic Fringe shows, and not just because of the close up venue. Licata may at times bring up murder and organized crime, but the energy of the show is too soft and fun for any of these themes to feel threatening. It’s the Fringe equivalent of curling up with a mug of hot chocolate and a mystery novel, the perfect nightcap of a show before bed.

More information on Close-Up and Personal and its performance dates can be found here.

DAN BASTIANELLI: DECEPTION

☆☆☆☆

Dan Bastianelli is a popular guy. At the reviewed evening of Deception his partner and a crowd of his friends attended to support him. They were the most useful type of hecklers. In the opening moments of the show they helped Bastianelli warm up the audience with their exaggerated reactions, and then all quieted down once he got in to the main body of the performance. They deserve more stars than a review site can give them for their exemplary show of support. However, it’s clear that Bastianelli doesn’t need them there every evening, as his perfectly performed magic and nicely structured show speak for themselves.

With an intentionally intimate venue, Bastianelli’s focus is on close up magic. The audience is indeed very close, leaving no room for error. Luckily Bastianelli is a very skilled performer and doesn’t make any errors, or at least none that are visible from about four feet away. Bastianelli performs a variety of magic but the card tricks in particular are all highlights. For fans of card magic, the physical element of the shuffles and findings can be very beautiful, and Bastianelli adds additional elements of physical beauty with card folding and a secret surprise at the very end of the show that is very pretty and very difficult to describe without spoiling it entirely, but it worth looking forward to.

At a close up magic show with an audience that is small by necessity, the audience must go in assuming that the majority of them will end up participating in one form or another. In Deception most of the participation is fairly laid back and achieved from the participants’ seats. Bastianelli comes across as friendly, perhaps an impression augmented at the reviewed show by the presence of several of his friends, and even for the few who stand in the stage area it feels like a relaxed kind of show.

Deception is framed by its butterfly theme, as hinted by the posters. Bastianelli uses this effectively to aid in the description of card tricks and in very pretty non-magic effects performed solely for the audience to enjoy his beautiful props. Other minor motifs run through the show as well, giving Bastianelli extra scaffolding for his effects and narrative. The structure is as admirably precise as the magic, allowing the separate effects to flow together in a way that feels natural.

Bastianelli makes it clear in his advertising that Deception is a close up magic show, and hopefully his audiences are self selecting for those who enjoy these kinds of physically smaller effects. For fans of close up magic this will be the perfect Fringe show to see.

More information on Deception and its performance dates can be found here.

TOM BOLTON: GROW UP MAGIC MAN

☆☆☆☆

It would help many people to learn the balance of how much to grow up to function in adult society without losing the joy associated with childhood. Magicians may not have all the answers, but in Grow Up Magic Man, Tom Bolton uses his childhood experiences of magic to try to reintroduce a little bit more of that joy to the adults in his audience, and keep the spark alive for a little bit longer in the children.

Grow Up Magic Man is a family friendly show, and Bolton places an emphasis on inviting the children in his audience to get involved. The shyer children are invited to get involved from their seats while the ones who are visibly excited to join Bolton onstage—even clambering over the seats in a theatre that was clearly not build for magicians—are given roles that are easy to follow and often allow them to be the stars of the routine. One of the most excited children is invited up for the Rubik’s cube trick, which sees the magic happen right in the participant’s hands. The finale trick is exceptional, giving one young participant an experience to remember, and providing a highly visual end to the show.

The way that Bolton presents his magic tends to be fairly sweet, and one of the sweetest is an effect in which he emphasizes the bond between one of the parent-child pairings in the audience. This is a particular effect that is often performed in a way that the participants themselves can’t fully appreciate, which always feels like a shame as they’re the ones putting themselves on display for the rest of the audience to gawk at. Bolton has found a way to remedy this flaw without undercutting the magic of the trick. It takes a little bit more of his stage time, but demonstrates Bolton’s commitment to offering the whole of his audience a magical experience.

A Fringe newcomer, Bolton has not yet built up his Edinburgh fanbase. If the audience of the reviewed show is an indication, Grow Up Magic Man is currently highly under-appreciated. Families with teenage and preteen children may be a particularly good audience for this show, but it has something for everyone. Grown up magic fans will also appreciate the perfect magic and fun story, and maybe even find a renewed belief in magic.

More information on Grow Up Magic Man and its performance dates can be found here.

SEAN ALEXANDER: 1 MOMENT IN TIME

☆☆☆☆

From big moments, to small moments, to the precise moment of the performance, 1 Moment in Time is, of course, about time. As themed magic goes, Sean Alexander has committed 100% to his bit. Every single trick, story, and moment in the show is perfectly, precisely on theme. The effect is powerful. Even if some of the coincidences that Alexander finds in the show feel like a bit of a stretch, this is still on theme—the magic is there, but you have to look for it. It might not be a unique theme for a magic show but it’s beautifully illustrated over the course of the hour.

Artistic beauty is in fact the first impression that the audience gets as they enter Alexander’s theatre. (That, and the unusually comfortable seats for a Fringe venue.) Alexander has set up his stage with a selection of paper cut artwork depicting famous impactful moments in time. These are available for the audience to approach and admire as they find their seats. The paper cuttings become a minor motif as well, and the ones featured at the start go on to be involved in something bigger.

Each piece of magic is similarly performed with precision. If there is one hiccup due to a stranger not obliging with their time Alexander pushes through professionally to achieve his reveal. An early indication of his skill is a take on a card trick that is both excellently performed and uniquely suited to the show. One data point is not as compelling a coincidence when a magician can create a total overlap of apparently random chance.

At the reviewed show Alexander ends up working primarily with one member of the audience over the course of several effects—a perfect coincidence, he assured the audience, just like everything else in his show. The primary participant seemed comfortable in Alexander’s presence. With so many tricks that all go perfectly, it is difficult to imagine anything going wrong in joining him onstage.

Perhaps due to the life events that Alexander reveals during the show, he places a high value on time, including that which the audience spends with him, and every moment of every visual and magical effect in 1 Moment in Time is in service of the theme of his show. It does, at times, feel like a masterclass in how to write and perform a themed magic show. If the theme is not unique his telling of it is—everyone has a unique story, and Alexander has mastered the ability of telling his in a way that is beautiful and universal.

More information on 1 Moment in Time and its performance dates can be found here.

KEVIN QUANTUM: ANTI-GRAVITY

☆☆☆☆

One of Kevin Quantum’s most frequently used pull quotes is that he’s “like a sexy Doctor Who”, which takes a lot of pressure off anyone else who writes a review of his shows. No one could possibly top that (although one must ask, is Doctor Who not a sexy Doctor Who?) Opinions of his looks aside, the Doctor Who comparison is fitting, especially with this year‘s show Anti-Gravity. The lightly educational and plentifully magical show is reminiscent of classic Who-niverse creations, which balanced child friendly history and science with science fiction to make learning fun for its target audience of young viewers. Although in Quantum’s case, the mixing is science with magic.

It will come as no surprise that Anti-Gravity has a focus on levitations in all their forms, it is after all an accurately titled show. Quantum comes out for a pre-show segment that perfectly encapsulates the scientific and magical themes of the show, with demonstrations of Bernoulli’s principle using both science and magic. The levitations build in scale until a final trick that is both completely expected given the theme of the show and also something of a surprise simply as it’s not a type of magic that is often performed.

With Anti-Gravity, Quantum is not just looking to inspire future magicians in his audience, but future creators of all types. Over the course of the show Quantum demonstrates how close an unexplained science experiment feels to magic, blurring the lines between what is currently possible and not yet discovered or invented. It’s the kind of inspirational message best delivered by a hybrid scientist-magician.

There’s a mix of audience types and ages at Quantum’s show that reflects the universality of his appeal. There are plenty of families with young children, but also lots of childless adult couples and adult group attendants. While the inspiring message may land best with the youngsters, the unusual magic performed will be appreciated by all, even the most seasoned magic fans.

More information about Anti-Gravity and its performances can be found here.