PADDY THE IRISHMAN: HOW LUCKY CAN ONE MAN GET

☆☆☆

Paddy the Irishman is a frequent flyer at the Edinburgh Fringe, and in his new show How Lucky Can One Man Get, he tells the story of his eventful life interspersed with jokes, magic, and music. He caters to the family friendly crowd with his early morning time slot, at the reviewed show there were several families with preteen and teenage children. Paddy has had an interesting life so far, and in his company the time flies by.

There are relatively few magic tricks in the show, but those that are there are performed well. Paddy tells the audience about his childhood in Northern Ireland, and includes a magic trick that saved him from the army early in the show. For the younger folks he also demonstrates a common street scam, which at the reviewed show sparked a particular interest in the young volunteers he chose to help him demonstrate it. The participants could be heard discussing theories and phrases to further research the effect as they were leaving the show. Even if they do not end up inspired to become magicians themselves, learning how their attention can be so easily manipulated is a great lesson for young people today.

Not every story is accompanied by a trick, but that’s not detrimental to the show. Paddy has had many adventures in his life that are a pleasure to hear about. For audience members who have been lucky enough to have grown up in peaceful times, hearing about his youthful encounters with military forces is fascinating to hear about. Paddy’s casual attitude in recounting these episodes is interesting to note. He has also travelled widely and lived in several countries, each of which is described in turn. The songs that Paddy sings are related to his stories as well, but really just an excuse for him to show off that he recently learned to play guitar. This is inspiring in its own way. As Paddy points out, he’s lived a longer life so far than many of the people he gets in his audiences, and demonstrates his continued love of learning and adventuring in part to show us that we can age as gracefully.

How Lucky Can One Man Get is essentially a one man, one show full Fringe. He’s got the magic, comedy, and music all in one hour long performance—going to this show is like a speed run of the Fringe experience.

CHRIS CROSS: NOT PLAYING WITH A FULL DECK

☆☆☆

Sometimes performers come to the Fringe with their sharply honed, beautifully produced masterpiece show that fully encapsulates the extent of their creative abilities. Other times, they’re just here for the party and a laugh, and invite the occasional audience to join in. With his performance of Not Playing with a Full Deck, Chris Cross feels squarely in that second category. And for what it is, it’s a good performance. Cross is in his element onstage, with jokes and magic with a blend of varying quality that feels perfectly balanced by years of experience in keeping people entertained.

Flyers for the show warn that it’s “not for the easily offended”, which may sound worrying at first, but Cross’s bark proves worse than his bite. His crowd work may feel more like a comedian’s than a magician’s, but his prodding remains gentle enough for the audience to still like him. If he does make the occasional marginally offensive joke, it feels almost like a tick box exercise; like the weird uncle at Christmas dinner who sticks his finger in the pudding not because he wants to taste it but just because he likes the idea of fulfilling the archetype of the family’s weird uncle. Perhaps this is a sign that the audience of the reviewed show was indeed the “not easily offended” that the flyer requested.

Cross has demonstrably significant experience as a magician and in Not Playing with a Full Deck it definitely shows. Card trick fans may even just appreciate the fancy shuffles and card choreography that he employs during the requisite card trick sequence of the show. The card tricks themselves are a highlight as well. Every magician who has ever performed a card trick has, at some point, claimed that the trick they perform is the Best Card Trick Ever. Cross is no different, and he puts forward a strong contender for that title. At the reviewed show Cross performed several tricks with a card deck he borrowed from a member of the audience, which provided a lovely little moment of unplanned audience participation. Cross’s stunt work is equally perfectly performed, timed down to the second for maximum effect.

As evidenced by the highlight reel that Cross plays before the show, and indeed by the archives of this publication, Cross is a highly skilled magician perfectly capable of performing an excellent five star show. He may not have chosen that route this year, but his fun mess-around show is still well worth the ticket price and hour of the audience’s time. If at times it feels like he is conducting a group interview for post-performance drinking buddies, who can blame him? The world is burning and we could all use a laugh, a trick, and a drink.

More information on Not Playing With A Full Deck and its performance dates can be found here.

LEWIS FULLER: UNGENTLEMANLY CONDUCT

☆☆☆☆

There are many ways to surprise a magic fan at the Edinburgh Fringe, and in Ungentlemanly Conduct Lewis Fuller found a new one: the unexpected singalong. The show is a patchwork of live magic and stunts, largely pre-filmed storytelling, and, of course, not just one but several opportunities for the audience to join Fuller in singing popular songs. It’s not the show any member of the audience would expect, even after studying the flyer, but if they’re willing to go along for the crazy ride they’re in for a treat of an hour.

Ungentlemanly Conduct is categorized as a magic show, and in amongst the many other features Fuller does in fact perform several magic tricks and feats, themed to accompany the story that he tells himself and via video. A fun themed effect sees Fuller perform a classic card trick, using credit and debit cards rather than playing cards. The participant involved has no need to sign or otherwise mark their card to personalize it for this effect. Fuller’s flattering, energetic stage presence makes the participants feel comfortable on stage through effects that pose threat to their money and their bodies, a true testament to his personable nature as a performer.

The plot line that weaves the show together combines a fairly standard story of a young magician dreaming of performing at the Edinburgh Fringe with an altogether weirder tale, loosely inspired by a recent Netflix show but with plot elements and twists that make it a fun new experience. Fuller seamlessly weaves the pre-filmed segments of the show with his onstage storytelling, stunts, and tricks. Over the course of the show the plot lines come together to provide this framework for his effects.

No performance is flawless, and at the reviewed show Fuller had to deal with the biggest wild card in a magic show, the overenthusiastic audience member. Fuller successfully managed and contained his enthusiasm by involving him in an effect, giving him the portion of the spotlight that he clearly craved without allowing him to overtake Fuller’s own performance.

Ungentlemanly Conduct is about as far from a traditional magic show as is readily available, which makes it a welcome entry in the fringe magic lineup. The sheer variety of performance genres involved may make it a little more difficult for Fuller to acquire a target audience that will truly appreciate him, but for that audience he’ll be exactly what they didn’t realize they were searching for. 

More information about Ungentlemanly Conduct and its performances can be found here.

DIARY OF A MAGICIAN

☆☆☆☆

Diary of a Magician is marketed as a family friendly show, and for good reason. Even before the titular magician Mu-Syuan Chang steps onstage the show’s support staff are on hand to make family units feel welcome, ushering children to the front row and making space for parents to accompany those too young to sit alone. While missing even a second of this performance is not recommended, children who enter the show slightly late are still made to feel welcome, with staff adding chairs to the front row so quickly and unobtrusively that it’s almost as magical as the act onstage.

Chang is equally welcoming of his young fans, making a point to interact with them to their comfort levels and at one point making his way along the front row to ensure that each child gets a special magical experience. Shorter adults may also appreciate this approach, as it’s easier to see over children’s heads than those of their parents. Like the seating choice, Diary of a Magician itself is appealing to all age groups, with highly visual effects that capture and keep children’s attention as well as theatre and artistry that keeps everyone in the audience wanting more.

The magic is themed on classical poetry, and the lines appear as a pre-caption ahead of each section. Each dreamscape style diary entry is beautifully brought to life by Chang’s magic. Magic regulars may recognize the basic structure of the effects that Chang employs, but they are rarely seen performed with such specific artistic sensibilities that are more reminiscent of the movements of a dancer or acrobat. A particular early highlight is an especially beautiful scene involving a light and a wooden staff that Chang uses to bring a starscape into the room, earning gasps from the youngsters and applause from their adults.

Chang’s excellent staging and lighting choices deserve a mention as well. Simple props turn the stage in turn into such varied locales as the night sky, a train station, and a field of flowers. Chang’s metal hoops routine is an especially strong use of lighting, with the multicolored lights making the hoops look like they’re lighting up as well, enhancing the artistry of this scene.

Magic is known for its heavy use of audience participation, but aside from getting the front row involved briefly from their seats, Diary of a Magician does not use audience participants, with Chang alone in his dreamscapes creating the magic entirely in his own hands. The audience does not feel this as a loss—in fact may only realize that this was the case on reflection after the show—and indeed for some it may be a huge plus. Whether due to youth, shyness, or social anxiety, those who have been put off witnessing a live magic show because of a fear of needing to go onstage can safely enjoy the magic of Diary of a Magician.

With such broad appeal to all ages and all types of audience members, it’s no surprise that even on the sunny weekend day that Diary of a Magician was reviewed it filled out the theatre. After the show children could be heard begging their parents to let them take a picture with Chang on the way out, and was he obligingly just outside the door to fulfill requests. Chang’s physically inventive style of magic is a welcome addition to the Edinburgh Fringe scene.

SURREAL: THE MIND-READING SHOW FROM BERLIN!

☆☆☆☆

Stepping in to Surreal: The Mind-Reading Show from Berlin! feels like stepping back in time.  We visit the era of mentalism presented as the junction of the scientific and the spiritual, embodied in a mythical, magical woman. Psychic Vivian and her partner in performance Roman Maria von Thurau take turns playing the role of the mentalist and the assistant. Decorative and magical in turn, their mentalism demonstrations are equal parts impressive and beautiful.

An early sequence sets the scene for the style of the show. Vivian is blindfolded on stage while Roman requests that members of the audience hold out objects for her to describe without seeing. Vivian successfully describes a varied range of such random objects, interspersed with a variety of fun facts that are so perfectly timed and perfectly amusing that the audience almost doesn’t care if they are genuinely true.

Roman, the mathematician of the pair, follows up with a pi-based routine that blends classic calculator based mentalism with what he describes as a pandemic boredom-induced knowledge of the digits of pi. Few performers can make a recitation of a random selection of the digits of pi fun to watch, but Roman manages it, with a final revelation that the audience won’t see coming.

The third star of Surreal is the beautifully realized animations interspersed amongst the magic, which were hand drawn by Vivian in preparation. Vivian accompanies her artwork with autobiographical self-mythologizing stories from hers and Roman’s life. It’s impossible to choose which is the highlight of the show, the artwork or the magic, and the audience is lucky to be treated to both.

At the reviewed show, Surreal was briefly interrupted by several small technical issues. Such are often the pitfalls of a review relatively early in the run. Vivian and Roman dealt with these with steadfast professionalism—future audiences can be confident that they will witness a beautiful show regardless of any such issues. Their vintage throwback style suited it; after all technology is known to behave erratically in the presence of psychic powers such as Vivian’s. The magic goes much more smoothly than the technology.

With its central location, post-workday time slot, and of course beautifully performed mentalism, Surreal will undoubtedly prove to be a hit this Fringe. Vivian and Roman’s vintage presentation of mentalist classics sets them apart from the crowd of magicians at this year’s festival. If Vivian and Roman are not ageless immortals who entertained eighteenth century nobility with their timeless performance style, the lineage from historic performances to theirs is especially clear to see, and renews magic fans’ appreciation for the heritage of magic as an art form. Fans of mentalism in its contemporary iteration in particular will be delighted by this stylish throwback.

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

LIZ TOONKEL: MAGIC FOR ANIMALS

☆☆☆☆

The Fringe can get pretty hectic, with shows that don’t even start until the wee hours of the morning. Many such shows are completely dead on weekday nights. The fact that Liz Toonkel could pull a whole first row at her nearly-midnight time slot on a weekday is an impressive testament to the reputation that she’s built for Magic for Animals in the brief time that’s she’s had in Edinburgh so far.

Magic for Animals is deliberately onion-like in its construction. There is little time to think that it’s going to be a standard, classic magic show. Toonkel struts out in her instantly iconic outfit and briefly plays that role, but soon makes her way to what she’s really here to talk about: animal rights (it would be a shame to reveal too much in a review beyond that). There’s a lot in the show for vegans and vegetarians in the audience to love. A highlight of Toonkel’s animal rights themed magic, and in fact one of the effects that gets at the heart of the show is her take on the kind of sleights usually seen in coin tricks but using pearls, and performed in conjunction with a discussion of the abusive nature of pearl farms.

But the true highlight of Magic for Animals is less the trickery and more the perfect, beautiful construction of the show itself. It does touch on serious themes, beyond animal rights, but Toonkel leads the audience to where she wants them to go gently, using a reassuring succession of magic tricks to wind her way to the central thesis point of her performance.  Each trick and story gradually and gracefully leads her to her point, with the structure of the show functioning as the pearl shielding both audience and performer from what’s at its heart.

At the reviewed show, Toonkel played to an audience that was impressive for a weekday, but it was nevertheless an intimate performance. The close scrutiny perhaps didn’t do her magic any favors, some of the mechanics of her effects felt a little clumsy. This didn’t really affect the overall impression of the show. There’s so much more than magic going on, that while the tricks are used illustratively or connectively the magic itself isn’t the point. It wasn’t every trick, there were several great reveals that felt smoothly done.

Vegetarian or vegan feminists who love sequins may be the most obvious target audience, but Magic for Animals has a wide appeal. The way that Toonkel uses magic to tell her story is genuinely beautiful and interesting, the magic feels entirely, consistently in service of the story—magicians and magic fans might especially appreciate this.

YOLLIN LEE AND DAAN HO: COLLAGE

☆☆☆☆

Fringe newcomers Yollin Lee and Daan Ho present a beautiful array of magic tricks in their debut Fringe show, Collage. While the tricks that Lee and Ho perform might not be fundamentally unfamiliar to their audience, there’s a real emphasis on presenting the magic in an aesthetically appealing manner, which is very effective. From the opening sequence of sleights performed in a specially lit picture frame, to a paper-cutting reveal to a mentalism effect, magic has rarely looked so gorgeous. And in a Fringe year with several examples of this effect, Lee presents an exceptionally wonderous interpretation of the classic interlocking rings.

The other appeal, which if it is not unique is definitely at least incredibly unusual, is a specific stunt that Ho performs. Magicians often intersperse their proper magic with scary, dangerous stunts, but, without giving too much away, this one is definitely a huge change from the usual spikes or knives that magic fans are used to. It’s a memorable moment for just how weird it is, in the best possible way. Ho is evidentially well practiced at performing this, it goes off without a hitch.

Lee and Ho generally have a good rapport with the audience, inviting the odd individual up to generate prompts and witness the magic up close. However, a story themed on them trying to pick up women in bars using magic felt a little off. Luckily for them the participant they chose played along, but seeing two men laugh about using trickery to hassle a woman they pulled up from their audience into kissing them didn’t come across well. In a way it was the perfect misstep for their show—Collage is themed on how each one of us sees the world a bit differently, and as men they may not have had the experiences that might make that sequence a bit uncomfortable for the women watching them. A slight change in the way this is presented could easily turn it from an uncomfortable moment into a thematically appropriate acknowledgment of the limits of their own perspectives. However, aside from landing unfortunately close to the finale, this did not cancel out the wonder of all the rest of the show.

Between the beautiful magic and delightfully bizarre stunt work, Collage is well worth a visit. Lee and Ho are charming performers who will hopefully make Edinburgh a regular stop on their touring circuit.

SIEGFRIED AND JOY: LAS VEGAS IN EDINBURGH

☆☆☆☆

Siegfried and Joy make a strong impression from the moment they step out on their Las Vegas in Edinburgh stage. Wearing instantly iconic outfits of gold suits, silver shoes, and purple velvet shirts and accessorized with star-shaped sunglasses, they dance around their stage performing bits of classic magic. Luckily the outfits compliment the magic rather than overshadow it. Like their classic outfits jazzed up with more glitter than any other magic act this Fringe, they take classic magic and jazz it up, lending the tricks their sparkling personality and making for an incredibly fun show.

Siegfried and Joy are equally instantly noticeable for the great relationship they build with the audience. Siegfried greets every audience member with a high five as they enter the venue, sizing them up and welcoming them in straight from the outset. At the reviewed show they also dealt well with audience interruptions during their set. One man in their front row had to step out midway through, and while they playfully hassled him on his way out, they also welcomed him on his return. They also faced a brief heckling from an excited child in the front row, and responded to it by first making him laugh in the moment and, later on, giving him a co-starring role in their finale that he was enthusiastic to partake in. Toward the end of the show, they did come across as mildly bullying a woman who didn’t seem to want to come onstage, but when they did pull her up she appeared to be having fun with them. That moment aside, they were perfect models of how gracefully to deal with the vagaries of a live audience.

They performed some excellent magic as well. From the very start, when Siegfried licks his scissors before dramatically cutting Joy’s rope, they perform with their perfectly, hilariously ridiculous Vegas-inspired style. They’re really a three-person operation, and the occasional appearance of a young woman throughout the show is a genuinely funny and respectful take on the “female assistant” trope. A highlight is their bottles and glasses effect, which is well performed by all of them—although they may look to take more care when removing these props after this section, to avoid breaking the illusion. In a strong effect featuring just Siegfried, Joy, and an audience participant, they perform a card finding effect that many magic fans will have seen before, but with an added wetness element that only serves to make the final reveal more impressive. A lot of the stage time is taken up with magic themed humor, with tricks designed to flash, but when they get down to it they also have some genuinely fantastic reveals.

The real highlight of the show is the perfect intersection of stage chemistry and showmanship that is evident in every step that Siegfried and Joy take onstage. They spin each other regularly, often start a new trick by rubbing noses, and create an amazing, excited atmosphere over the course of the hour.

MAGICAL BONES: SOULFUL MAGIC VOLUME II

☆☆☆☆

Ever a popular one, Magical Bones’s shortened run for his new Fringe show has resulted in reliably busy showtimes. Soulful Magic Volume II may feel less polished than his previous year’s show, but it has all the trademark tricks (magic and otherwise) that make Bones worth a watch.

 A key feature that sets Bones apart is his breakdance background, and his dance skills rival even his impressive magic skills. In addition, showmanship doesn’t get much better than Bones moonwalking his way through a card selection, breakdancing to warm up for a Rubik’s cube solve, and doing a backflip to find a chosen card.

Bones also tends to use his Fringe shows to shed light on Black history. This year he highlights Ellen Armstrong, the first female black magician to tour her own show in the United States. He performs a themed effect to make Armstrong memorable in the minds of his audience. While the Fringe magic scene is still largely white it’s slowly but surely diversifying, no doubt at least in part to the success of Bones himself, who has always allowed his heritage to enrich his performances.

Soulful Magic II drew a large audience, and Bones gets a large number of them involved in the magic. An early mind reading card effect gets a whopping nine audience members involved, from the comfort of their seats. The audience establish their willingness to lie for him from this starting point, but he doesn’t let them get away with it—they don’t have to pretend to be impressed when he gets going. In the performance reviewed, the most trusting participant joins Bones for his dangerous bag trick, but while she proves willing to put herself in danger for him ultimately no audience members are harmed in this show.

An eternal highlight of Bones’s performances is a card finding effect performed to a bespoke hip hop soundtrack. No other magician imbues a standard deck with so much character and even cheekiness. Even if somehow nothing else about his performance appeals, he’s worth seeing for this effect alone.

With a very limited run by Fringe standards, Soulful Magic Volume II is well worth a ticket. It’s the less formal Bones, making friends with the audience, hanging out before his big UK tour, and showing off some of the cool things he can do.

ARRON JONES: ROCKSTAR MAGIC

☆☆☆☆

For Arron Jones’s second Fringe, he continues his trend of performing magic shows that no one would think to ask for in his new show Rockstar Magic. Here Jones, true to title, performs magic like a rockstar. There’s lots of music, plenty of card tricks, and even more hip thrusts than anticipated. Jones is the magician to go to when you think you’ve seen it all.

The show is perfectly themed in rockstar style magic. If there are digressions, they’re well reasoned enough to feel like they fit in, and engaging enough that no one in the audience is thinking too hard about it. Jones chats to his roadie Al throughout the performance, a helpful presence who assists with props and audience management, and generally adds a pleasant extra presence to the show.

The magic is well themed and all goes to plan. A highlight that the participants all seem to especially get into is an instructional section on how to smuggle drugs through an airport. While no concrete lessons are learned, probably for the best in case there are any airport staff in the audience, Jones displays his mind reading skills to perfection. Jones ends the show as both a rockstar and a magician, with an incredible keytar performance and a final reveal to send the audience on their way.

With such a specific theme, Jones draws an enthusiastic audience who instantly engage with his character. While his trainee drug smugglers were particularly keen, everyone brought onstage at the reviewed show seemed delighted to be in closer proximity to Jones, and played along with all the tasks and activities he assigned them. Jones reacted perfectly to interruptions as well, claiming responsibility for breaking a stray glass with his mind without skipping a beat.

Jones may be developing his trend of performing magic shows that no one would think to ask for, but by the end of one of his shows the audience will be convinced that it’s exactly what they always wanted. He’s fully committed to the bit every step of the way with this high energy performance. Those feeling that late afternoon slump will leave Rockstar Magic feeling energetic enough to take on the world.  Ladies, gentlemen, and everyone in between, bring your spare underpants to toss on the stage.  Just try not to faint when he walks through the audience.