Edinburgh

SAM KING: TRICKS & STUFF

☆☆☆☆

As a new performer to the Edinburgh Fringe and tucked away in a beautiful new PBH venue, Sam King might struggle slightly to attract a crowd on a sunny Thursday early evening for Tricks & Stuff. The people who do turn up quickly discover that it’s everyone else’s loss for missing it. One of the nice elements of the Fringe is that you might see a show and think, “surely that’s the weirdest thing here”, only to see something else that’s even stranger the next day. It’s difficult to imagine what could be weirder than Tricks & Stuff.

Without spoiling the strange surprises that King reveals throughout his show, it’s worth noting that the “& Stuff” in the title is doing a lot of heavy lifting. Sure, there are tricks, but they are primarily in service of the one-man play that King has concocted for his act. Those who saw the top hat on the flyer and expected a standard magic show may be disappointed. However, those who are willing to strap in for the ride get treated to a delightfully absurd experience. It’s appropriate for a magic show that the publicity and the actual show feels like a bit of a bait-and-switch: that’s just the first trick.

Depending on the size of the audience, most people may be called upon to take part in the show. On days with lighter numbers, some audience members may be called upon a few times. King is self-aware in his absurdity, while he himself says and does a lot of things that may be unexpected for a magician, everything he asks of his audience is expected and easily explained. At the reviewed show King even managed to get one of his younger audience members involved in an age-appropriate way, even though his show is really more designed for older children and adults.

The magic itself is all performed well. At the reviewed show King even performed an effect without the initial prop, which actually worked for him given the absurdist nature of his act. His take on a mentalist card trick is particularly fun. Plenty of magicians use their mouths for a varied reveal, but none the same way as King. This is well themed and placed toward the start of the show to gently indicate to the audience that it’s about to get a whole lot weirder shortly after.

The absurd humor and odd energy of King’s Tricks & Stuff make it an excellent addition to this year’s Fringe. While the plot elements may be very slightly confusing to follow, even allowing for the occasional interruption of the reviewed show, it still works because King knows he’s doing an absurdist show and makes sure the audience knows that he knows. King certainly has a creative approach to performing magic and is worth the time to watch.

CHARLIE CAPER: MAGICAL

☆☆☆☆☆

Ever the street performer, Charlie Caper knows how to get his audience hooked quickly. At the reviewed show of his street magic spectacular Magical, Caper was repeatedly interrupted by a Furby he’d brought along from his other show as a flyering aid. Caught without a screwdriver, he proceeded to hack in to the Furby on his computer to get it to stop talking. While that didn’t end up being the most impressive part of the show, it was an incredible first impression, getting the audience on his side pretty much instantly.

Caper’s street magic skills are unmatched. He even performs coin magic with a very large coin for good visibility, making sure that the whole audience can see the effect. While street performance audiences might wander away halfway through, that’s slightly more difficult from the basement of an Edinburgh venue, and Caper structures his show with build and motifs to reward the audience for their fidelity. His bowtie is a perfect example. It might disappear and reappear at random moments—even those who have seen Caper before and therefore expect this running gag may struggle to spot it going—and Caper makes sure to include miniature bowties on various props.

Audience participation is always a chaos factor, and magicians often get the best and the worst of it. Caper was lucky at the reviewed show to get an adorable young boy as a participant for his cup and balls routine. The magician-participant relationship started strong, with Caper jokingly suggesting a few obvious misdirection tactics, and the participant yelling cheerfully for the whole audience to hear, “you can’t trick me!” Naturally Caper proceeded to blow his tiny mind, and the minds of a good few older members of the audience along with it. The participant’s full-body expressions of amazement were visible from the back of the large room.

No Caper show would feel complete without at least one robot. The Magical audience is treated to several, including getting a glimpse of a larger one that features prominently in his other show. Caper has produced many robots over the years, and the audience is treated to a routine from a returning favorite, Caper’s mini-me who performs magic with him. Caper’s little assistant is always a highlight.

Magical is both a perfect exemplar of street magic and a wholesome treatise on living life more magically. Caper closes on an inspiring note, encouraging the audience to romanticize life even when it doesn’t perfectly resemble a fairy tale. Caper’s Magical is a reset and reminder of exactly how good magic can be in the right hands.

DAVID ALNWICK: OBJECTIVELY THE BEST MAGICIAN

☆☆☆☆☆

Ask David Alnwick to describe himself, and for at least this Fringe he’ll say Objectively the Best Magician. “What can’t I do”, he exclaims after a particularly impressive (to himself) trick. The ego may in fact be justified. The trick is also genuinely impressive to people who aren’t Alnwick. Alnwick doesn’t try to convince the audience that he is Objectively the Best Magician, he knows who he is and inhabits that role completely, delivering a perfectly scripted, plotted, and performed comedy magic show.

The overwhelming impression that the audience gets from Objectively the Best Magician, aside from the magic, is the energy. Alnwick works hard with his three daily Fringe shows plus a roaming secret show, but the audience can’t tell from the high energy he exudes in this first one of the afternoon. That’s what the audience talks about as they leave the show. It’s not because the magic is underwhelming in any way—it’s perfect, but Edinburgh audiences have come to expect that—it’s that this Fringe veteran on his 15th year has perfected the vibe of his show to such an extent.

Alnwick does of course back up his reputation with perfectly performed magic. His card magic is always a highlight. Alnwick loses and finds several audience cards in increasingly impressive ways, showing off his fancy shuffling skills along the way. He also demonstrates a textbook mentalist escalation series of effects over the course of the show, culminating in a visually exciting reveal that proves his absolute mastery over everything that happens in his show.

A kind performer, Alnwick uses plenty of audience participants and treats them well. He’ll only make a slight bit of fun of his participants if they deserve it. At the reviewed show, a mid-show participant was slightly reluctant to take part, but was egged on and teased by her friends. Alnwick made a point to get said friends involved later in the show, not for anything extensive but for enough that the initial participant got back at them.  If his participants are kind to him, Alnwick will have their back. 

Whether or not Alnwick is truly Objectively the Best Magician is for every magic fan to decide for themselves. But he’s certainly a Fringe institution, particularly for his iconic brand of high energy comedy magic. Anyone who would seek to challenge his claim had better check out this show first.

CAMPBELL GLAZIER: TRICKSTER

☆☆☆☆

With a mid-evening time slot at a slightly less well known venue, a weekday performance of Campbell Glazier’s Trickster can be a fairly intimate experience. Such things happen at the busy Fringe. Luckily, Glazier is a skilled performer, and the audience size feels deliberate. Those who attend get the impression that Glazier would always make the audience size feel deliberate, whether it was just one person or hundreds.

Trickster focuses on card magic. There are interludes into a few other types to mix things up, but card magic seems to be Glazier’s specialty. It’s certainly very slick. Helpfully for those who go to magic shows to try to catch out the magician, the audience sits around Glazier’s table right up close to the action. Glazier even explains the tricks if the audience wants to learn how to do them. Less helpfully for those trying to catch him out, Glazier is very good at his job, and successfully hides his methods right up until he chooses whether or not to reveal them. A highlight is a series of card finding tricks that conclude in a dramatic shower of playing cards. The messy conclusion is worth it for the impressive result.

Glazier is notable for including a live rabbit in his show. It’s a fun play on the magician’s assistant trope without veering into animal cruelty. The rabbit is hilarious and Glazier’s interactions with it and an extra element of humor and charm to the show.

In such a small setting, audience participation is both especially inescapable and especially chill. Glazier makes his way around the audience a couple of times to select cards and complete other tasks to help him show off his tricks. He is notable for his excellent rapport with everyone in his audience. It’s worth noting that at the reviewed show at least one member of the audience was a friend of his, but your reviewer can confirm that at least one was not, and Glazier had an easy, natural charm with all.

It’s rare to get such a close up experience of card magic at the Fringe, especially at a PBH venue. Finding Trickster feels like finding a hidden gem. Glazier manages to make card magic exceptionally funny, this may just be the most you laugh in a card magic show. It’s perfectly timed and placed for Leith-based commuters to stop in on their way home for a laugh and some wonder. Trickster is well worth the time.

TIM LICATA: ABSOLUTELY MAGIC!

☆☆☆

Edinburgh regular Tim Licata can most often be found at his weekly engagement at The Joker and the Thief on Leith Walk. However, for the duration of the Fringe he is also more centrally located to put on a proper magic show, Absolutely Magic! right on Picardy Place. This is a fun range of magic and mentalism effects, from a fun and upbeat magician.

The magic may be recognizable but Licata’s performance of it is excellent. Even a fairly basic and well known effect like a rope trick is extra fun to watch in his hands. Licata excels and telling little stories as he performs, creating a narrative to enhance the physical magic that the audience watches him create. There’s a drama to the physicality of his performance as well—the rope trick may be a classic but rarely does a magician grapple with such a long length for the sake of this effect, Licata’s rope choreography elevates the trick.

At the reviewed show on a sunny midweek early evening, Licata still managed to pull in a large audience. A beloved local, his fanbase is evidently out in force to support and enjoy his Fringe run. It was a great ratio of audience for it to feel like Licata got a decent proportion involved while still allowing for shyer audience members to hide in the middles of the rows and backs of the audience if they so desired. That being said, participation was unintimidating and easy to undertake. One particular audience member was visibly keen to help out, and Licata made sure to let her have her desired moment in the spotlight.

Whereas Licata’s previous show leaned more heavily into storytelling, with magic designed to illustrate his story, this year’s is more formless. The theme is Licata performing great magic and creating a fun experience for his audience. It’s a great chance to see him perform longer-form pieces that might not suit the table magic that his fans are used to seeing him perform.

With a comfy venue and great energy, Absolutely Magic! is absolutely worth a visit. Licata consistently makes his audience laugh and gasp in almost equal measure. It’s impossible not to have a good time when Licata is performing.

CAVAN BOOTH: THE HONEST MAGICIAN

☆☆

For a career field of professional liars, magicians are not great at keeping secrets. Revealing bits of magic to make bigger reveals more impressive is a staple of the genre. Cavan Booth has even brought an entire show to the Fringe with the theme of revealing magical secrets, The Honest Magician. Booth’s emphasis on this one type of quasi-honest reveal makes for an interesting premise. Notably, he doesn’t venture far (if at all) beyond the quasi-reveals that are common amongst magicians. 

Booth uses a range of both mentalist and magic effects to make his point. While they may not be new to magic fans, they are performed well. An extended mind reading sequence to do with judging audience members’ truth telling and lying is especially fun to watch. The reviewed show had a great plot twist in this routine when Booth’s brother volunteered to join him onstage. While his brother was fairly clearly not giving him any hints, it seemed like a lovely supportive relationship, which is always nice to see at the Fringe.

Audience participation was a mixed bag. For some of the earlier effects, to demonstrate his point about the necessity of lying to performing magic, Booth performs a few tricks that are experienced as “magic” by the participants but not by the rest of the audiences. The method and purpose is clever, but it would be nice if Booth clued in the participants after making his point. Ideally participating in a magic show should enhance the experience for the participant, or at the very least be neutral—it’s not ideal when participating takes away an element of the experience of the show for someone. To be fair to Booth he seems to make a point of choosing participants for this section who seemed to have come to the show with a group, so their family and friends could tell them what happened after, but in a friendly town like Edinburgh where strangers tend to get chatty it’s a risky calculation.

Booth may have billed himself as honest but he’s still a magician, and luckily for the audience members who want to experience magic, there are some secrets that he keeps, and some that he reveals because the secret is itself an impressive feat. His demonstration of how to solve a Rubik’s cube in what looks like a few seconds is one such moment. The audience watched Booth carefully make a few turns to make the cube look well mixed, but even so watching him solve it in a throw demonstrates dexterity and dedicated practice.

The Honest Magician may not be flawless yet, but it’s an interesting premise from a clearly thoughtful performer. Booth does a good job telling the audience how his perspective is unique, but showing them this perspective through the magic is still a work in progress.

ARRON JONES: 1 HOUR STRAITJACKET ESCAPE MAGIC SHOW

☆☆☆☆

Arron Jones is back at it with the straitjacketed magic. With a lunchtime slot that puts it toward the beginning of the Fringe schedule, his 1 Hour Straitjacket Escape Magic Show is the most aggressively Fringe way to kick off the day. Jones does not take a full hour to escape from his straitjacket, instead performing the full hour of magic while trapped inside it. What follows is exceptional creativity, as Jones manages to perfectly execute a great variety of tricks with his hands literally tied behind his back.

The magic that Jones performs is largely recognizable to magic fans, which makes it even more interesting to see performed by a magician in a straitjacket. Card magic is of course a staple, and Jones manages to do a couple of tricks using these slippery little props. An early example features Jones nosing his way through the deck to find the chosen card, a visual that perfectly prepares the audience for the tone of the rest of the show. Jones’s brand of weirdness is self aware and the audience can see him consciously lean in to it, which makes even the extremes feel oddly relatable.

As Jones cannot use his hands for the duration of the show, audience participation is especially necessary. Creating the show feels like a collaborative, team building experience, with so much by necessity happening in the hands of the audience. Jones is the supportive team leader, guiding the hands of all who touch his props. At the reviewed show one participant slightly undercut his reveal by miscounting a deck of cards, an easy mistake to make with a set of props that has a habit of sticking together and moving erratically. Jones successfully pulled it back, with the participant’s help, making it clear that he had in fact gotten the trick correct.

Known as the Rockstar Magician in his other Fringe show, Jones’s love of music is evident in this show as well. He has a few bespoke tracks for various moments and tasks of the show that add a personalized flair to the proceedings. This straitjacket show is Jones’s nostalgic Fringe debut from a few years ago, and for those who caught that iteration, the “mix up the cups” song may have been stuck in their heads ever since. Jones dances along to each track, making every set up and reveal extra fun to watch.

1 Hour Straitjacket Magic Escape Show is one that every Fringe goer should see at least once. Jones’s style of showmanship is both unique and fun enough that it holds up well on a re-watch. It’s perfect for those who find themselves needing an early energy boost to get them through those mid-Fringe days.

THE GREAT DIVINATOR: TOUCHED BY SPIRITS

☆☆☆☆

Brought back to life by magician Katie Tranter, The Great Divinator has risen from the dead to entertain his audiences again. His Fringe show Touched by Spirits demonstrates his Victorian-era seance techniques to get in contact with the Other Side. It’s more silly than spooky, with plenty of well executed magic to keep the audience interested.

The magic in Touched by Spirits is used to illustrate the power and presence of said spirits on the earthly realm. It’s a very solid mix of both classics of the occult genre of magic and effects that are less commonly used seance-style shows, keeping it feeling fresh. The magic is all performed perfectly. One effect that particularly impressed the audience at the reviewed show involved The Great Divinator forging a spiritual connection between two audience participants, and using touch to prove it. One of the audience participants for this section was still raving about the effect as she left at the end of the show, and just how impressively impossible she had found her experience.

At the reviewed show the audience was a mix of living Fringe goers and raised spirits, so The Great Divinator was able to get a decent proportion of the living involved in the spiritualist effects. While the silliness of some of the participatory elements can feel a little unnatural at first, The Great Divinator embodies that playfulness in every movement, making it less intimidating for the audience to join in—he ensures that he will always be the silliest person in the room. The participants chosen visibly relaxed and got more into their roles the more they spent time around him. The reviewed show featured some unscheduled interruptions, whether from excited audience members or their mobiles, and The Great Divinator responded consistently, respectfully in character, making these interruptions feel like part of his own act.

Touched by Spirits is relatively light on magic to make sure there is plenty of room for spirits and silliness. It feels like the adult pantomime version of a seance, even when there’s no specific audience member summoned to the stage, there are plenty of moments when The Great Divinator gets everyone involved in creating the soundscape of his show. This makes for a very fun and unusual audience experience by magic show standards.

Between the Victorian seance-style magic and pantomime-adjacent performance style, Touched by Spirits is an intensely British cultural experience in the best possible way. The Great Divinator has distilled nearly all the good bits of British culture into one incredible experience. Touched by Spirits has a wide appeal, from magic fans looking for creatively performed tricks, to tourists looking to absorb a true sense of this country in just one hour, to anyone looking for some death-flavored joyfulness. The Great Divinator will lead the way.

DANIEL SINCLAIR: THE HYPNOTIST AND THE MIND READER

☆☆

Hypnotism is always a popular genre at the Fringe, and Daniel Sinclair’s The Hypnotist and the Mind Reader is no exception. Even a weekday show is fairly full, and he gets a good population up on stage to join him. While the hypnotism itself was patchy at the reviewed show, between those who managed to stay hypnotized, those who were willing to play along, and Sinclair working very hard, a version of the show was able to go on.

There are necessary alerts and reassurances ahead of a hypnotism show, and Sinclair’s version hits all the main points. He lets the audience know that he cannot force them to do anything they don’t want to do, hypnosis or not. Letting everyone know ahead of time that hypnosis is a mutual process is designed to get potential volunteers in the right mindset. If the people coming up onstage are ready to accept and work with Sinclair, the hypnotism process should work more efficiently.

The hypnotism process that Sinclair uses is nice and calming, even for those who don’t choose to go onstage. Sinclair even allows for everyone in the audience to participate in this from their seats if they want to, for those who would like to try to be hypnotized without being watched by everyone else. The sound that Sinclair uses is a classic hypnotism sound, difficult to describe but instantly recognizable, which is fun to hear.

At the reviewed show unfortunately the hypnotism by and large didn’t seem to take. There’s always an attrition rate with those who choose to take part in hypnotism, but rarely is it so pervasive and consistent throughout the show. Sinclair himself will be best placed to judge if this was an off day or if it’s worth adjusting his methods. To his credit, Sinclair breezed past the suggestions that just didn’t work, focusing on those where the majority of his struggling volunteers were willing to play along, and making the most of those who were able to experience hypnosis.

Every hypnotism show is different, and it’s a huge credit to Sinclair as a performer that he was able to recover the reviewed show to the extent that he did. The fact that so many of his volunteers were willing to play along with the majority of his show is perhaps a better testament to how fun his suggestions are than watching genuinely hypnotized participants undertake them.

ANDREW FROST: THE GREATEST CARD MAGICIAN IN THE WORLD

☆☆☆☆

It’s worth noting, to help with expectation management for his future audiences, that Andrew Frost has not been officially deemed The Greatest Card Magician in the World, despite that being the title of his show. However, ‘The Greatest Card Magician in the World’ may very well be one of the greatest card magic shows in the world, or at the very least at the Fringe—a line that Frost is of course more than welcome to selectively quote. What makes it compelling is not Frost’s position on any one person’s leaderboard of card magicians, but how he manages to make card magic so much fun.

As is heavily hinted in the title, in The Greatest Card Magician in the World Frost focuses on card magic. It’s as perfectly performed as the audience will expect from the title. A highlight is a routine that Frost invites multiple members of the audience to participate in. This manages the difficult task of providing a surprise of an ending in a card trick, a format perhaps known best for having the most easily anticipated ending of any magic trick.

Frost gets a lot of the audience involved in the show, and creates a welcoming environment to make this as unintimidating a process as possible. Frost is so personable that, at the reviewed show, a reluctant member of the audience agreed to join him onstage even when Frost allowed for a clear way out if the audience member truly didn’t want to be involved. While one audience participant does have a more involved role, Frost cleverly structures his routines to essentially go through a quick vetting process to pick someone who will be comfortable with the attention. Frost is always in control and the participants are not left at loose ends onstage.

The grandiose name of The Greatest Card Magician in the World isn’t just an attention-getting tactic, but a lead in for Frost to gently satirize magic show and audience tropes throughout the performance. From his spot on advice for audience members who are watching the show to try to work out how the tricks are done, to his teasing of the dramatic backstory for how he got in to magic, right up to the structure of the finale, Frost pokes fun at the stereotypes from a place of clear love for the art form.

It may not be as “shrekxy” as a burlesque show he’s contended with for reviews (what a sentence to experience out of context!), but for fans of card magic The Greatest Card Magician in the World is easily an excellent choice of Fringe show. Frost will teach the audience how to appreciate his card magic and then perform a trick so perfectly that they forget their lessons. It’s perfect card magic in a perfectly written show.