Magical Bones

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.

MAGICAL BONES: SOULFUL MAGIC

☆☆☆

In a way, Soulful Magic is the most classic magic show at the Fringe this year. If you’re looking for levitating ladies and exciting escapology this is the show for you. This is not the only factor that makes it feel unique. Magical Bones retains his status as the only break dancing magician performing at the Fringe, and the stories he tells, celebrating black culture through history and across the English speaking world, contextualize his act in both cultural heritage and modern representation.

Magical Bones is a whole circus in one man, and as far as this reviewer is concerned there is no higher compliment. He originally performed as a break dancer before getting in to magic, and luckily for his audience the break dancing is given equal billing in his show to this day. While this is not a dance review site, it is worth noting that the break dancing that Magical Bones performs would not look out of place in the break dancing/dance fusion shows at this year’s Fringe… except for the fact that at the same time he’ll find your card and solve a Rubik’s cube. It’s an exceptionally visually exciting form of magical reveal.

The magic itself is well done too. A highlight is a card finding routine set to a bespoke music track, it’s worth a ticket for that alone. The only slight mis-step came from a well-meaning audience participant misunderstanding her instructions and prompting an effect to be revealed a little bit early, but Magical Bones glossed over this with brisk professionalism. He is a charming performer and has a friendly rapport with all of the participants who join him onstage.

Through the celebration of black culture, fantastic magic, and incredible dancing, it is difficult to ignore a less fortunate magical stereotype that has crept in to the show. Building a show around breaking down barriers in magic while un-ironically introducing a female assistant to be levitated and magically dressed in a ballgown can feel little bit hypocritical. Women are hugely underrepresented in magic, and using the largely mute magician’s assistant role as just another trapping of a classic magic show can come across as regressive. 

Soulful Magic may feel like two steps forward, one step back in terms of diversity in magic, but it’s tough to be everything for everyone, and for its faults it’s still a fun show. It’s wonderful to see Magical Bones’s celebration of black magic so popular at this year’s Fringe, managing to sell out on one of the few warm, sunny weekend days in Edinburgh is no small feat. Blending street magic, classic stage magic, dance, and black culture makes for a show unlike anything else available.

More information on Magical Bones and his performance dates can be found here.

MAGICAL BONES: BLACK MAGIC

☆☆☆

There is only one hip hop dancing magician at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, but Magical Bones does not rest on the laurels of the uniqueness of this aspect. Rather, in Black Magic, he has created a show that is both fun and thought provoking, and skillfully performed throughout.

The term ‘Black Magic’ is not in reference to sinister sorcery, or folk magic that the west misappropriated and misconstrued. It is instead for his own position as a black magician. Bones gives honor to  his magician role models by performing tricks inspired by them at several parts of the show, and uses his platform to teach his audience about these underappreciated black magicians of the past.

But Bones is not just good in the shadow of others, he’s pure charm all on his own. Even when a trick or two may falter, the magician doesn’t, and his enchanting personality keeps everyone on board.

Bones not only incorporates his dancing skills into his act, but even a little audience education of it in individual tricks. He shares his personal journey into these combined passions through magical effects as many magicians do, but he has a very unique story to tell. Most compelling of all is a beautiful mix of a classic card effect and a song mash up that accompanies it perfectly.

You don’t have to like hip hop to watch Black Magic, but you may find that you do by the end. Magical Bones has created a fresh and surprisingly educational experience, and he never loses a beat.

 

More information on Magical Bones and his performance dates can be found here.