Reviews

I freely admit to being in the latter category so it was a delight to attend this show at the Ipswich Corn Exchange, the first that The Ipswich Magical Society has staged in a decently large venue, because it gave me the equal pleasures of sussing quite a lot, yet being totally baffled by some. To me that's the perfect mix.

However, while the show demonstrated a wealth (often to excess) of magical talents, it was somewhat lacking in presentation and packaging.

One magic 'act' can stand up by itself, but a big magic show needs slickness, dressing, stage management, pace and overall panache. I came away feeling I had seen some pretty good acts (and one superb act) presented in a disappointingly amateur fashion.

Two key failings were the lack of front curtains, meaning every act had to be set up and dismantled in full view, and compere Peter Holloway.

These went hand in hand, as the long gaps inbetween performances resulted in more time for the compere, who I'm afraid was desperately slow, rather un-funny, and failed to rise to the task of entertaining the large crowd during each long gap between acts.

That aside, individual performances ranged from good to superb.

The magicians

First up was Magic Dave. He did a nice job of entertaining the kids, though with it being a specialty act aimed at children I'd have cut the duration by half.

Oliver Tabor then presented a potentially superb dove act, very slightly marred by him noticeably shaking with nerves and consequently fumbling a few items. Perhaps his props were just a tiny bit too complex, something was bound to go wrong.

The Incredible Crisco

But he coped superbly and the crowd were very much on his side.

The pace of the evening was at last stepped up by The Incredible Crisco. Fifty years in the business and determined to keep reminding us how long he'd had to practice to do all this stuff – and at breakneck pace with lots of comedy patter. Excellent.

Juliana Chen, flown all the way from the States, finished the first half with some astounding manual dexterity. She produced something in the region of a heck-of-a-lot of playing cards from thin air and littered the entire building with them by spinning them into the crowd like machine-gun bullets.

Michael J Fitch

Good stuff, but essentially her act was one trick stretched out and I think I'd expected more.

Michael J Fitch, performing as his TV Chav character, is a class act with good comedy patter, great personality across the footlights, and some standard conjuring excellently modernised - using reliable props and some lovely comedy twists. Highly entertaining.

And he certainly came up trumps when BBC Radio Suffolk's James Hazell opened the envelope Fitch had given him live on air the previous week, to find an accurate prediction of the Rugby World Cup Final result!

Fitch had also placed a bet on the outcome and presented the slip to James to be redeemed for Children In Need - a lovely twist.

Unspectacular spectacle

Conversely, the big closing act of the evening managed to be really quite boring, despite being loud, showy, and flashy 'Rock Magic'.

Chris North, joined by his remarkable contortionist assistant, performed far too many illusions, with far too many gaps between them, which were not made interesting by the loud but bad music and the bottom-of-the-range "spectacular" lighting.

Too much posing and gesturing for me I'm afraid. And if you're going to attempt "spectacular" it has to be a lot bigger and more expensive for a venue that size.

But before all these magicians gang up to cut my head off – I've saved the best for last.

Graham Jolly

The penultimate act was a mindreader (oh yeah – sure!) by the name of Graham Jolly. An unassuming chap, he walked on looking like a bit like your old headmaster.

He picked on me straight away – "think of a number"” – I did. He wrote a number on a pad then asked what I was thinking.

"Forty two," I said. And stone me if he hadn't written a large 42 on his pad for all to see. Stunning. Gobsmacked. Bewildered – you get my drift.

This amazing man went on to perform numerous equally impossible mind-reading demonstrations, interwoven with the most hilarious, dry, ironic, rapid-fire, throwaway patter which had the entire house in hoots of laughter. 

Utterly superb, and although not a spectacular act, by far the best of the evening. And I couldn't suss a single one of his routines.

So, next time, get some curtains, get a gag-master compere, perhaps get a theatrical director to make the difference between a string of acts and a 'real show'.

But above all – please – get Graham Jolly back.

Overall a good evening – I hope they do it again.