Image: supplied
Matt Penny is Frank, the world’s only mind-reading hotdog. Dressed in his hotdog costume, he nonchalantly throws a paperback book into the audience, and commences with a word selection mind-reading activity. Taking a slug from a tomato sauce squeeze bottle, he hits his stride with some friendly patter and naff jokes while using his psychic powers to elicit words from amazed audience members.
The show is more than just a series of tricks and patter. A narrative arc of sorts is provided by an extended explanation of morphic resonance as the reason why hotdogs are particularly good mind-readers, punctuated by more jokes, card tricks and number manipulations. Eventually Penny lets the morphic resonance explanation peter out to posit that it’s all just a shared theatrical fantasy, stepping up the level of his feats to explore the possibilities of variations on the mind-reading hotdog theme, even attempting a Jedi mind trick (which failed to work on the selected volunteer).
Magicians and Fringe performers alike are notorious for using audience participants in their shows. Logically, it follows that Fringe magic shows will be a heady mix of participation and performance. Not only does Penny solicit volunteers to participate in a range of card selections, sugar packet counting and envelope opening, but the friendly nature of the show and the appalling quality of the jokes leads to Christmas cracker style sharing of witticisms. Penny has the performing aplomb to halt proceedings from descending into chaos, calmly deploying stinging word bombs to vanquish hecklers and using the same calm to move on from tricks that go awry, without too much chagrin. While it never seems fair to give too much away about particular tricks when reviewing magicians, this is a strange and meandering ride through Penny’s imagination and diverse skill sets that never settles into any familiar formula.
A friendly magic show that will leave you scratching your head at more than the hotdog suit, Frank the Mind-Reading Hotdog is a quintessentially Fringe experience, full of laughter, novelty and wonder.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Frank, the Mind-Reading Hotdog
The Stables, Perth Cultural Centre, Northbridge
FringeWorld 2015
Devised and performed by Matt Penny
24 – 28 January 2015
