Peter Paxx in Beyond Reality 2.0: Magic and Illusion presented by Andrew Lee and Peter Paxx. Image via Fringeworld.
Andrew Lee is well known in Malaysia as an illusionist and mentalist and has a stuntman-type flair in his approach to magic: think throbbing rock tracks, tight black jeans and plenty of room on stage to show his fire tricks. Peter Paxx is the self-confessed newbie who debuted at last year’s Fringe and started learning magic at six years old after his dad taught him his first card trick. Paxx has a good connection with the audience with his story-telling approach to why magic matters. And in this day and age, with photo-shopping this and that, fake news and plenty of ‘copy and paste’, the merging of the digital image with magic tricks is an area to tread carefully in. Andrew Lee’s webpage states: Magic is the only honest profession: a magician promises to deceive you and he does! But in their return appearance from Perth’s Fringeworld 2016Beyond Reality 2.0: Magic and Illusion had a certain sense of finesse missing in the performance.
In one of the larger venues for Fringeworld shows, the art deco Regal Theatre is an apt place for magic and illusion however the black shadows and unclear lighting emphasised the trickery of magic rather than allowing the audience a full vision. Lee and Paxx had an unusual approach – perhaps more suited to huge venues – of having two TV screens on stage as well as a portentous voice over introduction (à la Star Trek’s Grand Jedi Master Yoda) about the nature of magic and illusion in everyday life including phrases like ‘no ropes, no harness, no strings attached’.
There were some standard illusions around steel circles moving through each other and the girl disappearing into the box but this time it was the magician – a nice twist. Meantime the music is rather a thumping driving beat behind much of the performance. There was an interesting pseudo-science angle with a nice illusion around manipulation of liquids and a lovely simple magic trick on the recreation of the balloon string and levitation of a table witnessed by an audience volunteer.
One of the highlights was when they involved another ‘Fringe star’ i.e. Famous Sharon skyping into the show (though probably pre-recorded!) with her Picasso-esque facial expressions frozen in time and talking our erstwhile novice magician through an ‘Internet trick’ that he then surpassed – in wit and magic! Peter Paxx has the advantage of being a storyteller magician; he was keen to tell us why he got into magic and incidents from his life including the background of another highlight; the Peter Pan trick. This made him the superior stage presence in that he truly engaged with his audience as opposed to coming on stage and wowing us with handerkerchiefs turning into pigeons and flames appearing in both real life and digital.
The stage is most often lit by LED lights on a black curtain and so the artifice is highlighted by these methodologies. Despite the presence of cameraman and camera assistant for card tricks, it was often unfocused vision so we do not get the level of detail we may be craving for in these more intimate magic tricks. The occasional lack of smooth stage movements (for instance bowing at the end) and some gaps between set pieces indicates that this is still more a fringe performance and doesn’t bring it up to the superlative level.
This show tries for a compelling narrative i.e. the illusion of things in our everyday lives and digital creations of our selves, but the performers also need to enact that story. Again mic dropouts are not that handy when you want to be up front with your audience. A few nips and tucks and this could be a great show, but for diehard magic fans, it certainly covers a lot of bases.
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Beyond reality 2.0: Magic and Illusion
Written and Performed by Andrew Lee and Peter Paxx
Regal Theatre at FringeWorld 2017, Perth at 8.00pm. 27th – 28th January and 3rd – 4th February 2017.
