It would be easy to listen to Paul Dabek speak for hours: about his career, about fellow performers, about magic. He’s a world-class entertainer, even when telling his own story.

“In my teens, I realised that sports and most of the other things that other kids were up to at school weren’t really my jam,” Dabek recalls.

“I started doing magic, and I was kind of a closet magician, because I was terrified that I would get made fun of.”

A school talent show, at 14 years old, quelled that fear: “I got exactly the opposite reaction. Everyone’s like, ‘Wow, this is really cool! This is different’.”

Magic, Dabek says, is a universal language.

“We all live in a world where everything can pretty much be explained by a quick tap or a quick Google… We’re bombarded by information, and the answer to everything’s a click away.

“So to experience magic, it’s to experience something we can’t explain. I think it kind of puts us back into those younger years, those happy years where everything feels like magic. It just makes you feel like a kid again.

“It’s a bit like laughter. It’s a really great reset for the brain, for mood, for everything.”

Paul Dabek performing as The Trickster with The Illusionists. Photo: Supplied

Now an internationally acclaimed magician and comedian, and a festival favourite, Dabek has been performing for more than 20 years ­– and the Adelaide Fringe has played a significant role in his story. He started out in his 20s doing the Edinburgh Fringe, then after a few years someone suggested to him that he should come to Adelaide.

“I was like, ‘What? What’s in Adelaide?’ Oh, the second-largest Fringe Festival in the world. I came here and realised this is not just another Fringe festival, but a different beast.

“The first year I came in, I was like, ‘Well, this is amazing. It’s February, and I’m in the sunshine, and I’m in the artists’ bar having a beer at 10 o’clock at night. And it’s warm and lovely. And everybody seems really happy to be here.’”

Dabek’s first experience of Adelaide Fringe was with a small solo show presented over a couple of weeks. It grew into productions that would run across the entire four weeks of the festival.

“I became an Adelaide convert,” he says.

The year 2017 proved pivotal for the performer, who won the best magic show award for Look at Me! and also took out the best children’s award for The I Hate Children Children’s Show (which is back again this year).

“It was a bumper year. And that was when things started to sort of turn around and people started to notice,” says Dabek.

“Off the back of this festival, so many amazing things happened… I ended up going out to Dubai, ended up being booked to go work in China with my show. Just all over the place from bookers and different people that come to the festival in Adelaide.”

This ultimately led to him joining the cast of international touring ensemble The Illusionists ­– then shows on Broadway and in the West End. More recently, he also starred in a Cirque du Soleil production in Las Vegas.

Now, after a brief break due to “a strange thing that happened to the world”, Dabek has returned to Adelaide with both his kids’ show and a much larger ensemble production titled London Calling.

London Calling features an eclectic cast of entertainers. Photo: Supplied

Presented by Dabek Productions and making its international debut at Fringe, London Calling features Dabek alongside an eclectic cast of entertainers including magician Charlie Caper, a former Sweden’s Got Talent winner; Captain Frodo, a Norwegian Guinness World Record-breaking contortionist also known as “The Incredible Rubberman”; foot-juggling star Antje Pode; hula-hoop performer Chelsea Angell, and aerialist Shaunah Johnson.

“Between the cast of six, we’ve got over a century of experience in the industry and honing our craft,” he says. “I wanted to create something that was bigger than just a single person, because there’s a real magic in seeing that energy in that camaraderie and that chemistry between performers.”

He promises audiences can expect a slick production with “incredible acts” performed at “breakneck speed”. As the title suggests, it also comes with an array of London imagery and icons.

“You’ve got all the great things that a London theme brings; one of them is amazing rock ’n’ roll music and British music from through the years, and a lot of surprises that kind of come out of left field,” says Dabek.

Despite London Calling’s 9.30pm timeslot at Fringe, Dabek insists it is a show for everyone.

“The best way I could describe it is you could take your date, or you could take your kids, you could take your grandparents…  it’s definitely got edge and grit to it. But there’s no bad language. There’s no nudity. We wanted to create something that was great, all-around entertainment, but still had edge and still was dynamic.”

London Calling is at The Vault in Fool’s Paradise until March 19. Paul Dabek is also presenting The I Hate Children Children’s Show at The Vault from March 11-19.

This story is part of a series of articles being produced with the support of Adelaide Fringe.

Read more Fringe stories and reviews here.