The blow-up doll in the corner of the stage brought to mind Kevin, who was bounced around at a bawdy hen’s night in my distant past. This show could go in a number of directions.
In Festival Fringeland at the moment, there’s a pack of magicians, mentalists and illusionists, each with their well-practised routines to distract their audiences and thus deceive. As you might expect, The Naked Magicians have a particular decoy in mind to divert attention from their card tricks.
However, it must be said that, unlike Kevin (strumpet that he was), this pair – Christopher Wayne and Mike Tyler – have decorum. While I am having trouble steering away from smutty innuendo to describe a performance labelled The Naked Magicians, they succeed in being much more tasteful.
These cheeky guys are a lot of fun. Good, clean fun. Well. Mostly. It must also be said that they do look good in various stages of undress and outfits not normally encountered in your average magic show.
Ah yes. The magic. Chris and Mike also weave their sleight-of-hand: so to speak. There’s quite a bit of audience participation and I didn’t see any complaints from those called upon to perform on stage with the duo.
The magic may be fun rather than fantastic and the nakedness has quite a bit of “now you see it, now you don’t”, but by the end of the show you’re definitely not left wanting.
The Naked Magicians will be strutting their stuff at Gluttony – The Lotus Palace until March 1.
See InDaily’s 2015 Adelaide Fringe hub for all our reviews and interviews.
