Exciting magic, but lacked theatricality to live up to its name and West End status
Telling stories of his 80s childhood, Jamie Allen presented a nostalgic narrative interwoven with impressive illusions and sleight of hand.
With the stage set up as his attic room above the pub that his parents owned when he was a child, Jamie Allen packed away bits and pieces into boxes, reminiscing on how magic came into his life. It all started with the fisher price magic box and went on to involve all sorts of other books and toys. The first trick involved a Rubik’s cube, playing into the 80s theme and brought surprise and delight to all. Whilst Jamie Allen is a pleasant to watch, I felt this first trick could have had more excitement built up around it, to really entice the audience into the show. It was impressive to see, but I felt there could have been more done with music and staging to make it more shocking as magic is expected to be.
Throughout the show various audience members were brought up on stage, but there were also tricks that involved the audience as a whole, which did well to engage everyone without needing to submit them to the limelight. Allen’s narrative around the audience was interesting, acknowledging that some people watch magic so that they can try to figure out how it works, the ‘sceptics’ as he called them. It was a clever way to engage the audience, and the magic trick that accompanied this revelation had an enjoyable tongue in cheek element to it.
After a lot of the scene setting with interspersed tricks, the first half ended with a trick that emulated the sort of bravado you would expect from a west end magic show. As the second half got going, it was clear there was going to be more of the theatricality that I was expecting. One card trick in particular which Allen had cleverly timed to its accompanying song really brought the style and panache that I had been looking for in the first half. The remainder of the magic in the second half brought the impressive stagecraft that I would expect of a West End show. Allen’s sleight of hand demonstrated in this half was truly a testament to his skill as a magician.
Adverts for this show frequently remarked that Jamie Allen was following in the footsteps of Derren Brown and Dynamo with an extended West End run, and throughout the performance Allen regularly commented that this was the show he dreamed of doing. I therefore felt a little let down by the theatricality and storytelling. The magic itself was impressive enough, but a lot of the tricks, particularly in the first half, lacked build up and excitement. I also felt there was more to be done with the lighting, music and staging to make this really engaging. When performing to a big theatre, some of the more basic tricks were not as impressive as they could have been with slightly better build up. The narrative was a sweet idea, but the script lacked heart in order to provide the emotive response that they were trying to achieve. Perhaps if I had gone in without the expectations that had come with the advertising, I would have felt more engaged, but the staging and storyline lacked for me, which meant the impressive magic, whilst impressive, did not always fulfil the special feeling of the West End.