Edinburgh Fringe 2016
Neil Henry: Mindwangler
CKP by arrangement with Stuart Piper for ROAR Comedy
Genre: Magic, Magic and Mentalism
Venue: Pleasance Dome
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
A series of mindwangling tricks and magic sensation that gets people in the audience to swap pictures without realising, pick numbers on the lottery – mine was 28, tell us what is in cans of food and many other things beside which leave us mystified and terrified that we are unable to work out how it was all done.
Review
Last year Henry became a YouTube sensation when he proposed to his girlfriend using his finale, string and alphabetti spaghetti. This year was never going to top that but in the main this is a show that comes close. The material is standard mentalism and no less impressive for that. We get some of what we thought we should get alongside some new stuff that we possibly didn’t think anyone could ever do.
Henry has the type of exuberance and charm that was harmless before the fall of a slate of celebrities but it does work. He shows he knows what he is doing and he does what he does best – perform. Whilst there are no tricks involving walking on water, levitating in Rio or major reveals by the end of it all, this is all good fun.
The tricks – I hesitate over what to call them – are all delivered with a knowing glint in the eye as he knows we are going to be impressed as this is as polished as it can be. He is very good with the kids and tremendously self-deprecating so that you know that the act is likely to be quite superior – otherwise he would not take the time to pretend so much he was making mistakes.
Music and lights are as necessary as the throwing of Jo, his means of finding audience participants. What they cover, if they cover anything at all, is never revealed and in the finest of traditions we are left to worry about how it was all done.
My favourites are still the road map and the strange drawing of the animals.
As a piece of new age fandanglement this does not necessarily find heather to light up but what it does do is show how to do things well and how to do things properly. The audience loved it, I liked it and by the end we left with the possibility of a lottery win to be shared amongst us – how many shows give you that then?
