Edinburgh Fringe 2025
James Phelan — The Man Who Was Magic
Showman Live
Genre: Cabaret, Comedy, Magic, Magic and Mentalism, Variety Show
Venue: Underbelly
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
James Phelan, the popular British magician famous for predicting the lottery, brings his new show to Edinburgh.
Review
Let’s get right to the point: James Phelan — The Man Who Was Magic is what happens when a possibly excellent show is put in the absolutely wrong venue.
Make no mistake. Phelan is a terrific magician and fascinating mentalist, and his sets are impressive. He is also a genial, charming presence who clearly loves interacting with his audience and loves doing what he does. From the outset it’s obvious he is thrilled to be performing, and that enthusiasm is infectious. Overall, his show is fun.
Alas, the degree of fun is largely determined by where you’re sitting in beautiful McEwan Hall in Bistro Square. McEwan Hall is not only Underbelly’s largest venue with more than 1,100 seats, it’s also the biggest possible stage for any Edinburgh Fringe show. For the audience members who were sitting in the first three or four rows, the show seemed to be a massive success. That lucky lot got to engage with Phelan non-stop in a show that is pretty much entirely interactive.
Everyone else… Not so much. This reviewer was seated in one of the back rows, and from there it became blindingly clear that this show needed to be in a much, much smaller space. A stage this massive cries out for spectacle, none of which was present in this presentation. Often a small camera would project results of a trick onto a larger screen, but the resulting image was often dark and muddy. Moreover, it diluted, well, the magic in the magic.
Sadly, about halfway through the show a general resignation and listlessness started spreading among those who weren’t sitting up front. To his credit, Phelan felt that and even said during one of the segments that he was “losing the audience,” which he was. He got much of it back thanks to his wonderful sense of humor and fast wit.
Many Fringe acts have little control over which space they’re assigned to in any given venue, but that is not the case here; no show accidentally gets tossed in McEwan Hall. In this case, Phelan has done himself a disservice. So yes, this entertaining show is worth seeing. Just make sure you’re close enough not to miss the magic.
