Ludlow Fringe Festival 2019
An Attempt at Being Memorable
Alex De Koning
Genre: Magic
Venue: the Sitting Room at the Blue Boar, Ludlow
Festival: Ludlow Fringe Festival
Low Down
A hugely entertaining young magician – and who doesn’t like a brilliant magic show?!
Review
Alex practices his skill, as all the best magicians do, with a wonderfully low-key and apparently bumbling style which lulls his audience into a somewhat false sense of insecurity and a thought that maybe the show is not going to plan. It doesn’t take long to realise we are in the hands of a master illusionist and there is nothing more charming than a bumbling, brilliant magician pulling together the little threads of audience ineptitude, even if his props are possibly less glamorous than those of the greats. We are used to balls and cups (which he uses) but toilet paper, oranges and an empty beer glass from the audience is something rarely seen. He even introduces us to new terms: “Unvisibilised” for becoming visible is one I haven’t encountered before. His first sleight of hand is to transform his own shirt at the flick of his wrist and when swiftly followed by a burning wallet we can see all normality is up for grabs here as we struggle to work out just how he does each trick. Every audience volunteer leaves the stage with a mystified and wondrous look on their faces as, clearly even close to, there is just no telling how these tricks are done. Which is exactly what an evening’s entertainment from a magician should be.
Real magic never goes out of date or style and this show is as bamboozling and mesmerising as you would wish it to be. Full of wit (he declares “I’m going to write something on this bag” and proceeds to attach a post-it note to it saying ‘Something’) it leaves one mystified and spellbound after the final applause. I’m still wondering how he changed his shirt …