Monday 1 October 2018

REVIEW: Pete Firman: Marvels - The Lowry Theatre, Salford.



Pete Firman’s years and years of conjuring experience reflected in last night’s polished performance – he literally could have done the whole show in his sleep!

He has recently been on ITV's 'Tonight At The London Palladium' and 'The Next Great Magician', BBC's 'The Magicians', 'The John Bishop Show' and 'The Sarah Millican Television Programme'.
Firman is one of the UK's most famous magicians and he's touring a new flabbergasting magic show. His distinctive style blends comedy and magic together right before your very eyes. This is a show which packs small but plays big. It’s a mind blowing performance, which will make you have cards levitating out of your brain, just like on the poster.

We launched straight into the performance with a gripping game of persuasion. One audience member was given the chance to win a prize: a massive bottle of whisky. Unfortunately of course, he lost and instead won a very small bottle of whisky. It was immediately clear that this magic show was more for older children and grown-ups. 

There was an entertainingly wide variety of magic tricks performed for us. The types of magic included: sponge ball, mind reading, prediction, balloon, classic, contemporary, Rubix cube, rope, bizarre, parlour, mathematical, close up, and stage.

It wasn’t a case of one style being performed better than another, all of the tricks were consistently strong and baffling. Occasionally, there were a few intentionally below par tricks; very much in the comedy spirit of Tommy Cooper.

The Middlesborough-born performer completely radiated Northern humour and charm. His performance style conjured up a lot of adjectives from thin air: cheeky, sarcastic, sharp, quick, energetic, smart, charismatic, playful, funny, jolly, hyperbolic, crazy, and quirky.

Even when the comedy was dark or he 'had a bit of a go' at the audience for doing something wrong, you couldn’t help but smile and laugh with him. Firman had the audience in the palm of his hand, which possessed the power to transform and surprise them. He had a brilliant ability to make the audience question everything they saw and understood to be true.   

The only minor point I wish to raise was overall the show felt like a demonstration of tricks. While each individual performance of a trick was top-notch in terms of his magical skills, performance, and the story/patter surrounding it, I was left asking how do they all connect? It can’t just be that all of his tricks were marvels? Yes, they were astonishing and wonderful tricks to be witnessed, but it felt like a layer of the show was missing.

All things considered, this was not detrimental to my enjoyment of watching it. Firman is amazing at what he does. If I knew him, I would constantly be asking him to show me a magic trick. His extraordinary magical powers have to be seen to be believed. 

Reviewer – Sam Lowe
On – 30/9/18







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