AMAZE – A Comedy Magic Show

Eliot Entertainment—Cinematheque

Illusionist Eliot delivers some good yuks but not enough where I would call this a comedy show. His jokes evoke amused laughter, but most magic shows today have somewhat of an element of humour.

As for the illusions, he executes them smoothly and competently. If you like magic, it’s a very good show—looks like it was sold out so plan accordingly. If you like magic a lot, you probably don’t need to take in this show and Dangerous Magic, shown at the same location here. A number tricks overlap and even the kids would comment that they’ve seen them before.

Eliot deserves a big pat on the back for the audience he endured today. Good job to him for remaining composed and professional through the entire ordeal. The Fringe doesn’t have a lot of rules (as this year’s motto indicates) but people disregarding those rules severely interrupts the show. “No babes in arms” means that no one wants to hear your baby cry for five minutes straight, seriously ruining the atmosphere. To make things worse, having your “feed baby” alarm go off makes you more of a louse than you already are. Finally, I saw no fewer than four phones being looked at throughout the show. You think you’re surreptitious when you check your phone but you’re not—we all see you and you’re very distracting. You paid money to be here—if you’d rather be on the phone, get the F out.

Ray Yuen