If Paul Daniels were a stick of rock, he’d have ‘spirit of the Fringe’ written all the way through. He’s there before the show starts, chatting to practically everyone, putting people at ease, and he maintains this self-assured banter throughout, with repeated heartfelt and positive claims that “this is what the festival is all about”. And it really should be. When the show finished, he announced he would be happy to chat to anyone in the bar afterwards. The show just never stopped.
It never particularly started either. Max Malini is a 19th century magician for whom Paul Daniels has a particular fondness, a barroom shyster and courtier of kings. The brochure says that Daniels will tell his story and recreate his magic. We certainly get the magic, and it is all faultlessly executed and baffling stuff. However, Daniels repeatedly says, “You may be surprised to know that Malini invented this one too”.
In other words, many of Malini’s tricks are part of the basic repertoire of any street magician. Knowing that you’re seeing a master class in appearing and disappearing hankies doesn’t make up for having seen the same trick a thousand times before.
The story is also a little underwhelming. Although clearly he had a fascinating life as an international showman, the gist of the story is that he was a huge success wherever he went. However heartening this is, and however momentarily amusing each anecdote is, there is no dramatic structure or development to the piece, which ultimately becomes a question of how many of his tricks Daniels can do before the hour runs out.
Daniels says Malini was the king of chutzpah. It’s a title that he could easily claim for himself, and it’s that which pulls off the trick of style over substance in this case.
3/5
Hugh Jones
