rev:text
| - Being a great fan of magic, I was very excited to find Penn & Teller live at the Rio. I've enjoyed their anarchic brand of magic on TV and booked up.
Turn up early to enjoy a few pre-show extras. Look closely at the bass player in the band - he could look familiar! We were also invited onto stage to inspect the box used in their first trick. A good opportunity to have your picture taken on stage with the Penn & Teller sign in the background!
Their act is very much like their performances in TV. Penn gives the rhetoric and Teller the funny expressions. I love Teller's mannerisms - so much expression without talking!
Being a magic fan and an amateur magician myself, I think good magic requires atmosphere and some mystery. So I think that Penn's conversation was fine to set up the trick. As a magician, I was always watching out for them using the conversation as mis-direction.
I think the start to the show was excellent. Having inspected the box on stage, Teller was then imprisoned inside and being the anarchic magicians that they are, they did the escape without the usual curtain covering the box. Those who wanted the mystery of magic to continue were invited to close their eyes! Well, let's just say that however clever you think you are, the magician is cleverer!
There was plenty of magic. Unfortunately, having watched their TV shows, I had seen a lot of the tricks but still enjoyed them. Their hook is that they show you how a lot of their tricks are done. Usually, this is bad practice for magicians and spoils it for the audience as the wonder is gone. However, just when you think you know it all, Penn & Teller deliver the whammy by extending the trick just a little bit and re-establishing the air of 'how did they do that?'
I did watch other magicians that week and I enjoyed Penn & Teller the most. The thing which really clinched it for me was the way Penn & Teller stayed behind after the show to talk to fans, something no-one did. And I always fell over when Teller spoke to me!!
Top show, top blokes, you learn how some tricks are done and get your pics taken on stage and with Penn & Teller.
|