Magic at the Midland (GM Fringe) -The Midland Hotel, Manchester

Writer: Steve Price

Steve Price’s magic show is a movable feast. After a few years staged as Magic on the Mersey the show travels to Manchester as Magic at the Midland. Same show different title.

The Midland Hotel is not modest; there is a Rolls Royce parked in the foyer to reflect the legend it is the location where Frederick Henry Royce met Charles Stewart Rolls and decided to go into business. So, Price’s choice of venue is audacious, a clear message the show is worthy of such a classy setting.

There is an obvious attraction for the audience. Staged in a hotel suite there is no opportunity for theatrical cheating like stage trapdoors. Indeed, being so close to the performer, touching distance on occasions, gives the chance to spot any sleight of hand and so makes it even more difficult for Price to trick the audience.

To an extent Price exploits this situation. There are occasions when he seems to be deliberately clumsy as if to encourage patrons to think they have spotted a flaw. A trick where scarfs mysteriously become knotted and untied as they move about the stage features hand gestures that make it seem like Price is physically untying the knots. Of course, that proves not to be the case. A house of cards is built with cards that seem to be hinged together but Price then disproves the possibility by dismantling the construction one card at a time to leave the card house tilting at an impossible angle.

There is a high degree of non-intimidating audience involvement as volunteers are regularly invited on-stage. Price gets very lucky with a patron who adds tension by seeming genuinely worried while helping with a trick involving him potentially slamming his hand down on a massive nail. Price even takes a seat in the audience and talks a pair of on-stage volunteers through the trick of making an egg appear and disappear from a bag.

Price believes in offering both quality and quantity having a volunteer keep count to ensure he delivers the promised 22 amazing tricks. Inevitably, one of the most baffling is also one of the simplest. Price tears a newspaper into strips and snaps a line of cotton into pieces before squeezing the pieces and reassembling them good as new in plain view of the audience.

In the manner of a showman the climax involves Price accidently destroying an expensive item owned by a patron, making several mis-judged attempts to replace it before discovering the original in an impossible location.

Magic at the Midland is an elegant act for a classy venue.

Magic at the Midland returns on 3^rd August and 20^th October 2024