Proclaiming himself to be in league with the devil, Tennyson Hanbury didn’t exactly fill me with excitement for his Condensed Cabaret. As the ‘Sorcerer of Sin’ clumsily prepared his props, he promised the audience that it, ‘won’t be long now’, not really building any anticipation for the promised ‘freakish feats of illusion’. Opening with some unimaginative card-guessing tricks, the bemused audience provided some polite applause and unnatural laughter. Unfortunately, Hanberry’s nervy awkwardness meant that his punch lines fell flat and the only responses to his unremitting jokes were uncomfortable smiles from the singled-out audience members. His disorganised stage means that links from one trick to the next were painfully prolonged and his illusions were normally revealed whilst he sets them up.
The standard of magic tricks did seem to increase as the hour went on. Whilst his mind-reading improved, his cutlery bending was almost impressive and there were definitely some moments when I had no idea how he did it. However, without a sound-track or set to retain any kind of interest, by that point in the show,the audience seemed to have drifted off completely. Perhaps, instead of his magic improving, I was just too dazed to notice his not-so-sleight of hand.
