A magic show is fundamentally different from most other shows – because the success of the show is based on how much trickery can be covered up from the audience, rather than how much can be shown to them. Barry & Stuart deliberately attempt to knock down this distinction with a fantastic opening gambit, where, through the use of ‘rose-tinted glasses’, each audience member can either choose to preserve the mystery behind the trick shown, or take off the glasses and see the trick explained to them on the onstage PowerPoint.This seems a really exciting premise, as they make it clear that it is down to each audience member to decide if they want to know or not, creating the possibilities for multiple viewpoints within the same show. Sadly, the remainder of the hour never seems to live up to this promise. The tricks themselves seem to need a full understanding of how they work to really be enjoyed, but the audience aren’t called upon to use the ‘rose tinted glasses’ again.The duo are performing two interconnected shows this year – ‘The Show’, displaying the magic, and ‘The Tell’, where they describe how it’s done. Though they imply that seeing the magic alone will help us retain our sense of wonder, there is still the nagging sense that some tricks require the full explanation of their background workings to be fully enjoyed. There are some great set pieces here though – notably a creepy act of hypnotism involving a bucket of ice water and a brilliant sequence where they flex their prophetic muscles to turn water into wine. However, by foregrounding the possibility of a reveal of the trick’s workings, it deflates the initial shock factor of the trick that makes you want to learn more. By highlighting a reveal within a separate show, the experience of the magic itself seems strangely incomplete.They possess a great deal of skill though and infuse their performance with a knowing sense of humour – at one point mocking a sense of the magician’s mystique by showing footage of the two as Scottish Young Magicians of the Year in the early nineties, sporting serious expressions and terrible hair. However, the format of emphasising the revelation of the trick, only to withhold it to another show, means that the tricks cannot really spellbind in the immediate moment.
