Paul Nathan awaits his audience at the door to the theatre, shaking hands, kissing cheeks and dishing out hugs like a good old-fashioned American charmer. Guitarist John Anaya plays away in the shadows of the stage as we wait, setting a sensual and mysterious tone. From such beginnings we are set for a very stylish show and at no point are we disappointed by the strapping pair, who swindle us with cards, seduce us with music and enchant us with alluring storytelling.
We are quickly told what we are to expect, that 'This is not a magic show', as magic and cheating are not the same. However there is still a great deal of incredible card tricks in there, including naming the entire front row's cards and transporting cards to impossible places. A massive bonus and equal portion of the show, we hear tales about love, deception and the good that can come of the devilish.
All of Nathan's tricks are filmed on a little table he produces for each trick, and screened to one side of the stage for those further back. Yet neither the close critical eye of the front row nor the rest of us on camera surveillance could catch his double card pickups, even when being talked through how the tricks are done. Testimony to the utter amazement of the audience, and personally my favourite moment is when Nathan asks us all to take a look in our pockets, where we would find a deck of cards... to which everyone shuffles in their seats to ensure that they have not unwittingly had strange hands in there. He meant our wallets, sadly.
These fantastic displays are interwoven with the story of Nathan's cursed life, sparked by his mother's superstitious nature, and his predicted early death. The stories follow these predictions as they come true, all the way up to his twenty fourth birthday, and take us from New Orleans to Georgia, Pamplona and London. This is storytelling at its most hypnotic and seriously smooth magical trickery.
