Morgan and West’s ‘time-travelling magician’ show is a wonderful premise with the occasional funny moment and well-executed magic trick. However, the combination of humour, storytelling and magic unfortunately seemed to lower the quality of all three aspects.
The story concerns their ‘Book of Lies’ being mysteriously stolen - a nonsensical plot device loose enough to set up various magic tricks. I think the show would have been a lot more successful had there been a stronger storyline, which may have given a greater sense of direction. As it happened, the show ended with an annoyingly inane conclusion, rather than finishing with the bang expected of most magic shows. Despite being billed in the ‘Comedy’ section, there were no laugh-out-loud moments and not even a successful joke to finish off proceedings.
The tricks themselves were well done and were certainly the best part of the show, displaying a wide variety of skills. However, they tended to rely on making things appear, disappear or relocate - whether it be West’s shoes or the two magicians themselves. Indeed, you will probably have seen most of these tricks before, whether it be plucking coins from behind an audience member’s ear, or throwing cards into the air and spearing specific ones on to a sword. Unfortunately, the fact that they were incorporated into a weak storyline was not quite enough to make them fresh and exciting, and as the two were so involved in their roles, the tricks were not carried off with the same bravado and build-up that makes ordinary magic shows so exciting.
In fact, these roles were another flaw in the piece: neither seemed to act their part in a convincing manner and West often spoken far too quickly, swallowing lines that may have been amusing. Bizarrely, West was much better when playing the roles of various ancillary characters, being much more expressive and interesting. Although it is highly creative, the show lacks the development to transform its various elements into consummate hour of magical performance.
