Magic Night at Madame Jojos

Magic Night at Madame Jojos

08 September, 2009
by: Gemma Bergomi

Promising to be something a little out of the ordinary, Magic Night at Madame Jojos is crammed with comedy, cabaret and of course, magic. Tonight features ballerina Madame Galina, newcomer James Pritchard, Max Somerset and AJ the Escapologist. What better way to begin the weekend?

The show begins with a few warm up tricks from comedian and magician Christian Lee who is hosting the evening. Throughout the night he revives the definitive magic tricks, including sawing people in half and pulling random things out of his sleeves. Pretty average we can all agree, but he does admit his tricks are only to make the other performers look good. Anyway, what he lacks in variety he makes up for with his crowd interaction!

Ukulele crooner Lady Caro, instantly involves the crowd by inviting a few men from the audience up to help her through some jazz numbers as well as the classic 'Milkshake' by Kelis. Relying heavily on audience participation is always risky and at points it works for Lady Carol, but she never quite grabs our full attention. Needle -swallowing James Pritchard has a similar effect. This young, snappy dresser is only on for three minutes it seems, before he quickly skuttles offstage, we assume to have a couple of soothers after regurgitating a shotglass full of needles onto a piece of string.

Breaking out the child abuse jokes and anything else tongue-in-cheek is AJ the escapologist. As he warns the audience that there is a genuine risk of him falling off his skateboard, we all laugh and assume he is joking. Turns out he isn't. His knife juggling act goes a little bit wrong, and he drops one of them into the front row. Thankfully no one is hurt, but the front row look unimpressed and I can't help relishing in a trick gone wrong!

On next is eastern European ballerina Madame Galina fighting to be the star of the show and wholly succeeding. She has everyone in stitches. She isn't afraid to delve into the crowd either, and preys on the awkward men in the audience, plucking an innocent young man from the audience to be the star of her next ballet. Much to my delight this results in some very awkward dancing.

Sadly, swine flu strikes again and instead of Marc Spellman finishing the show, Max Somerset takes over Magic Night for the grand finale. Best known for his Sky One show Max Magic, his ending trick is a characteristic 'how-did-he-do-it?' moment. He hands over a locked miniature treasure chest to a lady in the audience and promises her the contents if he fails to complete the minute waltz in under a minute. With the help of some random participants, he completes the task – the second time round anyway – and it turns out the names and exact time he completes the waltz in are written in the locked box.

Although it's unlikely to actually blow your mind, Magic Night is a good comedy cabaret night. If you are expecting magic in line with Houdini you might be disappointed, otherwise it is a great show to go and see.

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Gemma Bergomi