Magic Night at Madame JoJo's

Magic Night at Madame JoJo's

08 March, 2010
by: Katuschka

Kate Weir clings to her magical childhood memories - a few bi-curious men in Soho have no hope where there's a yoyo involved.

The last time I saw a magic show I was wearing pigtails and I won a yoyo when I was called up on stage. Bearing this in mind, I was intrigued to see how Magic Night at Madame Jojo’s would hold up as a slick, more adult affair. My perhaps misguided image of a Vegas-style cabaret variety show, includes tricks, music, Elvis and showgirls and a bit of burlesque thrown into the equation. With a friend to take any “audience participation” bullets for me, it looked to be a classy night of sequins, sauce and sleight of hand.

However, this isn’t quite the case. Our compere Neil Henry does an admirable job of segueing through the acts, although his warm-up routine largely consists of asking for any bi-curious men to come onstage – it must be a first for a Soho club to be hard pressed to find one. The next act, The Stupendous Crapini shouldn’t fear any calls to the trading standards committee as his act largely consists of tricks which are intentionally rubbish. Elvis “as you’ve never seen him before” turns out to be upside down – as crafted by John Hicks, the self-styled Paintertainer, which is an amusing piece of quirky talent if not exactly a ‘magic trick’.

American Wes Zaharuk proves to be the saving grace of the evening with physical comedy that sees audience participation taken to new levels of awkwardness as he requests a young lady stand behind him and use her hands to perform various tasks. Almost as risqué as it sounds, after asking her light a cigarette he mutters, “and I like to massage my face a bit first” whilst she fumbles for his mouth.

This evening has the potential to be great, and perhaps my expectations were a little too high, as magic on a small scale hasn’t really wowed audiences since it was shocking to show ankles. So throwing in a bit of stand-up comedy with endearingly grumpy acts such as Piff the Magic Dragon isn’t a bad idea. Overall fun night out, but it's a bit like entering a tent to see a bearded lady only to be met by a shaved bear…entertaining in its own way (I mean, bears are pretty hard to shave), but not quite what you were hoping to see.

For a different experience of Magic Night here's Gemma's review.

Magic Night runs monthly at Madame Jojo's, the next one is 2nd April 2010.

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Katuschka