For a sell-out Saturday show, owner Mark Bennett and fellow house magician Sunil Singh took to the compact red velvet curtain-flanked stage at the Smoke & Mirrors Magic Bar, tucked into Denmark Street opposite the Hippodrome stage door, to present a night of illusion and mind-reading. A rolling roster of local and sometimes national magicians keeps this show fresh and ever evolving.
48 eager punters crowded in to the curtained-off cosy performance space at the rear of the bar to be met by compère Marco Long, who added a few tricks of his own, including an unexpected birthday gift for someone in the audience, before whipping the congregation up before the first act.
Sunil Singh is a very smooth operator. Suave yet disarmingly self-deprecating at times… especially when straying close to double entendres… “Did I really just say that?” he giggled after a fleeting ‘unexpected’ reference to masturbation. Yes the language can be explicit, so leave any prudishness at home.
Sunil’s thing is cards. He can make them disappear, reappear and stack up in the most unlikely permutations. The audience was required to take part, at one point being divided and sub-divided in order to ascertain the ‘psychic member’ amongst us. Singh looked and acted sharp, always treating his volunteers with great respect, always applauding their contribution. After all, he needs their naivety to win our credibility. There were some drop-dead impressive moments when cards dematerialised, despite being gripped by guests, only to rematerialise in the unlikeliest of locations.
After a 20-minute interval, Long was back to introduce us to our second magician, Mark Bennett. Mark doesn’t do suave, he’s much ruder! With enough F-words to pepper spray a football terrace, Mark is no gentle wit, but he went down well in the second half of this gig, give or take the odd wince from some female members of the audience with his reference to a mini being a ‘girls car’. Perhaps he just likes to puncture the PC bubble for effect – being occasionally objectionable is certainly one part of the buffed-up Bennett stage persona.
Bennett’s set was a basket full of surprises that largely featured impressive mind-reading prowess, paper ripping illusion, and later, taking a leaf out of Nina Conti’s book, using a rubber dummy facemask and ventriloquism to transform audience member and lorry driver Lee into ‘Wizard Lee’, with hilarious results.
As the show ended, compère Marco was on hand to perform further magic at individual tables, while the white baby grand piano struck up in the bar. For an enjoyable alternative night out in Bristol, Smoke & Mirrors is definitely worth a pot. ★★★☆☆ Simon Bishop 23rd October 2016
