Company
Magical Bones
Chris Cox
Jonathan Goodwin
Ben Hart
Josephine Lee
Lee Thompson
Show date: Wednesday 25th February 2016 @ Sunderland Empire
I bought tickets at the very last minute for this show and it was well worth it. Plenty of offers on thanks to ATG Theatre Card and I paid a very low £10 per ticket for the show and a drink in the theater as well! I have to admit it was easily the best £10 I have spent to go to the Theatre.
I wasn’t really sure what to expect as hadn’t heard a lot about this show, I did check before hand and it had amazing reviews but I didn’t want to know too much about the tricks involved in it. The show has a good tone to it as we are told the story of magic and how it has developed over the years but also keeping some of the same tricks but done in slightly different ways I thought that was a great approach to keep everyone on edge.
We have six very different styles and performers who swap over throughout the show and each bring something incredible and exciting as they truly spellbind the audience with trick after trick or even stunts!
Jonathan Goodwin the daredevil of the group and yes he really did get set on fire whilst in a straight jacket and had to escape to put the fire out himself. Very very impressive. He also had some more stunts which involved showing incredible strength and then accurate aiming with a crossbow. All of these leave you gasping for breath in the audience and hoping it all works out well. Something truly engaging about watching this type of thing live on stage it really is incredible and proving the title of the show very wrong over and over again that it is possible.
Chris Cox had an amazing on stage presence and really did get everyone going with his larger than life charisma and act on the stage. Can he really read minds? Well he managed to guess everything right in his two stints with the outfit and name along with the suggestions being put in the box to control him. I really do wish I had put something in the box, wanted to see him do the time warp!
Ben Hart was showing off some older more known tricks and was very engaging from start to finish. He actually put on my favorite of the night, a member of the audience transported from one box to the other. Like honestly how was that possible?!?! She looked so shaken when she came off the stage . . . Couldn’t be a set up could it? I hope not as I really was left shocked as the first act came to a close.
Magical Bones only made one appearance on the stage but it certainly was amazing. Using street magic and cards for his tricks that force you to watch his hands so closely trying to see how he has managed to pull it off. Breakdancing and backflipping to help aid his performance, possibly a way to make you stop looking closely? But he was an entertainer and it certainly worked.
Josephine Lee shows us how she can escape from well pretty much anywhere and Lee Thompson gives us one of the oldest tricks in cutting someone in half, as well as an incredible audience participation trick with the cards on every seat in the Theatre which some how totally worked! Still don’t know how that worked either, amazing!!!
It really was breathtaking from start to finish and I really do recommend heading to see this at the theater and it really is special seeing everything live and trying to spot how some of the tricks could be done. If its coming to a theater near you over the next few months get yourself along for it!
So many times throughout the show you are left gasping and wondering how that has just happened. Did you really just watch them do that? How is it possible? Not forgetting the slow applause which was not because we didn’t like it but were so amazed and wondering how it was at all possible!
