Comedy review: The Colour Ham, Voodoo Rooms

By BRIAN DONALDSON
Published on 06/07/2012 00:06

They describe their venture as “comedy with special needs” but the Colour Ham actually represent a battle for the soul within magical circles.

Contemporary magicians have long recognised that cunning close-up tricks and impressive illusions are no longer enough for a modern audience; they are also expected to have the wit of an above-average stand-up. The likes of Derren Brown, Paul Zenon and Barry and Stuart take the humour as far as they can push it (not especially far) before conceding that they should focus on their day job.

The Colour Ham have acknowledged that this meeting of comedy and magic is too much for one person to carry off, and so they’ve struck upon the ingenious tactic of having three elements up on stage within separate individuals. You may recall Kevin McMahon duping Paul Daniels into believing he was an experienced conjuror in Faking It; he is now fully in his comfort zone as a cheesy purveyor of trad trickery. Colin McLeod is a proponent of the mentalist mind reading axis, whose feats of hypnotism might not be particularly original but that doesn’t stop them from being highly impressive.

Gavin Oattes represents the daftness that magic can rarely tap into and keeps grounding his colleagues by undermining McLeod’s superb hypnotism routine and stealing the show from McMahon’s skilful sleight-of-hand as a profanity-spouting version of Gaelic TV kids character Dotaman. The Colour Ham have discovered an alternative corner for themselves in a busy field and long may they keep cutting it.

Rating: ***