Theatre Review - White Magic!

Published on Tuesday 9 December 2008 18:33

WHITE MAGIC! **** LA GAIETE SPIEGELTENT, EDINBURGH

THE Gilded Balloon is best known for being one of the major players during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, but clearly knows how to show people a good time whatever the season.

Drawing together an array of popular Fringe acts, its new cabaret-style production White Magic! couldn't be more diverse if it tried. Over the space of 90 minutes, the performers serve up an entertaining mix of humour, music and magic, with not a weak link amongst them.

Kitted out with cosy booths and candle-lit tables, the Spiegeltent blends the intimacy of a comedy club with a touch of cruise ship glamour. The perfect venue to house an Australian drag act, dim-witted clown, comedic magician, hip hop duo and sock-puppeteer. Fed to us in bite-size chunks, the acts do their thing then disappear, before there's even a fleeting chance of us tiring of them.

Hailing from Melbourne, Drags Aloud have a dressing-up box any six-year-old girl would die for. Sequins, feathers – even a Muppet costume – all worn by four fearsome divas armed with withering looks that could kill you at 20 paces.

Hapless clown Clive Nicholas Andrews manages to make the most simple procedures laughably complex, while the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre blend charm and cheek to superb effect.

Add Edinburgh-based hip hoppers Etch N Sketch and close-hand magician Kevin McMahon into the mix, and you've got a night out to remember, all held together by the warm glow of host Philip Dundas.

From the well-oiled group celebrating a 21st birthday to the fiftysomethings on a girls' night out, a good time was had by all. Because nothing represents yuletide gaiety quite like a plump Aussie male dressed as a female Christmas pudding.