New acts conjuring up something special

IN three weeks time it will be interesting to see if the army of magical performers at this year's Fringe have brought anything new to Edinburgh, or if we will just have see the old cut-a-rope-restore-a-rope trick again. And again. And again.

A few years ago you would have been hard-pressed to find any form of top-class magic and mental chicanery at the Festival. However, times have changed and this year magic/mentalist fans are again spoilt for choice.

Ali Cook has his show A Touch of Vegas at the Gilded Balloon. The star of Channel 4's Dirty Tricks, Cook has also starred in Monkey Magic, one of Five's most popular shows. Another stalwart of that programme is Pete Firman, who brings his show Flimflam to The Underbelly. Firman, regarded as the face of the alternative magic scene, is no small talent, and has a great delivery of irreverent, off-beat humour.

On the other side of the coin, Guy Hollingworth's show at the Assembly Rooms is The Expert at the Card Table, offering the chance to appreciate consummate card-work delivered with panache and elegance. Across town, a trio of our American cousins offer their own skewed slant on the magical arts, with Big Al Catraz, RJ Owens and Jay Alexander plumbing the depths of their prop box at Zoo Southside – if you like high-energy magic it's worth noting that Alexander counts The Rolling Stones among his biggest fans.

It's great to see a clutch of Scottish representatives performing on the Fringe too. There's Barry and Stuart, from up Aberdeen way, at The Underbelly. These "part-time warlocks" never fail to provide humour with a dark, subversive edge.

Jerry Sadowitz is also back, appearing at The Udderbelly. He may have a brutally acerbic style, but he is one of the best close-up card manipulators in the world. Indeed, some of his effects are so technically difficult that only a couple of magicians in the world can perform them. And that's remarkable.

Edinburgh's own Ian Kendall is back again. This year he is appearing at The Zoo and will be using classic effects to take his audience "back to the golden age of magic".

Local magician Kevin McMahon – who only took up magic after giving a good account of himself on popular TV show Faking It – is appearing with Alan Hudson. They will be demonstrating how to use magic to get girls. This promises to be one of the better ones.

Also from Edinburgh, but as far as you can get from balloon animals, shiny boxes and coloured scarves, is Colin McLeod with his fine mix of mind-reading and psychological illusion. His show, It's All in the Mind?, showcases one of the freshest thinkers on the scene at the moment and he looks set to make quite an impact in the future.

Appearing at Tea Tree Tea, Bread Street, he'll get inside your mind.

Along similar lines, Chris Cox brings Control Freak to The Pleasance. Cox takes elements of traditional mind-reading and fuses them with technology and a spattering of comedy. Magic for the thinking man, perhaps.

Pete Wells offers a free show called Mental. But if you think you're getting the level of mind manipulation offered by McLeod and Cox, you'd be wrong. This is billed as a demonstration of pseudoscientific and psychic silliness. And let's not forget Magical Jello, at Riddles Court, where there is a free lolly for every audience member.

But remember, if you are older than six years of age and you see any of the Fringe magicians smugly cut a rope and then "magically" put it back together, the law states that you must shout the magic word, "Gerroff".