Comedy review: Andrew O'Neill: Black Magick Fun Hour '“ Free

Edinburgh Festival Fringe: We start with an invocation to Hermes (aka Mercury, Trickster God of the Spoken Word) and the Liquid Rooms fill with the scent of incense.

Liquid Room Annexe (Venue 276)

***

Those of you expecting actual magick will be disappointed. What you will get is high-energy song, one-liners, tales of O’Neill’s discovery and use of black magick (spoiler alert, heavy on the power of incantation and no blood sacrifice mentioned), some great flights of fancy about new proverbs, the first ever knock-knock joke, and a recursive Oscar Wilde gag, as well as a repeated cry of “we must cage them!” (first made by Boudicca in the Iceni).

Go figure. As always, O’Neill is much more intellectual than he seems. While tales of Hermes helping to write his show and contacting the Moon Goddess on Parliament Hill might sound strange, you are left pondering the power of the incantation and rethinking the way jokes work.

This is a strange broth of a show, with little bits of many things bubbling away in there, but it is highly enjoyable.

Until 27 August. Today 5pm.