The title and some of the banter are different, but essentially this is the same must see act magician-mentalist Chris Cox brought to Edinburgh last year. His stock in trade is to appear to know in advance what card a member of the audience will pick or what word he will choose from a book, since Cox will have the answer already written somewhere. Among the previously seen tricks are the circled word in the Fringe brochure already printed on Cox’s T-shirt, the audience member’s drawing he can duplicate without having seen it, and the collection of audience suggestions for film credits that magically appear on a DVD that has been held by one patron from the beginning.
Cox acknowledges that these are all tricks, built on subliminal suggestions, sleight-of-hand and the reading of unconscious giveaways by his volunteers, but if anything that only adds to his impressiveness, since we are clearly in the hands of a master technician. Also contributing to the show’s fun is his amiable informality – he chooses volunteers by tossing a toy ferret into the audience – and complete absence of the traditional magician’s false pomposity and flashiness.
