Review: Ada Campe and the Psychic Duck
A delightful and mischievous show from Ada Campe
The Very Best of the Edinburgh Festivals 2024
Review: Assembly Hall
Review: Orchestra of Sound
Review: After the Silence
Published 13 Aug 2019
Ada Campe
Variety artiste extraordinaire, Ada Campe (Naomi Paxton) will be our glamorous raconteur for the evening. Her sweet smile and sweet bag make her the unofficial cool grandmother of the room. She is a stage presence that dominates without being dominating. Psychic Duck is a tale of misadventure, past lovers and indistinguishable funerals, having spent the last year in ever greater attendance at them. Campe is at a time in her life where she feels the need to take a look back at past misbehaviours. Faced with her own mortality, she seems set on passing down her wisdom and knowledge to an adoring crowd. A recounting of a fairground mystery helps guide the audience through the magic.
The magician and comedian has a wicked side she isn't afraid to share. A complex dance routine involving a ring master and naughty moose is destined to derail before any "volunteers" have a chance to process what they've been asked to do. Mind reading balloon snakes and Argos book magic tricks all hit home runs with a willing audience. More often than not, it's her magic tricks that wow the audeince. Though individual routines work well, the end result is more like a greatest hits show than a fully realised one.