Vincent Gambini: This Is Not A Magic Show

Behind the velvet and flash, magic is a trade that takes decades to master. A trade with its own guild, its own rules, its own cliques. And alongside the workmanlike acquisition of skills, magicians must arm themselves with enough charm to convert misdirection and trickery into baffled astonishment. Or so we're told. Vincent Gambini's performance takes apart the clockwork mechanics of wonder in ingenious style.

Gambini got into the Magic Circle by submitting a thesis called 'Deconstructing Magic': his approach is just as intelligent, but not half as dry as this academic focus might suggest. His style is conversational, and misleadingly spontaneous. He tells us that he's worried he won't find an opening trick that's flashy enough to wow Fringe audiences. A few phone calls to celebrity magicians later, and he's still at a loss. Or so he'd have us believe.

Gambini constantly trades on his shy, lovable magic nerd persona, buying the audience's sympathy and credulity at once. But he's both generous and miserly with the truth. He'll seem to admit failure, then shower us with all the riches of a beautifully accomplished card trick, or a modest pile of silver dollars.

The most intriguing part of his show comes as he delves into the psychology of magic, becoming both test subject and experimental conjuror at once. But the constantly shifting relationship between him and the audience means that every moment of the performance is card-edge sharp. He might trade on wonder, but his pared-down delivery is all magic and no flash.

Vincent Gambini: This Is Not A Magic Show, Forest Fringe, 17-21 Aug, 12:00pm