By Daniel Muggleton
COMEDY
Daniel Muggleton: You May Be White, I May Be Crazy
Foundry Theatre, December 20
Reviewed by DANIEL HERBORN
★★★★
Sydneysider Daniel Muggleton, who has travelled the country far and wide in his trademark red Adidas tracksuit, recently stumbled into his ideal gig. A Bathurst theatre paid him a $500 cancellation fee when ticket sales for his show proved, well, non-existent. If he’d only known about this lucrative loophole earlier …
Cheekily describing his key demographic as “scum”, Muggleton has been performing stand-up for more than a decade now, and well and truly knows his persona as a comic: a bit prickly, unafraid to play the heel but always with a tongue-in-cheek tenor that lets you know the jabs are playful.
Daniel Muggleton well and truly inhabits his comic persona. Credit: Thomas Davies
In the past year he became a father. This change prompts some reflections on masculinity and not knowing how to teach his son how to be a real man, being, in his estimation, a white-collar beta-male who has to call someone whenever anything needs repairing around the house.
You May Be White, I May Be Crazy is far from being another comedy show about being a new parent, however. Despite a memorable routine about a fraught argument with his wife while preparing to host a family Christmas, and a late-in-the-day revelation from his father about his upbringing, Muggleton gets his laughs more from big-picture topics like nationality and politics than from personal storytelling.
His time as a younger comic in Britain features heavily, with caustic and clever reflections on male bonding through bullying, the drinking cultures of the two countries, and the UK’s history of colonisation. He often adds meta-commentary on these biting observations by kneeling to deliver “footnotes” to his jokes, adding an extra layer to the already strong writing.
There’s also some typically nimble and punchy crowd work, playing off those in the more expensive, tiered seats against the cheaper, upstairs section. It’s definitely Bathurst’s loss.
MAGIC
Now You See Me Live
Opera House Concert Hall, December 19. Until January 4
Reviewed by DANIEL HERBORN
★★★★
You’ll search in vain for anything but the slightest crossover with the blockbuster movie franchise of the same name at this live show (it stars four magicians dressed in black, South African illusionist Gabriella Lester looks vaguely like Isla Fisher) but no matter – Now You See Me Live is a rollicking night of modern magic, slick and involving.
The great escape: Enzo Weyne and Gabriella Lester. Credit: Ken Leanfore
With American comedy magician Adam Trent as de facto ringleader, it breezes through different genres of magic, including escapology, a style that can often be technically impressive but visually inert.
Yet this show pulls off the neat trick of making every step of its escapes engaging. In one sequence, Lester works furiously to extract herself from a box before explosives detonate, while the Italian Andrew Basso skilfully performs a routine popularised by Houdini, emerging from a clear water cell after being lowered in upside-down with his hands bound.
Then there are canny twists on classic tricks, like the jovial, quick-witted Trent putting an audience member’s phone in grave danger, and a card trick the entire crowd can take part in.
Perhaps most impressive of all is a simple but stunning “teleportation” routine from Frenchman Enzo Weyne that needs to be seen to be disbelieved.
It’s a kid-friendly affair, too – just ask Theo, an adorable almost-four-year-old who stole the show when he confidently strode on stage to help with a rising card trick, an illusion where the volunteer’s signed card appears to magically rise to the top of the deck, no matter how it is shuffled.
It all builds to an endearing finale where each of the quartet reflects on finding magic as a child. All four seem to have an innate understanding that magic is essentially storytelling, and collectively they’ve crafted a tale with more than enough jokes, poignant moments and surprises to keep you hooked.
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