fringe: razi - mesmerise

adelaide fringe: razi - mesmerise
If the word adorkable was ever going to apply to a Fringe performer, then Razi (Adelaide magician Ryan Osbourn) would be it.

And that does work for his stage presence... even if he does seem nervous or flub a line or two, it's easy to forgive.

I will say that some of his magic tricks I've seen other performers do better... I'm not sure if it was our closeness to the stage or Osbourne's nerves, but there were a few moments where the audience could see the inner workings.

That's not to deny that he knows his stuff, and he can definitely handle a deck of cards, even when I knew roughly what he was doing, I still didn't actually see him doing it.

The mentalism section was interesting, especially because there were a large number of kids in the audience which I haven't run into at previous magic shows (they've mostly been a little more adult orientated). And of course whenever Razi asked for volunteers, they all wanted to be involved. It added some unexpected comedy a couple of times, especially Max and his choice of number.

Actually the number trick was the most interesting... and it's another one of those "I know there's a trick to this part, but I have no idea how he got from step 1 to step 102 without anybody seeing it.

The first two thirds of the show is magic and mentalism, then the last third is contact juggling. I will say that the latter is definitely where Razi shines displaying amazing dexterity and control as he manipulated a number of objects, finished with the crystal spheres as seen in his poster.

As a long time fan of Labyrinth, that part definitely had my attention. I'm not exactly sure what I think about the mask he wore during it. I'm guessing it was to stop people focusing on his face rather than the trick, but it's a bit weird looking...

I'm not sure if it wouldn't have been better to spread the juggling out between the other parts of the show, because it's a lot to take in all at once.

Otherwise it was a good show... not the best magic act I've ever seen, but quite an entertaining one.

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