Review: MIND MANGLER: MEMBER OF THE TRAGIC CIRCLE, The Apollo Theatre

Pamela Raith

Join the Mind Mangler as he attempts a spectacular West End return in a show full of comedy and magic.

Mischief Theatre present their latest foray onto the West End with Mind Mangler: Member of the Tragic Circle. Regular Mischief followers will have last seen The Mind Mangler played by Henry Lewis in Magic Goes Wrong to great effect that he now has a full show.

As the audience filter in they are asked to fill in a slip with their name and a secret, these are then placed in a fishbowl on the stage for a later part of the show. Lewis’ Mind Mangler is larger than life and full of enthusiasm at the beginning of the show and becomes more growlingly frustrated as the show goes on. Jonathan Sayer appears as ‘audience member’ who seems intent on messing up the Mind Mangler’s magic.

The show is side-splittingly funny, it is well written and doesn’t dwell too long on certain jokes. As we have come to expect with Mischief shows the comic timing is impeccable. There is a mix of quick gags such as ‘Speedy Jesus’ in which Lewis performs Jesus’ miracles such as water into wine in a quick paced filler, or where more time is spent in the aforementioned ‘secrets section’. In this section the Mind Mangler gets an audience member to pull a secret out of the bowl, announce the name and endeavours to try and guess what that particular audience members secret is, this has a great pay-off and even though it is the longest segment in the show it keeps the audience members on the edge of their seats in anticipation if it will be their secret next. The show thrives on audience interaction such as suggesting an animal for the hypnotism scene, and a shovel-nosed guitar fish is used to great effect as a running gag throughout the show.

Sayer’s audience member character is a running joke but, is performed to a tee and whilst his presence isn’t as strong as Lewis’ Mind Mangler he is often funny in an understated way and still manages to steal many of the scenes.

The set is simple and laid out like a traditional magic show and the scene changes are slick, the show excels best when it performs it’s real magic and the big reveal at the end leaves audiences in awe at just how the trick has been pulled off.

Mind Mangler uses some of the script from it’s original appearance in Magic Goes Wrong such as the ‘John’ Gag and this is somewhat disappointing as it would have been nice to have the new material. Nevertheless the show is extremely funny, well timed at a little over two hours, well scripted and well performed that will leave audiences delighted.

**** Four Stars

Reviewed by Emma Rooney

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