If you are looking for an evening of true escapism and entertainment then Ben Hart: Jadoo is for you.
From the moment Ben takes to the stage and reveals his intention to discover the magic inside us, we are drawn into a dynamic of symbiosis that is hard to escape.
As he tosses the first object into the stalls, he brings the audience into a pact where we are not just watching magic, we are making it.
Whether or not you have direct involvement with one of the magician’s routines, his spellbinding patter and interactive choreography mean it is impossible not to feel part of the show.
Wow moments and wonderment
With a narrative that tells the tale of Ben’s Indian ancestry and the magic of the Jadoo-wallahs (hence the show’s name), Jadoo is a show that brings the audience along on a journey of wow moments and wonderment.
The atmospherically lit stage offers little by way of distraction, making the magician’s choice to practice simple sleight-of-hand tricks alongside more complex mind-reading routines a brave one.
But it is a choice that pays off spectacularly, with each final flourish leaving the onlooker with a beautiful sense of bafflement.
Hart’s generosity as a performer means he repeats some tricks multiple times giving the audience an opportunity to test and retest their own theories against the evidence of their eyes.
He also plays into audience suspicions on more than one occasion before gleefully whipping back the curtain to reveal we were wrong all along.
And while humour plays a large part in the show, we never feel that Ben is laughing at us, always with us.
His great sense of comic timing and undersold asides have the audience in stitches at points but his solemn reverence for the art shines through throughout the two-hour show.
A spectacular introduction to live magic for the uninitiated, not to be missed.
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