MAGIC over the past few years has gone hip: the days of vaudeville music hall turns has given way to street artists such as David Blaine and Dynamo and shock acts such as Jerry Sadowitz.
So, next Thursday’s day of magic at South Street arts centre will be something completely different.
Morgan and West, the self-styled time travelling magicians, are performing three shows, two aimed at younger children and the third is suitable for all ages.
If the name sounds familiar, it’s because they appeared on Penn & Teller’s Fool Us show, where they fooled the master magicians, and they’ve also appeared in Reading before.
Rhys Morgan is looking forward to the shows.
“We started out about three or four years ago now doing a thing called Comedy Club for Kids where we do a 20 minute set for kids and we really like doing it. What did was set up a kids magic show is specifically aimed at children.
“Parents and the adults in the room are really enjoying it with their kids. We want it to be good magic with the sort of humour that all hits all the levels, sort of like Simpsons humour, where if you’re a kid you get one thing out of it, if you’re a teenager you get another thing out and if you’re an adult you get another thing out of it.
“With the evening show there’s a lot of of mind reading and mentalism in it and the younger kids tend not to get that.”
And the duo, who met at university and started studying magic because they wanted to find out how the tricks were done, enjoy the interaction.
“It’s really a hit across the board and it’s such good fun. Really really great fun. There’s nothing quite like having a couple hundred kids booing Mr West in the of the show because he’s doing something perceived to be evil or bad or something like that.”
The duo have a Victorian theme, but they won’t be vanishing any schoolboys up chimneys.
“We wanted to look very different,” Rhys explains. “We want to play characters and frankly we like dressing up – it’s fun. It gives us a slightly more gentlemanly character who is quite different to who we are in real life.”
And they enjoyed their visit to South Street last year: “Last year we were there with our very first kids show and it went very, very well and people really enjoy it.
“It’s an nice intimate venue: by the end of it you really feel like you know the audience.”
And if you saw Morgan and West last year, look out for something completely different.
“There’s nothing repeated from the previous show – more magic for kids is entirely new,” Rhys promises.
“You won’t see anything like this anywhere else in the UK or really anywhere in the world at the moment … and it’s great fun.”
Morgan and West: More Magic for Kids (Bigger, Bolder and More Brilliant Than Before) is at South Street on Thursday, February 15 at 11.30am and 2pm. Tickets cost £12 and £9.50 for concessions. Morgan and West: Time Travelling Magicians is at 7.30pm. Tickets cost £13, £10.50 concessions. For details or to book call 0118 960 6060 or visit www.readingarts.com
