International Grand Magic Show

The International Grand Magic Show has been touring New Zealand, finishing up in Wellington’s Opera House. Who doesn’t like a bit of magic? We decided to go along to see what it’s all about.

Whilst not aimed exclusively at children, there were a lot of families in the audience, and the show started at 6:00pm. We decided, therefore, to dine afterwards rather than before, as is tradition. 

At the beginning, we were each handed four playing cards and told to hold onto them for later in the show. We’ll see what happens later…

The show consists mainly of traditional magic tricks – things appearing out of “nowhere”, chopping ladies into bits, escapology and death spikes, that sort of thing. In between there was a French comedian, Jean Phillippe (from Invercargill), who was more of a circus entertainer than actual magician. There was also a guest star from The Philippines, who did a lot of concealed flowers, canes, and confetti showers. Felicity Rogers, New Zealand’s only female magician, did a routine which was more interpretive dance than actual magic. And the Chinese mastermind, Mr. How – so-called because after his tricks, the audiences asks “How?” The show was compered by Reggie Gavel, who introduced each act and also gave us a bit of chat – largely, I suspect, to give time for the set-up of the next illusion.

Mr How’s final trick involved the whole audiences’ participation, and those four cards we’d been handed as we entered the theatre. The first thing we did was tear them in half, and then keep one half of one of the cards in our pocket. After that there was much shuffling, exchanging of half-cards with our neighbours on each side, then a routine of keeping one part, discarding the next, over and over, until there was just one half-card left. He then invited us to pull the original half-card from our pockets, and see if they matched…and they did! “How?” we all cried. That’s magic!

The show lasted just over two hours, and we’d booked into Kisa for 8:15pm. You remember that cunning plan I had when we went to Mr. Go’s a couple of days ago? Now it came to fruition, as we had an opportunity to use that voucher! We haven’t been to Kisa before, despite it being around for several years, as it’s usually impossible to get a table when we want to dine pre-show due to their policy of reserving half of their tables for walk-ins. All very admirable and democratic, sure, but if we’re going to eat pre-show we want to be certain that we’ve got a table, and they’re usually already full by that time. But this time, they had availability later at night (Wellingtonians – or at least those who dine out at restaurants you have to book – are usually all tucked in bed by 10pm), so we were able to break our duck. Kisa offer Eastern Mediterranean food, on the same basis as many places (including Mr. Go’s) where you order a series of plates and they arrive willy-nilly. We had smacked cucumber, braised fennel, flank steak kebabs, and goat mince flatbread, and very nice it was too. We’ll go back when we can get a table again.