★★★★★
Pete Firman returns for his ninth consecutive Edinburgh Fringe festival, with his unique mix of illusions and wit, attempting to make his audience laugh and scratch their heads in equal measure and inevitably leave them asking ‘how on earth did he do that?’
You know how some people are mad for magic? Well I'm not one of those, but whenever a bit of magic pops up on television (mainly on Britain's Got Talent if I'm being completely honest), I am always left with my jaw wide open and for days after spending sleepless nights wondering how what they did was done.
Often I'd come to the conclusion that camera trickery was at play, or that the audience are too far away to spot any slight of hand movements the magician might make.
But on Tuesday night I went to see Pete Firman, a magician who I had already seen on television (The Magicians), and I sat in the second row to deliberately try and see if I could spot how his routines were done. I didn't want to sit in the front row because I was only too aware that if I did, I might get called up onto stage, and I didn't want that!
It's probably a bad idea for me to tell you exactly what the tricks he performed were as it would undoubtedly ruin the experience for you if you decided to go and see him, (which you should), but what I will say, is that from start to finish each of the tricks were so excellently executed that I couldn't for the life of me work out how he'd done it.
But it wasn't just Pete performing the tricks, there was a lot of audience participation too (See, I told you. That's why I didn't want to sit in the front row), and somehow they were able to execute the tricks just as perfectly as Pete.
Some magicians can appear boring, or lacking personality. This is certainly not the case for Pete Firman who uses his Middlesborough charm and ability to write comedy to win an audience over who are already won over by his incredible tricks.
He had me all the way through the show with my jaw wide open, and the hour flew by. But the standout trick came at the very end, a trick that I will forever be trying to figure out.
If any of you saw the trick on the Britain's Got Talent final where Amanda Holden's ring was removed from inside a lemon, Pete does a similar trick here in Edinburgh but steps it up... I won't tell you how, but you will be amazed when you see it!
And for that trick alone, Pete absolutely deserves a 5-star review.