Barry & Stuart Magicians @ Durham Gala

On Friday I took Mrs B up to Durham to the Gala to see the latest in a long line of Scottish double acts.  For those of you who have yet to go to the Gala theatre you're really missing out on a treat.  From the modern and spacious entrance, the light and airy bar and the intimate size you go into a perfectly formed, excellently designed auditorium ideal for smaller shows, stand up and, in this case, magic (magic .... magic .... magic.... that was my attempt at an echo for dramatic effect). The seats are super comfy with more leg room than a 1st class seat on BMI and the sight lines are all excellent.

So, we came to watch Barry & Stuart; a two-man magic act also known as the 2magicians. They are known for their dark and sinister performing style, weird and bloody tricks and for hosting and arranging the recent BBC series 'Magicians' (where celebrities were coached into doing magic & illusions) 

I can't really delve too deeply into the act without giving away the essence of surprise & wonder but I will say that these two young men have honed their act into a very slick, very modern take on a range of quite traditional illusions & slight of hand tricks.  Afterwards you are left thinking, "I've seen that trick before, but never like this" and you still can't work out how they do it.  Inter-played with the magic is an amazing feat of memory recall which uses a bed of nails in a very novel way.  My personal favourite was probably the simplest; while Stuart performed the appearing coin trick, Barry accompanied his actions on a sound-box loaded with Super Mario jingles & effects - watching Stuart run around the auditorium do the strains of Nintendo's famous plumber was indeed simple but very, very  funny.

I thought that some more ornate tricks would be difficult to do with such an intimate audience, but having the two of them on stage means you are always torn as to who to watch and, of course, while you are watching one the other one is busy keeping the illusion moving.  Suffice it to say I really tried hard to pay close attention to the set up of tricks, felt sure I would be able to at least work out how, even if I couldn't see when but alas, no, they are just too slick or they throw in a last minute curve ball and the trick morphs into something completely different.

Their humour is dark, modern and very much grounded in who they are; two 20 something lads from Scotland who are rapidly rivalling the great Penn & Tellar for the crown of best in crass & class - not all their tricks are family friendly so beware - there is an age suggestion of 14+ and there is reason for that :-).

Barry & Stuart are busy touring 'darn sarf' for the moment, but then they have almost all of August in Edinburgh, so if you're heading up north for the festival I would definitely recommend taking in their show.