ASTOUNDING SHOW

Reviewed by Jack Frampton at the Colchester Fringe Festival in November 2024.

Danny Lee Grew ‘24K Magic’ was an astounding show which combined a series of unique complex magic tricks which were often combinations of several smaller magic tricks. 

Danny Lee Grew was able to use humour effectively and convey a more modern form of entertainment than the traditional magic shows where the magician is formal and it was refreshing to have a series of jokes and puns throughout the act. Danny Lee Grew provided an entertaining persona and the lighting and music was very light hearted and the whole act had a very comical and entertaining theme. 

One of the first tricks which was perhaps one of the most fascinating was when he ripped up a newspaper he had shown to an audience into multiple pieces rather suddenly in front of the audience   before folding it and unfolding it and then showed the audience a complete newspaper. He managed to add some suspense to some of the tricks and keep the audience engaged while discussing them. 

There was a series of different tricks which I found particularly astounding including a basic handkerchief trick  which has been performed for century where a magician starts off with one colour handkerchief and then pulls out a second colour and most people are aware with how this trick is done, however he  suddenly made more complex when he opened his hand after performing it and the audience could see this was not the traditional trick and that it was far more complex.  

Some of his tricks had impeccable timing such as a routine with several jumbo size playing cards where a trick was cleverly  performed in time to the song Tequila and this particular trick seemed impeccably well rehearsed and timed. Another part of the routine which amazed me due to the multiple parts of the trick and the multiple things which were done to complicate it was when he did a trick which involved making a 20 pound provided by a child in the audience and then he made the note disappear and performed a trick involving oranges which were given to an audience member and eventually after multiple layers of complexity and several smaller tricks the note finally reappeared inside a playing card which was in one of the oranges much to the audiences amazement. 

Audience participation was used to add to the complexity of the tricks and throughout the show several audience members were called up to assist with the tricks, mostly children.   

Several of the tricks took several minutes as they involved multiple layers of complexity and the audience was kept gripped by the level of complexity. One such trick was seemingly being able to cut a long piece of cloth and being able too make it rejoin multiple times while also using a member of the audience to assist which just left the audience totally clueless to how this could possibly have been done .  

Despite the fact I was seated in the front row I wasn’t able to work out how the tricks were performed and it was astounding.   There didn’t appear to be any mistakes and he seemed very confident in performing the routine and had a good stage presence.  

Several tricks were very unusual and I have not seen them performed before. One was him slowly and carefully bouncing a flower petal on a tennis racket and then producing an egg which he showed the audience and then cracked it into a glass which was astounding to show it was a real egg. 

Another short trick which just helped to add to the flow of the show and have some faster paced trick was almost instantaneously transforming a paper cup into a spiral of paper which immediately and dramatically unfolded by seemingly just pouring a liquid into it.  There was a good string running throughout the show and there were adequate introductions, storytelling and context provided. 

The show was very fast paced and it seemed to go quite quickly and the last few tricks didn’t disappoint  and Danny managed to keep the audience engaged towards the end of the show. The last few tricks were just as entertaining as the first and the audience was astounded by the numbered block which appeared to rearrange themselves. The sheer speed and volume of the last trick in which he used a series of tubes to transform glasses into bottles and bottles into glasses was very impressive and was an excellent choice as a finale.

This show was certainly one of the better magic acts I have seen over the last few years and I would definitely go to any future shows if they came to Colchester again.