by Mandrake » Nov 9th, '04, 16:07
I saw Paul Daniels in Cabaret last Saturday - it was the last of his contracted appearances on the Warner's Hotels circuit so, although a Review isn't appropriate, I thought I'd post something here in case anyone else is interested!
Paul's act was the same club act he's used many times before - a version from a late 1970s' Wheeltappers and Shunter's Social Club programme was on one of the Magic's Best programmes earlier this year - and it was at least 10 minutes before he did any magic. Lots of topical gags about George Bush being re-elected and so on plus a few words in memory of Fred Dibnah.
The act started with the Chop Cup which finishes with the lemon and orange; then the one where you start with 6 cards, take away 3 and you're left with....6 - many times over. He also did a neat bit of card forcing where 4 random gents in the front row were asked to pick a card and in each case it was the QH. I know, I was one of them! Paul also made a crack about my nice stripy shirt looking like a pyjama jacket and I had to laugh as I'd already made that comment when SWMBO bought it for me! He carried on and did a routine with 2 ladies from the audience who each counted out 10 cards, stuck them down their respective cleavages, and when counted again, one had 7 the other had 13. A nice bog standard effect but with the added interest of being able to stare at two cleavages without being smacked in the head for it! Immediately after this, the ladies' partners were called out and Paul did electric chairs with them. The chairs were definitely ordinary as the same ones were used in the following night's musical show so any theories on that would be welcome! Paul also worked in the torn and restored (borrowed) £20 note, vanished it and after other things had taken place finally revealed it inside our favourite fruit - a Lemon! Sadly, he had forgotten a plate and had to cut it on a tissue on one of the chairs and the lemon was so hard skinned (or the knife so blunt) it took several attempts to cut into it. Of course, all that could have been planned but it served no real purpose and looked genuine enough.
All in all it was a great show and the 90 minutes flew past as though it was only half an hour. It was good to see magic as part of an entertaining act and not just a succession of tricks, no matter how well themed together. It was brilliant to see one of Magic's rock solid stalwarts in action - he really is even better in the flesh than on TV so, if you get chance to see him live, then go for it! Biggest disappointment? No Debbie!!! At least, not on stage and nobody mentioned her so I guess she was at home looking after the cats/dogs/whatever. Also there was no opportunity for autographs, I suppose I could have asked one of the entertainment team but I didn't like to push my luck!