by Mandrake » May 23rd, '15, 21:44
I saw this in Birmingham last Wednesday, apparently it was the first night of the tour and therefore likely to be a bit rough around the edges!
The first half was all new stuff, apart from the chop cup routine which Paul said he'd been asked to do many, many times. Debbie did three routines, the balloon string version of gypsy thread, a card trick which wasn't very visible to the audience and a nice routine with a silk disappearing and appearing between two previously knotted silks - think Appearing Bra' and you'll get the idea. Paul did a good mentalist routine with different classic bottles of beer, a small scale card on glass, and he and Debbie did a Piddingtons style routine with audience members selecting playing cards at random which were 'divined' by Debbie on stage. A guillotine effect went very well indeed. Some things went wrong at times, a table being taken off stage by Debbie collapsed but it was turned into a bit of comedy and the audience appreciated it. The beer bottle routine looked a bit squashed on another table and Paul wisecracked, 'Note for tomorrow's show - get a bigger table' again a great laugh line.
The second half was Paul's classic act, plenty of audience interaction and then into electric chairs - proof if ever it were needed that the old stuff can be the good stuff and, no matter how often its performed, people will enjoy it. There was loads of comedy and, as expected, Paul and Debbie received a well deserved standing ovation at the end. Well worth going to see if it comes round your way, see the masters while they're still performing live rather than on TV repeats and DVDs!