This story is a lot more unhinged than the ones we’re used to… Mind Mangler Review

 Once again, I find myself reviewing another Mischief show (fun fact: this is the first time I have ever spelled Mischief correctly first time).

 

This time, we’re talking about Mind Mangler: Member of the Tragic Circle, a spinoff show featuring two characters from Magic Goes Wrong. These are the two characters you’ve seen in all the previews, such as Comic Relief, which actually went wrong!

 

Unlike my other reviews, this one will only contain spoilers for the bits unique to the show I saw, not the plot in general (although it is mostly just a series of tricks, there is an underlying story happening between the two main characters). This way, you can watch the show without it being spoiled for you.

 

The characters included are The Mind Mangler AKA Keith (Henry Lewis), and his stooge Clive AKA Brian AKA Stephen AKA Steven AKA Mike AKA Mickey AKA Audience Member AKA Different Audience Member AKA The Stooge (Jonathan Sayer)

 

Magical Glossary

 

Stooge (n.) - someone planted in the audience who knows how the trick works and will be selected by the magician "at random" to be part of a magic trick. 

 

As we went in, we were given a small piece of paper and a pencil that said to print your full name and a secret – Mine were:

Name

PHIL BOTHAM

Secret

I have only seen the first 5 minutes of The Wizard of Oz

 

Phil Botham is not my real name or the one I wrote on the card; this is my fake blog identity.

 

It was only after writing this that I thought a better secret would be that I preferred 2016 Ghostbusters to 1984 Ghostbusters

 

As it turns out, I’m glad my secret wasn’t picked either way, as the other secrets revealed were way more exciting.

 

I asked a theatre usher if she needed the pencil back, to which she replied that she didn’t know, so I’m now the proud owner of an unbranded IKEA sized pencil:

Pic

 Stagehands were going around the auditorium collecting the secrets before the show and there was a screen onstage alternating between two messages:

 

WRITE YOUR SECRET ON THE CARD PROVIDED AND PLACE IT IN THE BALLOT BOX

And

CAN YOU PREDICT THE FOUR DIGIT CODE AND OPEN THE SAFE?

 

Occasionally, Lewis’ voice would say “This is the Mind Mangler. During the show, I will be trying to become a human lie detector. Please write a secret on a piece of paper and put it in the boxes provided.”

 

There was a safe onstage before the show, but it was largely ignored until close to the start time, when audience members started queueing up to try to guess the code.

 

It’s possible that the instructions about the safe were too vague, so it might be worth addressing this in Lewis’ voiceover. Just a suggestion.

 

When the show started, the Mind Mangler (MM from this point on) said that he needed to get into the safe as that contained the only key to a sealed lockbox hanging above the stage, which he needed to get into as it contained his car keys, which he needed to drive the safe back to his hotel Nearby for them to reset it.

 

He also explained that he had written a prediction in his sleep that was recorded on a piece of paper which was also in the lockbox.

 

It was the use of the Lockbox which made me wonder who wrote this show. As you may know, Magic Goes Wrong was written by Henry Shields, Henry Lewis, and Jonathan Sayer of Mischief Comedy in collaboration with Penn and Teller of Penn and Teller.

 

However, as Shields is not in this show, I wondered if he was part of the writing process. He is credited as co-author on the Mischief website, but that may just be as creator/developer of characters included.

 

I’m even less sure if Penn and Teller were involved this time, as they are not credited at all. The magic consultant is listed as Ben Hart, another magician who worked on Magic Goes Wrong.

 

However, the suspended lockbox is not a trick designed by Hart, Penn, or Teller. As far as I can tell, it was created by magician Piff the Magic Dragon (“You might have heard of my older brother… Steve”), although I have seen similar techniques used by other magicians. 

Back to MM, and the show starts with the act used in promotional spots (including once before the then Prince of Wales, now King), with MM trying to guess people’s names. As usual:

 

MM: What’s your name?

Audience Member: Harry.

MM: …Do you have a friend called John?

A: No

MM: Any Johns in your immediate family?

A: No

MM: In your distant family? Think a way back.

A: No

MM: Do you work with a John?

A: I used to.

MM: I knew it…

 

He then senses what people’s jobs are:

MM: What’s your job?

Audience member: I’m a junior school teacher

MM: That’s why I wrote that you work (takes card out of pocket)… INDOORS.

 

MM: What’s your job?

2^nd Audience member: I work indoors.

 

It was at this stage that the show was slightly derailed. MM has cards secreted around his person saying various things, which he has to tenuously connect each job to. In this case, he gleaned that the audience member worked in IT support (“Have you tried turning it off and on again?”), and dragged out that he had once done work at a court house “That’s why I wrote that you are (takes card out of pocket)… A JUDGE.” 

MM selected someone from the front row to “Think of an object and write it on this piece of paper then seal it in this envelope” [loud ticking noise starts playing] “Anything you like” [prominently indicates his watch] “Take your time… Watch that you write it down carefully.”

He then asked if the audience member was thinking of a watch [large banner saying ‘WATCH’ falls from the top of the stage]. The audience member replied in the negative. MM continued to guess random objects throughout the show.

 

MM produced a homemade mind reading device, which looked like an adapted metal detector. He put it over some audience members’ heads with a camera following him and read their thoughts, including the following:

 

Man’s thoughts: I think my wife is in love with her French teacher.

Woman next to him’s thoughts: Yes, I am.

Man behind them’s thoughts: Bonjour!

 

The phrase used instead of ‘in love with’ has no place on this family friendly blog, which reminds me, this was the evening performance so featured more choice language than usual. Parents of young children be aware to book tickets for matinee performances.

 

MM then (WARNING: I may be getting the order of these sections in completely the wrong order) picked up one of the bowls of secrets. He then asked someone in the front row to read out the name ONLY.

 

TO PROTECT ANONYMITY IN THIS SECTION (YOU WILL SEE WHY), ALL NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED

 

The first card said Ian, which MM said would be an example as there was only a first name (“You’ve totally misunderstood the point of this!”). Ian’s secret was:

I’m reviewing the show

Cue immediate backpedalling and a suitable amount of grovelling.

I’m not sure if that ‘secret’ was a plant though, as it was a good joke to include.

 

The second secret was from Sophy Hutton (I can’t think of a good pseudonym, so Denise*, I’ve given you the name of a fictional character).

Sophy was given a microphone, and a camera was pointed at her. MM slowly teased the not family-friendly story out of her:

“So there was an item of clothing involved. I’m going to name some items of clothing; don’t respond, just keep your face still. Jumper, t-shirt, skirt, trousers… OK – socks, hat – hat?”

He then observed that she was holding the microphone on her stomach.

“So I’m sensing it was to do with your stomach, no, don’t respond, maybe your bowel?”

It was at this point that Sophy started to laugh, as MM asked for the rest of the story, which I’m surprised didn’t elicit a Dr Suess reference:

“YOU **** IN A ***?!”

Yes, she did, but she did not like it Sam-I-am.

 

It should be noted that MM said that although this is part of the act, this particular secret was more unhinged than most. Speaking of slightly less unhinged secrets, the next secret was that of Theodore Laurence, who got off to a bad start:

 

MM: Who are you here with?

TL: My family.

MM: And do they know about this secret?

TL: No.

MM: Never a great start…

 

(In case you were wondering, Sophy’s partner knew about her ‘incident’)

Theodore’s issue was still unhinged, but less so. His secret involved druids at Halloween.

The final secret included didn’t have a name on, so the selector just read out the secret. “Yes, I see why you chose to be anonymous”

He then asked the entire audience to stand up if they were able (I wasn’t, so thank you for thinking of me) and asked each level to say, “That is not my secret.”

“Upper circle, Dress Circle, you may sit down. Stalls, I’ll divide you in two. Just my left? Just my right? Those on my left, sit down.”

MM then went into the stalls, using the handwriting to deduce that the culprit was left handed “Right-handers sit down;” picking on one member “How old are you?” “12”. “If you entrusted a 12-year-old with this, that’s on you. All under 18s sit down.”

MM then went around the audience asking each of them to repeat “That is not my secret,” making some of them sit down and some stay standing, sometimes due to audience ‘ooh’s.’ "I don't think they want you to sit down..."

Eventually the crowd was whittled down to one and I won’t embarrass that person by revealing any more about their secret.

In case anyone’s interested, the odds of an entire family (mother, father and 3 kids) all being left handed are approximately 1 in 64 (~1.6%).

 

Later, MM invited another audience member (‘Brian’ wearing a t shirt saying ‘different audience member’) on to the stage  to be hypnotised, accidentally hypnotising himself, which caused Brian to convince him that he should tell an embarrassing secret every time he shook someone’s hand. He also said that every time he heard a bell, he should make a noise like a chicken.

Unfortunately, MM was only capable of producing a sound like a seriously ill chicken, so 'Brian' asked the audience for another suggestion:

“Can you speak a bit louder at the back? Did you say, ‘Pleasing Fungus beetle’? Great idea!”

Yes, Jonathan Sayer picked the hardest animal for Henry Lewis to imitate, causing them both to corpse and break character:

“That is the face of a man who does not know what a Pleasing Fungus beetle sounds like”

I looked them up later to check if the audience member had made them up. They hadn’t.

From this point on, every time a bell dinged, MM yelled

“Look how pleased I am!”

At the end of the first half, MM indicated a box of 96 5x5x5 Rubik's cubes for audience members to scramble, then put in a frame during the interval. He then locked himself in a fridge and knocked himself out.

 

When the show returned, only 93 cubes were in place, with three randomly placed gaps. MM had a closer look at some of them “And someone’s solved one of them. There’s always one, isn’t there?” He then called three audience members onto the stage to scramble the remaining cubes.

By coincidence it was all three’s birthday that day, which MM asked them:

“Isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“Yes.”

“Yes.”

As he put the microphone in front of each of their mouths, a recording of him said “Yes.”

Another joke that doesn’t work written down.

 

Once the three remaining cubes were put into the frame, MM asked one person to say a word, which was then revealed to be written on other side of the cubes. That word, while not as bad as ‘**** in a ***,’ is still not family friendly enough to include here.

 

Now this trick I know wasn’t created by Penn and Teller because they’ve been fooled by it in the past. They probably know how it was done by now though.

 

The final trick was the opening of the suspended box. Having not been able to open the safe, MM didn’t have the key, but ‘Brian’ had a spare “Because I knew you’d lose yours.”

 

There was a brief fake out with some random scribbles on the scroll which had some letters hidden in it, but then he unrolled the scroll further, revealing predictions for the show, including ‘IT consultant;’ ‘Teacher that doesn’t do Greek Philosophy;’ ‘**** in a ***’ and ‘Druid scarer.’

He then finally came to the person in the front row, revealed that the object he was thinking of was anti-fungal cream. The scroll was unfurled fully to reveal ‘ANTI-FUNGAL CREAM’

This concludes my unnecessarily long summary of some of the show-specific bits.

To give my review on the show in general, Mind Mangler: Member of the Tragic Circle is a fantastic spinoff, using some of the best bits of Magic Goes Wrong, but adding its own bits as well. It doesn’t limit itself the mentalism acts as the name might suggest, so it keeps itself fresh.

If it is clear how a certain trick is done (I think I knew or guessed a lot of them**, but I have tried to remove most explanations from this review), there is no need to worry as a trick you won’t understand is probably on the way soon.

Bear in mind especially that if these tricks can fool some of the most experienced magicians in the world, they can probably fool you as well.

 

*Also not her real name. Do you really think I’d be indiscreet enough to reveal the true identity of someone who did that? Besides, it’s been so long I’m pretty sure I’ve forgotten Nadia’s*** real name anyway.

**Once you know how tricks are done, they become a lot less impressive, so I advise not finding out if you can. Ignorance is Carlisle.

*** Still a joke. Nadia’s real name is hidden within the review, but I won’t tell you where.