Review: "Abracadabra, B*tch!"

In his first solo hour, Reuben Moreland draws upon his background of magic including impressing Penn & Teller and competing in competitions in North America, Korea and China. Although this is labelled as a magic show, Moreland fills the room with laughter and comedy in between his tricks.

Moreland isn’t reinventing the wheel here. Rather he uses the classics of the magic world as inspiration and makes them his own. Crowd engagement is key to many of the tricks including travelling cards, guest appearances from mortal enemies and Rubik’s cubes. Energetically Moreland is more than enough as his six-foot-something frame bounces across the stage. Not even a ‘failed’ PowerPoint presentation kills his vibe. 

Some of the comedy errs on the side of ‘cringey Millennial humour’ but in classic New Yorker style, Moreland is engaging and bubbly. There are some very clever design jokes featuring hex colour codes and sample text which unfortunately flew over the heads of the predominantly Boomer crowd. The magic itself is quite basic but well executed with his sleight of hand skill.

There are one or two gags that perhaps go on for a touch longer than necessary and these moments tend to lag slightly. Moreland is a likeable character and although "Abracadabra B*tch!" sits more on the comedy side of the sliding scale between magic and comedy, and the tricks themselves at times feel a little few and far between, there are enough laughs in those interim moments to keep the crowd engrossed.

"Abracadabra, B*tch!”, Fool's Paradise, until 17 March