MICF: A Modern Deception

Who wouldn’t want to watch a sitcom about three magicians who live together and practice law? Somehow Alex, Luke and Vyom’s show gets cancelled, but as luck would have it, the morning TV hosts have died and Magic Mornings is going Live to Air and even I’d consider getting up in the morning to watch a breakfast show hosted by these three.

A Modern Deception have gone through various incarnations in recent years and with director Danny Delahunty on board, they’ve found the extra magic of story, tightened up their stage characters and created a show that welcomes all ages and doesn’t skimp on jokes for grown ups. (I loved the Waleed Aly joke.)

And there’s magic. Card tricks, levitating and I-have-no-idea-how-they-do-that magic. It’s mind blowingly awesome.

By the nature of magic, magicians have to be obsessive and nerdy as it’s an art that should never show the skill it takes to perform it. This sometimes makes magic stage shows a bit odd, but these guys are putting the magic back into the magic of theatre by letting us be genuinely surprised and thrilled by things that our brains tell us shouldn’t be real and by making sure that the story around the magic is nearly as good as their tricks (nearly because the tricks are that good).

With only a few more days of MICF left, find time for A Modern Deception’s Live to Air. And take a crowd because it’s the kind of show that kids are loving it as much as anyone. And karmic intervention has taken them out of noisy pubs into the stained glass glory of the Scots’ Church hall in Collins St, where the Clean Comedy program is sparkling with some of the funniest festival shows that welcome everyone without fear of embarrassment.