A review of Pete Firman: Bag of Tricks, Fringe 2022

Pete Firman is a mashup of comedy and magic, but it’ll probably be the magic that lures you in.

We get through an impressive amount of magic in the hour-long show. Bag of Tricks is an evolution of previous work, which seems to be his style. That’s to say, some of the tricks are ones I’ve seen before or seen versions by him.

Does that mean this is a repeat act? Not at all. It’s an act with some familiar tricks. The Pete Firman style comes across loud and clear, making some of the cleverness which would make entirely new tricks feel familiar. However, it’s a consideration if you have a teen keen to see all new.

There’s some limited audience participation, and given stage magic is infamous for cutting people in half (and putting them back together), I’m impressed at the calmness of the people involved. However, Pete Firman isn’t the sort of pick on the audience, which is why I go back.

I enjoyed the night. I like his cheeky banter. I like the jokes, the dad jokes all the more, and I like his spirit. I like this magic most of all. It’s so clever! It’s fun and distracting when we need fun and to be distracted.

It’s a new venue for Pete, moving from the Pleasance to the Gilded Balloon, and that’s a significant change. In the Pleasance, the audience is on rows of seats looking down at the stage. In the Gilded Balloon, the first few rows look up from below. I sat on the far edge, almost at the front, and this must be a nightmare angle for magicians as my unique view into the stage revealed some cleverness that I was not meant to see. I like to work out how tricks are done; I’m confident I’ve seen the secret to a few more. Did it ruin the night? No, not for me. It was an enhancement.

Pete’s Feets

I think the sign read ‘Pete’s Feets’ and not ‘Pete’s Feats’ – but now, in the morning after, I’ve doubts.

I think it’s worth following Firman on social media and especially on Instagram (if you can stand Meta) or Tiktok (if you can uncouple China’s crimes from the platform) because of short video.

Pete’s acts are perfect for short videos. The punchline can be squeezed into the microformat for many, but not all. You’ll get to that ‘how the hell did he do that?’ buzz swiftly. It’s also a good demo of what he can do!

These micro-tricks, many of which were learnt in the lockdown, have their own section in the show. Pete predicted that the theme tune for the segment would be an earworm, and yes, on the way out, I heard an excited young family who had clearly loved every minute of the show signing it. Pete also predicted it would be these snackable wonders that you’d end up telling people about. He’s right, and it must be enough to cause his head to swell.

Overall

The age rating on the show is 14+, and I think that’s a great age to experience Pete Firman. If you’ve friends and family in that ballpark, get them to come along.

I enjoyed myself and left happily confident I’d book again next year to come and see the next evolution of the performance.