Adelaide born Matt Tarrant has made magic his career and it has served him well as the highest selling solo act of the 2018 Adelaide Fringe after many years of awards and a 2017 stint on Australian Survivor.
This year Matt returns to the Fringe with a show called More Unsolved. The show opens with a montage of Matt performing around the world. However, the show is not about putting Matt’s talents upfront. The first thing he does is invites an audience member onstage to perform a magic trick. This sets the tone for the evening – audience members unwittingly performing magic tricks with Matt’s guidance.
Some of the tricks are amplified onto giant video screens on each side of the stage; some are performed on-stage, some using the audience. There is no artifice; audience members are chosen at random with the Cat-Bus that travels with Matt. The Cat-Bus is literally that, half cat, half bus. It needs to be seen to be understood.
Bruce the Mind-reading Goose also makes an appearance as an Uber-eats delivery driver and delivers a fast food order which the audience creates right before our eyes.
The show has diverse elements: mind reading experiences, a variation on a Russian roulette trick, sleight of hand in plain sight. This is a magician who makes you shake your head in wonder.
Matt Tarrant: More Unsolved is a fast paced and entertaining magic show that will be enjoyed by young and old. Go and see it if you want to go home and lie awake trying to work out how he managed to do all those tricks.
FIVE STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Matt Tarrant: More Unsolved plays at Gluttony in the Adelaide Fringe until March 10th. The reviewer attended the show on February 20th.
Cover image by Andre Goosen
