Barry and Stuart: Show and Tell

Victims of the Fringe programme's all-encompassing 'Comedy' section, Barry and Stuart's Show and Tell is eminently entertaining, if not exactly what you would call funny. Two separate events that take place back to back, the first sees the duo perform magic to a large audience, all the while reminding us that we are being deceived by them. Those eager to understand the exact mechanics of the Show have the option of attending the second performance, a warm and engaging explanation of the feats we have just witnessed. Any laughs had along the way tend to arise from the audience's disbelief at the spectacle before them, or from the shock that they were so easily duped.

Always inventive in their approach, one routine plays out in accordance with a farewell note, read off stage by Stuart after he's abandoned his partner. Another surrounds the pair's efforts to decide how to kill themselves, and seems subversive and strange rather than self-consciously edgy. Their passion for magic shines through in the 'Tell', while the explanation of their water-into-wine trick is more impressive than watching the illusion itself. That the stars' endearing patter frequently falls a bit flat during the two hours is completely immaterial.