Barry & Stuart: Powered By Demons

As the audience assembles, Barry and Stuart sit at a corner table on stage. The Aberdeenshire-based comic magicians are drinking cups or tea in clean white cups and saucers. This action looks too suspicious to be innocent, as if they are glancing directly behind an invisible painting. What horrible surprises are planned for their second Fringe show? Sure enough, their apparent friendliness is dashed immediately with an opening trick involving Polo mints and cheesewire reminiscent of a lost episode of How 2. The outcome is just as disgusting and satisfying as the audience hope, but the tricks that follow are more hit and miss. Some of the humour can be a little too predictable -just what horrors could a needle in the eye possibly entail? - and others hark back to less offensive magic tricks, allowing the pair to riff on magical conventions with an affectionate sense of humour. The set may not be as dark and subversive as Barry and Stuart seem to think it is, but their on-stage chemistry and childlike fascination with trickery make up for any shortcomings in an enjoyable show.