David Alnwick: Totally Ninja

Review by Fred Fletch | 14 Aug 2013

I've hated magicians ever since my parents were killed by flamboyant razzamatazz; there is something about a man who can't button his shirt and whose pockets smell of terrified doves that is universally recognised as the opposite of 'entertaining.'

David Alnwick doesn't fit the image of a necromantic-superhero – he looks like what you'd get if you got a nine year old drunk and asked them to draw Ron Weasley. Heralding from down south, he talked of learning magic at an early age, and I guess if I was ginger, bespectacled and Geordie, I'd probably learn to shoot lightning bolts too.

Just like the movie Now You See Me, TOTALLY NINJA reverses preconceptions you might have about magicians by presenting them as likable, vagina-hungry hetrosexuals. David's Free Fringe show is a combination of magic and comedy that is a red-headed middle finger to anything in a top-hat and cape.

With more stand up this year and less fruity card tricks, he has clearly found his feet. Previously it was a whirlwind trip through mind-reading and easily-sunburned Harry Pottery. This time he flexes his comedy muscles over whatever bag of cat intestines and wolfbane that gives him the power to guess cards.

In similar shows, the magic tends to be a shield to hide behind – it's harder for an audience to figure out how you got 78 silk handkerchiefs up your ass than it is to figure out why you suck at jokes. His stand-up is confident, hilarious and fast paced. He has a frenzied, charismatic delivery that couldn't charm you harder if it bought you a drink and told you your hair looked pretty.

David takes magic and makes it bad-ass. He serves it with so little fuck, you'll forget that ‘hocus-pocus’ ranks alongside 'baton-twirling' and 'interpretative dance' in 'hobbies likely to disappoint your dad. Funny, ballsy and effortlessly performed, TOTALLY NINJA was awesome. He wizarded the audience so hard, nine months from now my girlfriend is going to give birth to the nine of diamonds. And that was EXACTLY the card I was thinking of. [Fred Fletch]

 

PBH Free Fringe, Ballroom @ The Voodoo Rooms, 1-26 Aug, 12:30, Free/collection