RHYS Morgan, from Caerphilly, and Robert West, from London, are time-travelling magicians and all-round spiffing late-Victorian chaps, who must have felt at home in the mirrored magnificence of the White Rose Rotunda spiegeltent.
The impeccably mannered duo were in town with two shows, one in the evening for "childish grown-ups" and children aged nine or more in The Tea Pot, the other in the afternoon for five year olds and upwards in the Rotunda.
Magic is not only for children – just ask agent-provocateur Glaswegian close-up magician Jerry Sadowitz or grand illusionist Derren Brown – but nevertheless it is often a child's next step beyond pantomime into the world of theatricality, and Morgan & West are particularly adroit at working with a young audience.
The Rotunda was full of excited families, their faces a picture of glee and amazement, as the dapper double act played up to their exaggerated caricatures; Mr Morgan, urbane, elegant and laidback, playful too; the brusque Mr West sometimes as wound-up as his moustache, a stickler for etiquette, decorum and superstition, determined to be in control but invariably outwitted by his partner in deception and sleight of hand.
Quick to involve children picked from the audience, the dexterous, tea-drinking duo had fun with umbrellas, eggs, melons and Mr Morgan's Smart Testing Game Show Of Fun, climaxing with the surrealist Balloon Handcuffs of Death.
Billed as "bigger, bolder, and more brilliant than before!", this preview of their new Edinburgh Fringe show was already polished, perky, punctilious prestidigitator perfection.
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