Pleasance Courtyard – The Green

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

03/08/18

Despite an enthusiasm for magic tricks that verges on the ridiculous, watching a show in a warm inflatable igloo did not appeal to me earlier this morning as I arrived at The Green at Pleasance Courtyard. I looked forward to it even less as I saw the crowd filing into the venue and imagined the combined warmth of the weather and a full house. But within two minutes of Tom Brace’s Brace Yourself (It’s Magic Time!) getting underway, all crotchetiness was quickly forgotten.

The effervescent Brace opens the show with an enthusiastic round of greetings to the audience before launching into a hilarious opening comic routine which sets the high-energy, joyfully daft tone for the rest of the performance. Though Brace draws on classic tricks, he puts his own spin on most of them, including creating a bizarre game-show setting for one trick, executing a dentist’s nightmare with a paintball gun, and weaving a strong comic performance through every trick.

Throughout the hour-long performance, the energy never drops, and Brace flies deftly through his set with an air of unquenchable enthusiasm, and more than a little mischief. Still puzzling over how on earth he pulled off some of the tricks he did, I highly recommend Brace Yourself (It’s Magic Time!), to anyone, children and grown-ups alike, who finds themselves with some spare time any morning of the Fringe. If you want to catch a magic show this Fringe, then this should be it.

Tom Brace: Brace Yourself (It’s Magic Time!) runs at Pleasance Courtyard until 18th August as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.