Hey there!

I'm fairly new at the Café, so I start out with a brief introduction first. That way my opinion will have more credibility. Im Christopher Wallace, born in Blackpool, where I got in contact with magic about 10 years ago, I quite quickly realised I want to do mentalism, so for the past 6 years I've been a mentalist, performing occasionally, not making a living, but a nice handsome extra income. Two years ago I relocated to London where I now reside.

So, now I can write what I wanted to write all along... Living in London I try not to miss any mentalism shows, so I regularly check on magicweek.co.uk, I found out about the show at Café Royal, which apparently is the second one. I missed the first Im afraid.

So we were in The Grill Room, it was me and a female friend. James Cheung, the host of the evening, was suitably dressed to match the room. He introduced the performers and himself. Then he launched into a kind of parlour performance. Which I really enjoyed, it was quite a few good laughs. He was mixing psychological influencing and a martial arts-mentalism effect, a new and cool take on mentalism.

After he finished his set, it was a short break, then we were entertained, by some close up magic from Matthew Xia, Andrew Edmonds, Daniel Young and James too. The performers were rotating and the audience remained in their seats.

The first to entertain us was Daniel, it started out easy with some card mentalism. He did a brilliant Any Card at Any Number (which I admittedly asked him about later, it's apparently being published soon). He did some spoon bending and a few other bits. All in all, it was a very nice set and well structured.

Next came Andrew Edmonds. He seemed like a very seasoned performer, I could tell that he had done his stuff a hundred times over by now. He did Invisible Touches, which up until now always thought was obvious when it comes to the method. But the audience loved it. The whole set was very polished.

Then the slightly scary James came over to us. He had that elegant charm and manners, combined with the clothes made you think you were really back into the late 1800-something. He bent keys and read a few minds. He got me on a few things, I must admit. I somehow had the feeling he was a celebrity, I don't know why.

I later moved over to another table where Matthew was performing. He's a funny bloak, very relaxed and he had quite a few really nice things to show us. I missed a few things in the beginning, so I can't speak for them, but from what I saw this was a good set too.

To be honest with you, I can't say a bad thing about the night, apart from quite expensive drinks. But hey, it's Café Royal.

To end off the evening James did a bigger piece, a spooky seance styled effect. Where pictures of people who had frequented the Grill Room got mysteriously torn up etc.

After the performances I had a chance to speak to some of the normal people there. They all enjoyed it immensly, it was a good and entertaining night. You should've been there. Maybe I see some of you next time around.


//Chris

Thanks for the interesting review Chris. A different kind of event it seems from normal, when you have just one performer.

Was it well attended ? If so, they may hold another event soon.

It wasn't loads of people, but I spoke to James (the organizer) and apparently it was fully packed the first time. the plan is to do this every month, but it will be a break now and he hoped to get it started again sometime before christmas.

cheers,
chris

I was with 3 of the performers over the weekend and was annoyed that my train was just prior to the show, I would have liked to have been there... next time though

I also popped down as I'm friends with Daniel Young.

I can say that the night was a real success, the close up was amazing.

Andrew Edmonds, Matthew Xia, James Cheung and Daniel Young kept the crowd entertained the whole night.

I remember seeing Andrews name revelation and thinking wow this guy is really putting his all in to this. I saw him do a super clean coin bend as well as Invisible Touch also and you can tell from the way he speaks he really knows his s%!t
I will definately be taking some pointers from him.

Matthew, I only saw briefly but what I saw was real nice, he done a name place routine which went down real good, some added cold reading (i think) had this woman freeking out. He done a book test and something with some postcards too.

Daniels highlight as far as I was concerned was his any card any number effect. He tells me it's his and as far as I am aware it is (he says he will send me the write up for it). I also really liked his metal bending which moves us on to...

James, looking for all the world like he's just stepped out of the edwardian aristocracy into the Café Royal bent keys and done a few revelations. I really like his style as his dress/image suggests that he has secret qualities that allow him to do this.

I can't wait for the next one, I just wish there were more chances for me to see mentalism in the real world like this.

Curt.

There is also a review right here