After a quick dash across the Pleasance Courtyard Simon Evans and David Aula present their second show, The Extinction Event, it could be seen as a follow up to The Vanishing Man which they perform immediately before. It is possible to watch both shows independently of each other, though you’ll probably get to grips with the what’s happening a lot quicker if you have managed to catch the first performance.
It’s a very similar set up to The Vanishing Man, with close-up tricks combining with a narrative to create a very different kind of magic show. There’s an identical kind of audience interaction and having seen both shows in succession, it does feel very much like a continuation. But where the first show focusses on events of the past, The Extinction Event we are told, looks more to the future, and is all about improvement and the role of artificial intelligence.
The approach works to a degree, but struggles to keep on track. The multi-layered plot keeps referencing these ideas of ‘improvement’ and ‘future’, with the odd reference to animals and plants which have become extinct, but it all feels particularly forced to fit the concept. The tricks performed in this show are probably more advanced than in The Vanishing Man, but some could do with being a little slicker, the mind reading trick took too long to execute and there was a real danger they would lose the audience’s attention.
Much like the duo, I also enjoy deconstructing magic tricks, unable to enjoy them for what they are without knowing how they are done. My research in the past meant that I could work out approximately half of what they were doing, but I suspect that won’t be the case for the average audience member.
The Extinction Event is certainly enjoyable as its own show, but perhaps some smoke and mirrors have been used to trick us in to thinking it’s radically different to The Vanishing Man. Audiences less interested in the plot will thoroughly enjoy the magic on offer, and after the whirlwind of Edinburgh I look forward to deconstructing the other half of Simon and David’s tricks.
