Latest Reviews

Imagine a fortune teller, a soothsayer of old eliciting oohs and ahhs from an awestruck audience. Now remove from the picture the pompousness of David Copperfield, the crystal ball and the gypsy caravan and insert an ordinary looking, polite Englishman with not much more than a deck of playing cards and you have an inkling of the sort of show mind-reader Philip Escoffey has in store for you.

Six More Impossible Things before Dinner is Escoffey’s follow up show to his sold out gig at last year’s Comedy Festival, and if last night’s packed house is anything to go by, you better get in quick if you want to see him. And I strongly recommend that you do.

Escoffey, while debunking any claims of psychic ability (or indeed any belief in metaphysical phenomena), manages to spend an hour doing what seems to be the impossible right in front of you. It’s disarming, manipulative and frustrating (how does he DO that?!) and undeniably compelling. He himself says “I know, it’s a fine line between entertaining and annoying.” A line he treads with poise and skill. On top of the mind-reading mastery, Escoffey is a funny guy, no doubt made more so for an Australian audience because his repartee is peppered with unconscious Briticisms like “So that’s all very jolly, but am I really psychic or not?”

Like a great film, or a novel whose characters you mourn when you turn the last page, this is a show that will stick with you for a long time. I mused over it all night. I'm musing over it still. Just like the stunned crowds of old, my new mantra has become 'how did he DO that?!'

Sell a kidney, bribe the box office, auction off your husband on eBay, just get a ticket any way you can.


Six More Impossible Things Before Dinner
Philip Escoffey

Venue: Trades Hall, New Ballroom | Cnr Lygon & Victoria Sts, Carlton
Dates: 25 March - 18 April, 2010
Times: Tue - Sat 7pm, Sun 6pm
Duration: 60 minutes
Prices: Full Fri & Sat $32, Full Wed-Thu & Sun $30, Concession Wed-Thu & Sun $25, Tightarse Tuesday $25
Bookings: Ticketmaster 1300 660 013 | at the door

Visit: http://www.siximpossiblethings.co.uk