On a lively Friday evening at Tunbridge Wells’ intimate Trinity Theatre, Pete Firman’s latest tour ‘Tricks and Giggles’ delivered exactly what its title promises – a blend of jaw-dropping magic and good-natured cheekiness. 

One of the UK’s foremost comedy magicians brought his latest offering to Kent with his trademark mix of sleight of hand, quick wit and audience banter. Firman’s shows always leave you aching from laughing, yet bewildered with his range of baffling tricks.

Firman wastes no time in making friends with the crowd. Within minutes, volunteers were plucked from their seats and roped (quite literally) into the act. All the usual tricks you’d expect are here – playing cards, brown paper bags, cutting oranges in half and disappearing wedding rings. His rapid-fire humour kept the energy high throughout the evening and the technical side of the production runs perfectly too, with regular musical interludes as audience members come to the stage and even the use of a camera and projector screen to make visuals clear on the smaller routines. 

His playful persona – part cheeky comedian, part surreal illusionist – means that even if you’ve seen magic before, you’ll be kept guessing and laughing in equal measure.

It’s maybe a slight shame that some of the tricks are fairly similar to previous shows and other magicians’ work. Magic fans will have seen umpteen Rubik’s Cube routines and rope tricks so a little more originality wouldn’t have gone amiss. That said, Firman does inject his own character into the routines and you can’t deny they are seamlessly performed. It’s also worth mentioning there’s no support act here. Two 45 minute acts of a one-man show must be hard to fill so credit to Firman for this and the time flies by.

The highlight of the evening comes with the final trick involving a spectator from the crowd suddenly becoming stuck to his chair and unable to move and then jumping up and unable to sit down again. A hilarious piece which caused rapturous laughter from all ages of the audience.  

‘Tricks and Giggles’ is a delightful night out and Pete Firman’s warm rapport with his audience combined with his clear talent in his trade and love of his craft, yet again shows why he’s one of the best out there.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️