The clog

Having friends from afar over to stay for a few days is the perfect excuse to be a tourist in your own back yard. That’s exactly what has been happening over the last few weeks while Joshua Jay has been staying with me at various intervals on his two-month long UK lecture tour.

Amongst all the castles and museums that we have visited, Joshua was keen to see the Bizarre Bath Walk – an evening show by magician and comedian Noel Britten. I’ve always wanted to see the show too, but that’s the problem when such great things are on your doorstep; everyday life takes over and you never get round to doing them. But I’m so glad that Joshua wanted to see this show – it’s fantastic.

There’s plenty that makes the Bizarre Bath Walk interesting and unique. Firstly, “magic” is not once mentioned throughout the entire two-hour show. There are five or six pieces of captivating and well-considered magic, but Noel presents them in such a way that leaves the audience thinking (and often saying to each other), “What just happened there?!” It’s a fascinating tactic that really works well in this context. The effect of this is that the one hundred or so audience members that were on the same walk as us didn’t appear to see Noel as a magician but instead as a hysterically funny tour guide that probably didn’t pay too much attention in his history lessons at school. This makes everything he does feel so much more magical and unexpected.

To my knowledge, the show is the only of its kind: a street comedy magic show where the audience join in by walking around a city with the performer. There’s no real historical content about the city of Bath - just plenty of anecdotes, tricks/stunts and comedy. Noel Britten is the perfect host and makes the whole event feel fresh and original, even though he told me that has been performing the show (in an almost identical format) for seventeen years. Everything seems spontaneous, yet polished – even when Noel is interacting with random passers-by who have absolutely no idea what is going on! He’s truly got the show down to an art and has managed to avoid that gruff feel that many street entertainers have: the whole thing feels much more like a welcoming show instead of a tour, or piece of street entertainment.

I could write for pages on the content of the show, but I’m reminded of the time I tried to explain the Blue Man Group to some friends: there’s no way of summarising it. The only way to understand such a show is to experience it for yourself. And I highly recommend that you make the effort to do so.

So, to Josh – thanks for giving me an excuse to see the show. Last weekend we saw Mark Shortland and Tim Vine at the Cheltenham Town Hall which I enjoyed equally as much. It’s great to experience so much great magic as a layman in disguise; it’s the perfect opportunity to see what really makes audience’s tick.