The I Hate Children Children's Show
Dude in pith helmet does close up magic to Muddy Waters soundtrack
This article is from 2012.
I wish I had a louche American uncle who cracks open the ‘champagne’ (warm cava) at noon and does magic tricks in his skanky flat while the lodger strums a blues guitar.
The I Hate Children Children’s Show is the next best thing: Paul Nathan is as good at reading giggly 11-year-old girls as he is at making balloon poodles and pulling silk scarves out of little boys’ t-shirts. Beneath the delightfully shambolic surface -- props in a suitcase, time-checks on Nathan’s mobile phone -- this is a crack magician pretending to be an avuncluar dude in a pith helmet and Crocs.
He plays rubbish tricks for laughs, castigates the guitarist for playing ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ so enthusiastically that he forgets a vital swap and mixes in some advanced magical pyrotechnics with a light hand. And has a blast. When three little sisters reluctantly join him on stage, arms crossed, and refuse to disco dance in animal noses while the audience sings ‘Old MacDonald Had A Farm’, he finds it as funny as we do.
Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 27 Aug, 12.15pm, £8--£9 (£7--£8).
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