At 28 John van der Put makes dressing up as a dragon something we should all try, or at least once. His show at The Hive forms part of the Free Fringe Festival which gives the real fringe experience, free shows performed by dedicated acts. Piff the magic Dragon is a show you simply have to see.
The Show
We start off with a little bit of 2001 music and the classic movie voice over guy introducing, or trying to, Piff The Magic Dragon. This was something that I have seen before for Jerry Seinfeld’s The Comedian DVD and with that we see our first images of Piff, there was no introduction that would have worked better. There is really only one word that describe him and that’s adorable, even if a times the look he gives out to the audience is anything other than love, this quick glares will only add to the joy of the show. In his full length green dragon costume Piff does nothing to dissuade me from thinking ‘how adorable’ he was.
With his hands shaking slightly he does the first magic trick ‘The Flame of Terror’ in which he uses a lighter and Napkin of Waitrose, which got a decent early laugh, and at an early stage you get to see something pretty wonderful and mature and Piff-Tacular is certainly a show that will make you believe more in magic.
His interaction with the audience was typically British (I know we’re in Edinburgh, but it still stands) he was something of a bully, but in a good way, few young acts are able to manage to be rude but keep the humour on a level that’s funny. His first target (harsh but lets) was Ben in which he asks him to guess the number he has written on the board – Ben fails and he gives him another change but this time with a clue, ‘two little ducks’ – Ben fails again only to be derided for failing to pick up on the clue, which was two little ducks.
I think this was his level, he wasn’t offensive, and the language was pretty clean for a Fringe Show, but his humour was gentle, a little bad but intentional, you know the sort of bad joke that some comics tell, yeah that one. A few times he made eyes at the ladies which was cute till he got one up on the stage, his second target Elaine. It was hard to see if he was really nervous or if this was part of his act, though performing this type of show has to be nerve-racking so he has my upmost respect. He seemed to really get a kick out of getting the people up on stage, Elaine and Angus where perfect fodder and where more than happy to go along with the ride
The Magic
The show has some fine moments that I really don’t want to ruin for you here, but one of them involves Chris: The Mind Reading Fish (your going to have to see the show now) and Nacho which was used to barter with Dawn (another target) during the guillotine bit. Bringing on this little puppy was cruel, harsh, and one of the funniest things I have ever seen. For a little while he played with the dog, which had little dragon wings on, and then passing the option back to dawn was an inspired move. His magic is nothing new, these are tricks that have been done many times before, but his timing, and his warmth where something clearly homed to perfection. Some of the tricks did make you a little puzzled as you wanted to know how he was doing it. The guillotine bit just illustrates the cleverness of it all.
Would we recommend this show?
Outside I was told, as where many people walking past, that if you didn’t like the show you can always walkout, something of a gamble I thought considering how harsh comedy audiences can be. This show was something more than a creative mix of comedy and magic, it was something of a fresh lease of life given to magic. This was a FREE show (with the option of donating some funds to the cause of live performers) and for a free show they certainly don’t get any better than this! Piff was warm, friendly, and a little bit bitter which made the audience enjoy the show even more. His timing was good and the few fumbles he made (dropping the Maltesers and a card) didn’t matter he put on an amazing show delivered with class, wit, and true originality, go and see this show your life depends on it!
Between 6th-30th August 2009 @ The Hive FREE
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That looks really interesting.
But telling people you can walk out is certainly a dangerous game. There’ve been times I considered it in the past!!