Don’t be fooled by the silly title – Magic McMagicface is a seriously great display of skill and magic by local magician Rob Ellinger.

Held in the tiny library room of Ayers House, Ellinger rises from a makeshift room divider situated in the corner to humorous effect, setting the expectation that the performance from there will be in the same sort of vein of fun. Despite the limited space, Ellinger works the room well, and the intimate setting suits his conversational style of performance.

The show did not contain any sort of overriding narrative or specific magic theme, however Ellinger is quite the storyteller, and he happily incorporates personal vignettes throughout to give background to a lot of his magic. Often Ellinger wears his personal loves on his sleeve, such as that involving musical theatre, incorporating these interests into his act to create something that little bit more special.

Card tricks seem to be Ellinger’s favourite, and he has some fantastic ones which resulted in great, and absolutely awestruck, audience participation on the night. However, while the card tricks were amazing, some of the deviations away from these were highlights as well, especially the trick involving the colourful bells and the accompanying music. Each trick had the audience asking audibly how it was possible, falsely suggesting there was some collaboration beforehand with audience members to fool everyone else.

It comes across as obvious that Rob Ellinger loves not only magic, but performance in general. This enthusiasm for magic, and the skill in which it is performed, really drives Magic McMagicface and brings it a level above what could just be a guy performing a bunch of really good card tricks.

Magic McMagicface is a masterful showing of an array of magic tricks and performance which will leave you in awe of Rob Ellinger’s skill, as well as possibly walking away with a transference of some of his love for magic.

4 stars

Magic McMagicface plays until Sunday 29 February at Ayers House. Buy tickets here.