Review: THE NAKED MAGICIANS at Starlight Theatre

Naked Magicians perform at Starlight Theatre indoors. That pretty much sums up the two Australian illusionists' adult comedy/prestidigitation act. A mostly full house on the huge Starlight stage witnessed all these two intrepid conjurors from down under had to offer including peeks at what they had going on down under. The predominately girl's night out audience roared and shrieked its appreciation.

Mike Tyler and Christopher Wayne are pretty good magicians and are even better at helping their female audience turn beet red as individuals are asked to participate in the raunchy-suggestive displays of magic. Both men are in incredibly good physical shape. Mike Tyler in particular has more than a six-pack. You could swear is abs display a twelve- pack. Good thing the airplane hangar door was closed or Christopher and Mike would have frozen their butts and adjacent parts off.

The two visitors appear on stage in semi-formal attire promising to amaze and entertain with the help of their audience. And they promise to get naked. The main props are two blow-up sex toys, a briefcase, and one more box suspended on a wire from the flys. The first of the blow-ups is a replica of a lady looking very surprised and designed for the company of a very lonely man.

The other blow-up is a five -foot long male organ with attached gonads. The purpose of this second prop is to bounce around beach-ball-like in the audience. Music underlayment ends and where the appliance has landed marks the first audience assistant for the magic men.

A number of long audience -participant innuendo based card or magic store tricks are laced with well- rehearsed naughty streams of kind of sophomoric humor. The ladies seem to enjoy themselves and act as good sports in the face of the hijinks.

The big reveal (you should excuse the bad joke repeated numerous times in the show) comes when both magicians compete to escape from an early twentieth century straight jacket a la Harry Houdini (but not hanging upside down). The slower magician must perform the full Monty although his privates are mostly discretely hidden behind a top hat for the final trick.

The Naked Magicians perform again Saturday afternoon November 17 at 5:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. They mentioned that Starlight tonight is their final U.S. performance on this tour. Whether Mike and Chris are homesick or their visas have run out and they will be accompanied on their journeys by Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) is unclear. The performance is rated "R"

Starlight has installed new risers and seats for indoor performances. These are a huge improvement over previous indoor years.

Tickets are available at the box office on the Starlight Theatre website, or by telephone. Parking for this performance is free.

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