Mind Mangler: Member of the Tragic Circle - UK tour / Apollo

[stevej678]

The Mind Mangler is heading on a UK tour starting in January 2023.

1-3 nights at most venues.

www.mischiefcomedy.com/mind-mangler-member-of-the-tragic-circle/uk-tour/tour-dates

Henry Lewis will be appearing as the Mind Mangler, with Jonathan Sayer as the stooge.

[samuelwhiskers]

Interesting. I didn’t love Magic Goes Wrong as much as most of their work but Mind Mangler was the funniest character. Will give this a punt when it comes to Wimbledon.

[stevej678]

I enjoyed this at the Fringe but to see it extended again into a longer format with an interval may be pushing the joke too far. I'll book no doubt for The Lowry though just because of the cast. It's Henry Lewis' interrogation of audience members that's the highlight.

[zahidf]

It was fun at the Fringe, but there is a lot of material which was in Magic Gone Wring

[samuelwhiskers]

Ooh front row side only £18.50!

[Dawnstar]

Unfortunately with only 1 or 2 nights at most venues there's a distinct lack of matinees so, as it's not coming near enough to me to allow me to do an evening show, it looks like I won't be seeing it. Since Magic Goes Wrong is my least favourite Mischief show I'm not desparate enough to see this to pay for an overnight stay somewhere.

[marob]

I was going to say exactly what Dawnstar has already said. I loved the plant in the audience, but thought the Mind Mangler was already over-used in Magic Goes Wrong. Not fussed enough about him getting a full show to warrant an over-night stay.

[talkingheads]

I have to say I really enjoyed this at the Fringe. I was one of the audience members he picked on, quite intimidating so don't sit near the front if you're not into that, but I'll be interested to see the extra material. I certainly enjoyed it more than Good Luck Studio.

[Jon]

Henry Lewis is currently on the gameshow Riddiculous and he is actually quite good.

[TallPaul]

Four dates at the Garrick Theatre now added to the tour.

Sunday 17 January at 7pm
Sunday 4 February at 2.30 and 7pm
Sunday 26 March at 7pm

Nimax also has an exclusive 48 hour sale, so check those inboxes!

You may be able to get to see it after all, Dawnstar.

[Dawnstar]

Yes, I'm eyeing up 4th February matinee. Can anyone who's seen it reassure me that the sawing a woman in half trick that ended the first act of Magic Goes Wrong isn't included in this show? I'm assuming that with a cast of only 2 that it won't be.

[hadeswasking]

Nov 26, 2022 13:18:11 GMT Dawnstar said:

Yes, I'm eyeing up 4th February matinee. Can anyone who's seen it reassure me that the sawing a woman in half trick that ended the first act of Magic Goes Wrong isn't included in this show? I'm assuming that with a cast of only 2 that it won't be.

It wasn't at the Edinburgh Fringe. However, they seem to marketing this with a lot more added as that show was only an hour, so not too sure.

[Dawnstar]

Thanks hadeswasking. I'm thinking about whether to go for the cheaper restricted view front row but wouldn't want to do so if there were fake innards hitting the stage only feet away!

[fiyero]

I can't see why the other performer's tricks would be in this - it isn't Magic Goes wrong and that trick doesn't feel right for Mind Mangler even if they expand it.

[Steve]

Nov 26, 2022 13:18:11 GMT Dawnstar said:

Yes, I'm eyeing up 4th February matinee. Can anyone who's seen it reassure me that the sawing a woman in half trick that ended the first act of Magic Goes Wrong isn't included in this show? I'm assuming that with a cast of only 2 that it won't be.

Saw it tonight, at High Wycombe, and there is no bit with a saw or a woman, but there is a bit with a guillotine that was very funny.

It's hit and miss, with Henry Lewis's stage presence being a major hit and the potential to get picked out of the audience being a major miss (not a problem if you're further back, thank goodness).

Also a hit is the banter (and characterisation) of the relationship between Lewis and Jonathan Sayer, and it will be a (minor) miss for audience members who already know a few of the punchlines from "Magic goes Wrong."

The show has lots of bits though, and if one thing doesn't work, the show soon moves on to something that does.

It's a scrappy show, in that way, and a very silly show, in a good way, so don't expect anything groundbreaking.

Some spoilers follow. . .

For me, the mere pleasure of Lewis doing his thing, with the booming voice - the inflating pretension always instantly undercut, and especially his (mock) outrage at heckling and shout-outs, which result in barkingly funny, immediate and unrestrained putdowns of audience members in question - these are what make the show a fulsome pleasure.

With this show, the joke (and silliness) is usually that the audience are a step ahead of the Mind Mangler, predicting how every joke will be done before it's done, or at least knowing how it's very obviously done by the time it's done (the audience even get an improbably fair chance to beat the Mangler at the three card trick, for crying out loud) lol.

In this sense, the Mangler is one of us, so if and when he finally gets a trick right, without being deliberately vague in a silly way, or cheating blatantly, or utilising very signposted stooges, we are actually delighted for him. It's like maybe there is such a thing as magic, if someone as silly as the Mangler can do it lol.

And we all wish we could have a friend as blunderingly loyal as Jonathan Sayer's Stooge, Steve, lol.

Scrappy and silly fun, full of charm and charisma. 4 stars from me.

PS: Dawn will be glad to know there is no blood in the guillotine trick, which for me, is one of the best because it plays to the original "Goes Wrong" trope, which unfailingly always goes right.

[Dawnstar]

Jan 13, 2023 22:13:20 GMT Steve said:

PS: Dawn will be glad to know there is no blood in the guillotine trick, which for me, is one of the best because it plays to the original "Goes Wrong" trope, which unfailingly always goes right.

I coincidentally have just been checking with someone involved in the production there wouldn't be any repeat of the cutting in half trick before I booked for 5th February (my previous post was a day out). I think I'll be okay with guillotining, as I've seen that done on stage, in a comic/spoof way, before & was okay with it.

[david]

Having enjoyed the Mind Mangler bits in “Magic Goes Wrong”, I was certainly intrigued to see if a full show with the character would be as good, so being at last night’s show in Liverpool I can definitely say yes it is. Henry and Jonathan have written a really funny and witty show which is totally draft and in the keeping of Mischief Theatre and kept us laughing out loud for the entire show. With plenty of light hearted banter between both the guys and the audience, we even got a short show stop during Act 2 (a. lighting issue) which the guys cleverly made reference to when the show resumed.

Along with material used in MGW, the guys have built on that by fleshing out the character with extra gags and tricks that on the whole work. Certainly the guillotine trick in Act 2 was both hilarious and impressive in equal measure. There I was plenty of opportunities for audience participation during the show so maybe stay away from the front rows if you don’t want to get involved.

With a run time of nearly 2hrs including interval, it was a well paced show and time flew by. It is a shame that it was only on for 1 night as I would have booked for a return visit if it was on for longer.

Rating 4⭐️

[Dawnstar]

I saw it at the Garrick this evening (first time I've bven there in ages). I was relieved to be sitting far enough back & in from an aisle to avoid the audience participation. I was also relieved that I found the guillotining a lot less gruesome than the sawing the woman in half in MGW. I'd love to know exactly how they did it though. I think I'd pay just to see Henry Lewis & Jonathan Sayer doing a couple of hours of cross-talk comedy routines, quite apart from the magic (though that may be because I'm not keen on magic shows!). While I'm pleased to have seen the latest iteration of a character whose public debut I saw back in 2018, I think that unlike some of Mischief's other shows one viewing of this one is probably enough for me. Amusingly, there were more Mischief actors in the audience tonight than on stage!

[pianowithsam]

Feb 5, 2023 22:34:26 GMT Dawnstar said:

I saw it at the Garrick this evening (first time I've bven there in ages). I was relieved to be sitting far enough back & in from an aisle to avoid the audience participation. I was also relieved that I found the guillotining a lot less gruesome than the sawing the woman in half in MGW. I'd love to know exactly how they did it though. I think I'd pay just to see Henry Lewis & Jonathan Sayer doing a couple of hours of cross-talk comedy routines, quite apart from the magic (though that may be because I'm not keen on magic shows!). While I'm pleased to have seen the latest iteration of a character whose public debut I saw back in 2018, I think that unlike some of Mischief's other shows one viewing of this one is probably enough for me. Amusingly, there were more Mischief actors in the audience tonight than on stage!

I, like you, am not particularly keen on magic shows. I just think magic is boring and very unamusing. On the contrary, I think Mischief are very amusing and the idea of seeing a show with Henry & Jonathan would be a good night out despite the 'sorcery'. Would you recommend the show for a Mischief fan but a magic cynic?

[nicolaa]

Its not really a magic show - its a comedy where he tries tricks and generally they don't come off for various reasons.

My thoughts,

The Mind Mangler

The Mind Mangler is in town to do his show. It turns out he's not very good and his stooge is terrible. As his act and life crumbles around him can the Mangler (Keith) come good?

Take 20 minutes out and run it straight through and this would be a better show. Its mainly very good fun but there are a couple of bits where to once again prove that the Mangler is terrible the gag is driven into the ground time and time again.

It’s the sort of thing that you'd expect from the sort of act that used to frequent Freshers Week or the local Rep theatre during an off night back in my day - as the show goes wrong involving acts of mind reading, playing chess against a computer, finding the queen (or his money), trying to work out a secret of an audience member and the like go wrong before we get to the real illusions at the end of Act 2.

That being a guillotine trick that of course goes wrong leading to the Mangler losing his head - which is a very good trick and very well done but you can tell when Henry comes back on stage as even in disguise he's a bit bigger than everyone else in the show. We've also got using random placed Rubiks cubes to make a picture, ripping up a newspaper and then having it be reassembled and a final reveal of information within a locked box that has been based on the audience interaction over the course of the evening. Whilst a lot of things are going wrong there is actually several tricks that do work but let's not spoil them all.

From my seat I could tell that the stage managers were telling some of the people called up on stage what to say. Not in a bad way but in a "keep the joke" going way so that the poor old Mangler gets ever more frazzled. There being a running joke that everyone called up on stage or in the audience is called John. Also there is a very subtle running joke around hand shaking in the second half that reveals a lot about the poor old Mangler - its tied into audience members on stage but harks back to a minor gag in the first half in a very amusing way and I don't think the crowd the other day fully picked up on it. The end of Act 1 is also a great big pay off on a Chekovs gun from earlier on in the evening.

Its all very well done and a pleasant way to pass the time as the first half sets up all of the problems that the Mangler has on stage and in his private life but then the second act takes him even further into the depths before the final redemption and you'll be pondering how they pull that guillotine switch for the rest of the day and if you don't like being part of an interactive show then do not sit in the front three rows. I was seven rows back and the couple in front and the person a couple of seats to my right were both used as audience members by the Mangler at various points (for the not sure what it was called in the show but where he uses whats clearly a metal detector from Argos to read peoples minds).

Overall its great fun, see if its near you but maybe think twice about travelling a distance.

...and it should be pointed out that of the about 100 minutes runtime I'd say that there is about 25 minutes or so which is lifted almost wholesale from the same act in Magic Goes Wrong.

[Dawnstar]

Feb 7, 2023 17:27:06 GMT pianowithsam said:

I, like you, am not particularly keen on magic shows. I just think magic is boring and very unamusing. On the contrary, I think Mischief are very amusing and the idea of seeing a show with Henry & Jonathan would be a good night out despite the 'sorcery'. Would you recommend the show for a Mischief fan but a magic cynic?

Yes, I think I would. I certainly found it more amusing than I was expecting, even if I wasn't as enthusiastic about it as many in the audience who were clearly loving every second.

[properjob]

I saw this on Sunday. It is much improved from when I saw it in Edinburgh. Now it is longer there is more new stuff that wasn't in Magic goes wrong and the story of their relationship works better as well.

[evilmat360]

Appears that there's going to be a West End run, not sure which theatre it'll be going into yet.

Guessing it's a full run this time, compared to during the UK tour where it was just a few performances a few weeks apart in London.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C1UHxIpIsfO

[Mark]

I have a feeling they haven't yet annnounced the venue because it will go to the Apollo, and TTW will close early.

[punxsutawney]

Dec 26, 2023 20:38:02 GMT Mark said:

I have a feeling they haven't yet annnounced the venue because it will go to the Apollo, and TTW will close early.

My feeling was Ambassador's, as the timing lined up with Enfield Haunting ending (presuming that will now go the full run), but this could make sense also.