The Greatest Magician Live Tour Review

Disclosure: We were invited to see this show for the purpose of this post however all opinions are my own.

Last night we were invited to Camberley Theatre to see The Greatest Magician and had no idea what to expect. We’d never seen a live magic show before but knew it would be a lovely half term treat for the children and couldn’t wait to see something new.

What is The Greatest Magician?

Directed by his Uncle, the late Paul Daniels, James Phelan’s mind-blowing magic show has been brought to the stage for the first time. The Greatest Magician is said to transport the audience to a jaw-dropping world of light-hearted hilarity, wonderment, and mystery. The show is presented by James Phelan, who is most infamous for jamming the BBC switchboard when he correctly predicted the lottery.

James Phelan is The Greatest Magician

We went to The Greatest Magician completely open minded and I don’t want to give any spoilers whilst writing this. But, you won’t find any people being cut in half, fire eating or rabbits being pulled from hats. Instead, it’s a magic show of the mind. One that just needs you to have a little bit of imagination to believe everything that you see in front of you on the stage.

The show focuses on mind-bending feats of illusion. With everything from card tricks to reading minds and even making people forget their own names. It’s a show that will have you baffled and amazed in equal measure.

The Greatest Magician show is in two parts and although it was an hour and a half of magic in total, with a twenty minute interval, the time flew by. The audience were participating throughout and it was so surreal to hear the audience laughing, gasping and applauding as one. Each one of us was completely immersed in the magic and it was incredible to be a part of.

I didn’t know if The Greatest Magician would be family friendly as magic comes in so many forms but James put my mind at ease and said all ages can enjoy it – it’s a show parents take their kids to rather than a show for kids. LP and Little Man were blown away by the magic. Where Dave and I were wondering how each trick worked, the children were just amazed. There were real wow moments and it was amazing to see their faces light up with each woah and wow!

James Phelan is great at what he does. He commands the audience, keeping us engaged and easily moving from trick to trick, working with whatever the audience happen to throw at him. Even when there’s a blip – which is unavoidable with a live audience and real life magic – James is at ease, making it part of the show.

Full of confidence, James was a joy to watch and his stories of Paul Daniels and his childhood were heartwarming, they made us all love him even more. His family being in the audience and his obvious love of Camberley Theatre were the cherry on the cake. He was so at home in Camberley and it really showed in the performance.

I’m not surprised that The Great Magician has had rave five star reviews – and we give it five stars too ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐! It is everything that everyone has said it is and more. An astonishing, enigmatic show that left pretty much all of us dumbfounded. It was fantastic and it left us wanting to see more magic as soon as possible. It was truly inspiring and the most uplifted we’ve felt since the start of the pandemic. The Greatest Magician was just such a tonic and we loved every minute.

Make sure you see the show for yourself. You can see the rest of the tour dates and book tickets over on The Greatest Magician website.