Adelaide Fringe: Matt Tarrant – MORE Unsolved

What: Matt Tarrant: MORE Unsolved
Where: Gluttony – The Flamingo
Duration: 60 minutes
Genre: Magic, Illusion

(Reviewed by John Glennie)

Matt Tarrant was the highest selling solo act of 2018 and returns to his Adelaide home with even MORE Unsolved! Award Winning in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017; Matt Tarrant is back with more magic than ever before! Featuring brand new world-class Magic and Mentalism, as well as some old favourites, it did not disappoint.

Everyone was shaking their heads in amazement at numerous stages throughout the show. He picked out one guy in the front row, telling him (in a good-natured way!) that he hoped he would be lying in bed awake half the night wondering “how did he do that?”. Well, if the other guy wasn’t … I sure was!

He performed an amazing card trick to a musical mega-mix theme where the lyrics included numbers, and at each word he would turn the same numbered card from a shuffled pack. The majority of illusions were performed with “volunteers” from the audience who were selected by throwing a stuffed toy into the crowd. There is no possible way that it could be rigged as the first person selected was a friend of mine who definitely had no knowledge of what was to happen.

For me, one of the most amazing tricks was purportedly performing telepathy between an unrelated male and female from the audience who were sitting several metres apart. I have absolutely zero idea how he did this one, but he turned the lady into a mind-reader to accurately guess a card the man had selected!!

The whole show was filled with “what the …” illusions and tricks. The grand finale was equally impressive where random members of the audience were given different coloured pieces of paper on which to write down what they would like to see as the final act, where in the world they would like to see it and what song would be playing. Again, these were random thoughts from members of the audience written on blank pieces of paper – not multiple choice – so no way he could guess what the options were or predetermine the answers. You really have to go to the not-to-be-missed-show to see this amazing conclusion.