Henry Lewis is the Mind Mangler, a supposed mind reader who can hear the thoughts of cards and taste names... Well, allegedly.
The reality is that he is bad, with self-confidence issues and an audio tech who is constantly undermining him with cheesy cues. I was fascinated to see where it was going, thinking that a disaster magician could be an interesting concept, especially when it was apparent how adept Henry is at working the audience. He successfully handled a Saturday crowd who, at least from where I was sitting, were a good few drinks in.
Despite the high hopes of a hopeless magician styling it out with terrible audio cues and gleefully awkward audience interactions, the result was somewhat more staid. There was a good mix of jokes and visual gags, accompanied with some great use of multimedia, and the reoccurring interjections by Mischief co-star Jonathan Sayer added some great improvised levity. However, not fully appreciating what Mind Mangler was at the start, I was disappointed that the show ultimately deviated to an increasingly predictable narrative, which I think was a mistake. Given its 9:30pm show time, I feel the show could have leaned into its slightly maturer audience, and played more with the concept of chaotic performance – Lewis and Sayer did have great chemistry when riffing.
Mind Mangler was billed as a magic comedy show, and I can confirm it met the brief, I just feel it could have been more ambitious. Nonetheless, I can tell you that despite the slightly rote script, the ending is definitely a successful payoff.
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