Performing magic tricks since the age of seven, when she quit school and began touring local villages with her family, Suhani Shah is certainly someone born to amaze. Spellbound 2.0 -as the name suggests- is Suhani’s second Fringe run. I didn’t catch the original show last year, but if I had I would have definitely remembered and made a note to come again.
When I hear the word ‘mentalist’, I think Derren Brown and not much else. Something vaguely spooky or mystical, serious enough to be mind bending. Suhani’s show is not this. She’s an adorable scrap of a woman who giggles with audience members that get flustered when they’re called to the front to participate.
She’s so quick witted and likeable, and her willingness to play up the laughs when they come really adds something to the show. Now coming to her skills, which are baffling. There’s really not much more to be said than, ‘I don’t know how she does it’. She had a variety of tricks up her sleeve, getting progressively more complicated as the show goes on.
My personal favourite, is the one she’s adapted from her first ever trick, that she created to convince her parents to let her become a magician. It involves sealing off her eyes with chapati dough (much like you would to seal the sides of a pot, when making a stew or a biryani) and mimicking the actions of a few audience members. It’s very charming and adds a sense of her life’s trajectory towards our show in Bristo Square- however many thousands of miles away from her home in India. Suhani’s act is the whole package and I hope she comes back next year for a hattrick. I’ll come back if she does.
Suhani Shah: Spellbound 2.0, Underbelly, Bristo Square, 19:00, until August 25.
https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/suhani-shah-spellbound-2-0
