For my third show of the Winnipeg Fringe Festival, I dragged my tween son out of bed and over to the Exchange District for the noon showing of “Hotter Than Potter.”
My son has spent some time training with magicians, so I figured he would enjoy taking in a little magic over the lunch hour.
We got there just in time – there were only three tickets left, and we needed two of them.
As the show opened with all eyes on illusionist Keith Brown, I looked over towards my son to try to read his reaction to the show. He looked a little skeptical, as many people are when it comes to magic shows.
However, the performer would soon get my son under his spell by performing a very cool trick involving a quarter, a sharpie, a child, and a sealed pop can.
Keith Brown is from Ontario and is very skilled at involving many members of the audience in his show. He randomly picks people from the audience, so you should be okay with going up on stage with him if you’re going to attend “Hotter Than Potter”. My son clearly enjoyed being a part of one magic “trick” which involved Mr. Brown reading my son’s mind.
I won’t tell you about all the magic tricks, but I can tell you the main card trick felt like it dragged on a bit, perhaps because of technical difficulties — Mr. Brown took an audience member backstage and had wanted to project their jaunt offstage via Facebook Live, but it didn’t happen. No matter, because the total run time for the show was less than one hour.
Keith Brown ended things on a high note by getting the entire room to sing “Happy Birthday” to a member of the audience and presenting us with a beautiful (and tasty) cake he had created to go along with the final trick of his show.
My son walked away with a small piece of cake and a big smile on his face, and he wasn’t at all upset that I’d awoken him at the early hour of 11 a.m. to come to the Winnipeg Fringe Festival with me.
Venue #5 – Son of Warehouse, 140 Rupert Ave. side entrance
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