The Magi Comedy & Cabaret Competition
The view from my seat
Reviewed by Ian Hirst
The Magi Comedy & Cabaret Competition was held at the Irish World Heritage Centre on Tuesday 8th September 2026 — four acts, two trophies (one for Cabaret, one for Comedy), with Max Townsend on compering duties.
Max did the hardest part of the job invisibly: keeping the night moving, covering the gaps between resets, and warming the room without ever pulling focus from the acts. From where I sat, as one of the judging panel, it made for a thoroughly enjoyable bill. Here’s the view from my seat, in running order.
1. Jonathan Royle
Jonathan opened the night and led with quick gags. The delivery was slick and polished, even if the material itself leaned on tried-and-tested lines; Jonathan’s stagecraft shone through regardless.
His first appearance on a stage came at the age of three, and it shows: he commands the space he’s working in, unapologetically his authentic self.
Springboarding off his opening, he worked through a well-executed “this hand, that hand” sponge-ball sequence. The play into the pocket was perfectly over-egged, when he asked a spectator where he thought the ball was, back came the answer: “in your hand.” Jonathan made light of it without a trace of condescension. Building through sponge ball to cube and black ball, then a colour-and-shape change (yellow pyramid, blue square), he took a commercial item and executed it masterfully inside his own unique routine. A real testament to his skill.
An ESP colour effect followed, the spectator landing on exactly the right one. Then a blank-deck routine. The cards filling with real faces and backs before returning to blank. This piece carried a minor fault, which he worked through with aplomb, pressing on and tying off the mentalism thread with an ESP test built around spelling out the sentence ‘make the cards match’. Jonathan nailed the effect, and he has a clever way of turning it into a finale, with a callback saved for the end of the set.
In the back half, he visibly relaxed and came into his own. A nod towards hypnotism without ever quite doing hypnotism is where he is at his most assured, it has been his bread and butter for more than four decades, and it shows. A hypno-disc flashing on his phone, a ‘borrowed’ coin, and a nicely handled stretch of pseudo-hypnotism gave a masterclass in audience management; this was plainly his natural environment.
A marked coin bent in the spectator’s own hands while he was seemingly under the influence… not the beer, but Jonathan’s.
He finished on a “hypnotic” card sequence. First, two spectators: one held a random, unseen card while the other named it, and the two matched under seemingly impossible conditions.
Then came the centrepiece. A deck was produced and removed from its box, then cut corner to corner across the diagonal, creating two half-packs of fifty-two diagonal pieces each.
From the first half, a spectator selected a single piece, part of a Queen of Hearts. Its value, Queen, was then used to count down through the second half to a further piece: half of a Nine of Clubs.
Each selection proved singular. One was the only red-backed piece in a packet of blue backs; the other, the lone printed face among a packet of blanks. And the prediction that had sat in full view for the entire act? A single misprinted card — half Nine of Clubs, half Queen of Hearts matching both selected halves exactly.
A classic magician-fails plot, resolved into something quietly impossible. Jonathan then went into overdrive, with a call-back to the earlier ESP matching effect and an ‘all cards match’ climax. A strong, professional set.
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ROYLE NOTE = The minor fault Ian mentions in regards to my blank deck routine was unfortunately caused by spasms and pains in my fingers causing me to handle the cards wrongly at the required moment, it was entirely my fault or rather the fault of my FND & other issues. In truth I made numerous other faults which fortunately I was able to improvise and adapt in such a manner they were not noticed. However for the record my FND cognitive brain fog issues combined with chronic Pain caused me to forget the vast majority of the gags that I was actually meant to have included in the routine!
CLICK HERE FOR INSIGHT INTO MY HEALTH ISSUES & DISABILITIES
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2. Magic Chas
Following a polished opener is never easy, and that job fell to Chas.
He opened with thumb cuffs, examined by the first volunteer, the key handed to a second, then locked solidly and convincingly onto his thumbs.
The comedy was light and understated. Fairly standard thumb-cuff shenanigans followed, but with a twist; his hands worked inside a bag for life. It was a lovely touch, if over a little too quickly.
He moved to a spike-under-cup ‘roulette’: four Perspex discs, one carrying a lethal-looking spike, were covered with paper cups, and the discs and cups were then mixed.
Chas began bringing his bare, open hand down onto each cup. A satisfying pop and bang every time… successfully avoiding the loaded spike.
From the structure of the routine, it was never quite clear whether this was a test of luck or of super-attuned perception, but it played well for the room.
He closed on a book test: a single spectator chose a page at random from a freely selected book, and Chas divined what was written there, working through several volumes handed out around the room.
It came across, essentially, as a memory demonstration. A competent performance, and one that can definitely be built on. Chas has the makings of a serious competitor; with a little more attention to detail in structure and routine-building, he’ll be a performer to watch in future competitions.
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3. Anthony Park — Cabaret Trophy Winner
Third up (First act of the second half following the interval) and the night found another gear.
A strong start, and everything played for laughs from the off. I’ve watched Anthony develop over a number of years, from a reticent beginner into a strong and confident magician, and his set was a genuine pleasure.
He opened with a failed prediction: a spectator chose a card from a shuffled deck and showed it to the audience as the Queen of Diamonds, while the framed card on the table was revealed as the Ace of Hearts.
Anthony played this disaster to the hilt, setting up the theme of a bumbling, mistake-ridden performance from the very first beat.
A ‘holiday predictions’ routine followed, with one spectator in line for the grand prize of one hundred euros. Each spectator drew a card from an envelope revealing what they’d ‘won’, and Anthony had a comedy prop ready for every one of the spurious destinations before, of course, pocketing the money himself.
Laughs and comedic timing were threaded throughout.
The centrepiece was a mismatched-sock routine, played to perfection, hitting the classic beat of the magician appearing to fail spectacularly.
The audience was completely taken in; I don’t mind admitting I was too.
He moved into a multi-phase needle-through-balloon that was comedy gold, tension building with every drum roll as the spectator holding the balloon acquired more and more PPE.
Then every thread resolved: the Ace on display transformed into the Queen of Diamonds, and the mismatched socks that had been chosen actually turned up on an audience member. Polished, funny, and cleanly structured throughout.
Anthony was the deserved Cabaret trophy winner on the night.
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4. Guy Samuels — Comedy Trophy Winner
And then the energy changed entirely.
Guy closed the night with what’s best described as a mad kids’ act played for adults, an adaptation of his children’s show, reworked with adult- and magician-focused comedy layered on top.
A self-colouring colouring book, an appearing cane, a skit with balloons from a change bag, a balloon-swallowing bit, a five-volunteer cookie routine, and a cookie trick with a puppet dog that was, simply, superb.
He was wacky, zany, and full of energy, and the audience laughed from start to finish.
The real surprise was the contrast.
This was the same performer who had played it straight and serious in the close-up competition, and here he was at the far opposite end of the dial.
(My notes on Guy are thin — I’d have written more, but for the best possible reason: I was swept up in the tsunami that was Guy Samuels in this wacky guise. He pulled me up as his spectator, so I happily spent most of his act on the wrong side of the trick, with Guy calling me ‘little Billy’.)
A joy to watch, and a joy to be part of. The laughter came thick and fast. A deserved recipient of the Comedy trophy.
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A last word
I had been tempted to compete this year but Cabaret is a bit out of my comfort zone.
I’m glad I didn’t.
On the night I couldn’t have come close to Anthony’s or Guy’s performances, and there’s no shame in admitting it.
What evenings like this really show is the health of the scene around us: performers at every stage of the journey, from those still finding their feet to those who have spent decades honing an act.
All willing to stand in front of a room and a panel and be judged.
That takes nerve, and it’s exactly how acts grow.
Chas will be back stronger, and I’ll be first in the queue to watch. I’m genuinely happy I got the chance to see such strong work from every one of the competitors, and grateful to Max for holding the whole thing together.
A superb evening, and a real credit to everyone who took part.
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Winning Magician’s Announced in Manchester Magic Club Order of the Magi’s 2026 Comedy & Cabaret Magic Competition
Tuesday 8th September 2026 marked the occasion of the Comedy Magic & Cabaret Magic Competition organised by Manchester’s Magic Club & Magical Society for Magician’s & Mind Readers “The Order of the Magi”
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