It’s a kinda magic when award-winning sleight of hand star James Galea (POOF! Secrets of A Magician) assembles a powerful cabal of conjurers at the Sydney Opera House.

James Galea’s Best Trick Ever teams him with YouTube sensation and shadow puppet master Raymond Crowe (Australia’s Got Talent) and slippery escapologist Helen Coghlan, who racked up a celebratory hat trick bamboozling Penn and Teller on their ratings smash Fool Us. Also showing off his wand-waving prowess is cheeky beer-disappearing America’s Got Talent finalist Dom Chambers, and Rubik’s cube-manipulating supremo Vincent Kuo, the latter fresh from his appearance at the Fédération Internationale des Sociétés Magiques, aka the Magic Olympics.

In other words, it’s a whole lotta awesome in the truest sense of the word. Commissioned as part of Opera House initiative New Work Now, it’s a reimagined take on Galea’s ABC TV series of the same name, in which he scoured every corner of the globe looking for the greatest tricks ever performed. So keep your eyes peeled, try and keep up and be prepared to have your mind well and truly boggled.

“The evening starts with him at the piano and ends with the guests on stage on a couch together, watching each other’s ‘last’ trick of the night. Galea and his guests are having fun and entertaining us, not trying to impress us. As a result, they impress us even more.”
Lynden Jones – Theatre Now – 4 Stars

Magic Shows are a special breed of show. Like any other production you want to enjoy it. But unlike other shows, you also go to see if you can catch them out. It is a little quest to uncover the mystery. Of course you don’t want to catch them out as then you will not have enjoyed the night, but still you try, hoping to not succeed. That is how i started out at James Galea’s Best Trick Ever but Galea’s fun and charming personality and style seeps in and by the end of the show you are just enjoying the night for what it is – magic.

James Galea is one of Australia’s great magicians. He has been performing since the age of 14, has had sell out shows at festivals and venues around the country. His 2016 TV series on ABC, James Galea’s Best Trick Ever and his 2020 smash at last years Sydney Festival Poof! Secrets Of A Magician where huge successful step up. This year he has put together a stage show based on the ABC series, collecting some of Australia’s leading talent to join him.

COVID is never far away and the artists have made it part of the show. Funny how easily we accept an audience member putting on gloves or sanitising their hands before selecting a card or getting otherwise involved these days. The artists are even working little bits into the act. I expect this is something that will continue to evolve in acts like this from now on.

Shadow puppet master and ‘Unusualist’, Raymond Crowe is a delight. His quiet style is a perfect fit to the evening and his shadow puppet finale is beautiful. Escapologist Helen Coghlan fooled Penn and Teller three times on their hugely successful Penn and Teller’s Fool Us. Having seen one of these successes, I knew what to expect. There are no rings of fire, no plunges into watery depths. Just a cage, a curtain and a logic defying escape. Dom Chambers was a finalist on America’s Got Talent and his beer glass trick is an essential part of his act now. Vincent Kuo completely encapsulates the mood of the evening. He weaves story telling and artistic flair into his Rubiks Cube and card tricks.

Did I glimpse anything? A few tiny moments, but that just reinforced that this is live and difficult. This isn’t a glossy, over produced show. It is personable, entertaining and fun. The magic is good but not showy, it’s fun and not condescending. Galea does not rev the audience up, he chats with us, jokes with us and then surprises us with another trick. The evening starts with him at the piano and ends with the guests on stage on a couch together, watching each other’s ‘last’ trick of the night. Galea and his guests are having fun and entertaining us, not trying to impress us. As a result, they impress us even more.