By Thom Barker
Staff Writer
Last year, Darcy Oake went further in the competition show Britain’s Got Talent than any other illusionist has before. A fifth place finish garnered him a lot of international attention and big gigs in New York, Las Vegas and Asia.
The Winnipeg born and raised magician played Yorkton January 16 to a sold out house at Painted Hand Casino.
He said it was great to be back and tour the country where it all began.
Prince Albert comedian Kelly Taylor opened the show for Oake. With a repertoire peppered with Saskatchewan references, it was just the kind of warm-up a main act likes to see as Taylor put the room in a good mood.
Oake has some elaborate disappearing and escape acts, classic illusionist moves that he puts his own stamp on, but at heart, he is a old-school slight-of-hand artist who works with cards, strings and whatever he can beg or borrow from the audience. One highlight was borrowing a cell phone from an audience member, making it disappear then retrieving it from locked box hanging from the front of the stage in plain view.
He is also quite good at bantering with the audience.
There were a couple of disappointments, however. He only did the first, less spectacular half of his signature bit manipulating live doves that launched his journey to the finals of Britain’s Got Talent. He also skipped the jaw-dropping straightjacket escape from a giant bear trap about to snap shut that he closed with in the competition.
It might be that the facility simply was not capable of such an elaborate setup, but it would have been nice to see.
All in all, though, an entertaining show and a very personable guy, who should go far in his chosen field.
