By Julia Loipersberger
Tony Roberts, entirely against his will, became a victim of putting on his premiere show for the 2012 season at 10.45pm in the Garden of Unearthly Delights. The number of hecklers who had had more than enough to drink and then ploughed on anyway was very disruptive – and to the man in the white shirt who just couldn’t let go of the fact that Tony is from New Zealand, you’re not as funny as you think you are. Or funny at all, really. The show was also obviously set up for a small gathering of audience members, and (thrilled as he was) it was clear that Tony hadn’t anticipated selling The Cupola to full capacity, meaning that only audience members in the first two rows had a proper view of the card table set up at the front of the room and everybody else had to stand for the duration of the performance. These issues became the backdrop to a stilted and unpolished performance.
Performed in a conversational style, Tony Roberts takes his audience on a rundown of his philosophies on gambling, the pokies and stories of his background and road to becoming a professional ‘gambler’. Tony exudes a real confessional warmth when speaking about his life, but his show suffers from forced attempts at jokes, which detracts from the genuine humour in most of what he has to say and at times derails his act into a stand-up ‘boom boom’ style show.
But that is not what we are here to see. Tony Roberts is a card trickster, and despite the many other failings of his performance this is what we got. I have no idea how he performs the tricks he does, and I won’t ruin them for those who might have some inkling by describing them in detail. Suffice to say, Tony Roberts may not be quite the comedian he tries to be but he certainly fits the bill as an amazing card magician.
‘The Gambler’ isn’t the best show you will see at the Fringe, and needs some work to improve the continuity of the show and avoid some of the lengthy pauses while Tony sets up his next trick. However, it’s impossible to deny that Tony is phenomenal at what he does, and he is worth going to see just to allow yourself to be wowed by the most humble of magicians – the card trickster.
Kryztoff Rating 2.5K
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