Graemazing Level 7 Wizard is playing at the Hamilton Fringe daily until July 28th.
Based on our previous travel experience to Niagara Falls, KOP and I again added an hour to the Google projected travel time, with the hopes we could wander around Hamilton prior to the show. The traffic gods, however, had other plans. Luckily, we arrived with plenty of time to find parking, a rest room, and get checked in at a leisurely pace.
- This was our first time at the Hamilton Fringe!
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Graeme's show is at the Elaine Mae Theatre adjacent to
The Staircase. (Check their website for instructions on where to find alternate
parking if their lot is full.)
- The Elaine Mae Theatre is a cozy theatre space which comfortably seats approximately 40 people.
- The venue has air conditioning.
- There is a flight of stairs up to the venue. Contact the theatre directly to see if they offer accommodations.
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If you require a rest room, they will send you over to The Staircase.
(Which has a good number of stairs to get from the sidewalk to the main
floor.)
- Each Fringe attendee is required to purchase (and wear) $4 Hamilton Fringe button. (We confused the volunteer staff outside the venue by trying to pay for the button with cash. We apparently broke some generally known (except to us) norm. We're still not sure what payment methods they prefer, as eventually they let us trade our sheet of plastic and our coins for two buttons.)
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Fringe volunteers also have tip buckets and Fringe fund raising buckets,
into which they request you donate cash in support of the Fringe. (So
apparently cash isn't taboo for everything.)
- All ticket sale proceeds go to the performers.
On with the show...
- The performance space is intimate, capable of seating approximately 40 people.
- It is general admission seating. If sitting at the front is important to you, arrive early.
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Unless you are short and there's a tall person sitting in front of you,
there are no bad seats in the house. (The seating is NOT
raked. All the chairs are on the same level. The stage is
raised.)
- The show is highly interactive. There were more than a dozen volunteers and a segment which required the whole audience to participate.
- Only a handful of the volunteers were required to get on stage.
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Volunteers were treated with dignity and respect.
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While not crafted as a "children's magic show," the (guardian
accompanied) children in the audience were very engrossed and
entertained!
- The show is targeted as "Parental Guidance (ages 13+)." We feel this has less to do with the content of the show and more to do with young children's abilities to follow instructions and to sit still for the duration of the show (approximately one hour).
- Graeme could have very easily created an entertaining show, performing his selection of magical effects as documented (and performed by countless other magicians).
- With a delightful impact, however, he highly personalizes his conjuring, adding to the entertainment value of each of the sequences by making them unique to his "Graemazing Level 7 Wizard" persona.
- The description for the show "Graemazing is a Level 7 Wizard with a black belt in card magic and a starfish badge in mind reading, totally real" tells you upfront that the show isn't going to take itself overly seriously!
- If you're looking for a show that invokes super heroes, comic books, trading cards, breakfast cereals, John Cena, and movies from the 90s, look no further!
- BONUS POINTS for a wonderful shout out to The Browser's Den of Magic.
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There were many very strong, almost visceral, audience reactions to his
well-crafted performance.
- Graeme's improvisation expertise, combined with his re-imagining of classic effects, elevates his more than capable wizardry, and creates an engaging show unique to every audience!
The experience was unquestionably, Graemazing!
Disclosure: KOP and I were guests at this show. The opinions expressed above are entirely our own. We did not receive compensation for the writing or the publishing of this article.
