Review: Dazed and Confused, Edfringe

Dazed and Confused is created and performed by Lin Lu-Chieh and plays as part of the Taiwan Season at Edinburgh Fringe this year. He’s a really engaging and charismatic figure, and this is the premiere of his production in Europe. Branded a magic show, it’s only partially that – more autobiographical storytelling punctuated throughout with a variety of excellent tricks, some of which you really have to be paying close attention to to register.

At the very start, Lin demonstrates some impressive prestidigitation, with cards fanning, disappearing and appearing in huge numbers. It’s impossible to tell how he’s doing this: it’s enormously slick and theatrically performed. He then drops an unsolved Rubik’s cube into a paper bag, folds the top over tightly and has an audience member mark it so it’s uniquely identifiable before leaving it in plain sight, apparently untouched, until the end of the hour. Next, he tells us how he came to become a magician, starting right back in his childhood. Anecdotes follow that explain his career path and provide opportunities to demonstrate his talents and self-taught skills. More audience participation allows him to demonstrate incredible powers of memory as he recalls an entire page of digits from the number pi, verified by a stranger in the audience. It’s quite remarkable.

Throughout the hour, we learn about formative incidents where he’s tried and failed to succeed using skills that weren’t quite right for him. His baseball career didn’t end well, but it is a good setup for a transforming baseball cap and an appearing baseball. His singing career fell flat when the puny kid from his class out-auditioned him with the identical Taylor Swift song, and there are some tales of failed romances. It’s a lesson to persist with what you are good at to get ahead in life. The whole is backed nicely with a retro soundtrack, with Lin quirkily changing cassette tapes in and out. 

There’s a lot to tell, and during the delivery, he adds in a spot of table levitation and card tricks that are impossible to fathom. In my head, however, I was here for a conjuring show rather than a history and found the balance a little weighted towards the monologue over the magical. I would really have liked him to lead up to showing some more spectacular tricks, rather than staying with versions of quite familiar ones. I’m sure you can guess what had happened to the Rubik’s cube when that bag was finally opened, as it’s a trick seen in one form or another quite often.

That being said, Lin performs with confidence and aplomb and is very likeable as he encourages the audience to do what they love, as it will bring happiness and success. Sure, it’s a little sentimental, but nonetheless a welcome outlook from a talented man who has clearly benefited from it.

Produced by Lu Productions

Dazed and Confused runs at Underbelly Bristo Square as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival until Saturday 24 August