FestBuzz have awarded Chris Cox, the comedy mentalist magician, the first ever comedy Twitter of the Year Award at Mervyn Stutter’s Pick of the Fringe.

Cox has been given this prize for his creative and prolific use of Twitter which has helped garner him almost 3,000 followers on the site, and ensured his popularity at this year’s Fringe festival with his show Mind Over Patter. He has tweeted around 300 times this August, conversing with fans and fellow comedians about comedy, the internet and his show. Chris’ online name is @bigcox, and his mind-reading and magic show combines other new social media such as Facebook to create some excellent tricks for his audience.

Fes­t­Buzz is a new way to find cool stuff at the Edin­burgh Fes­ti­vals. It’s a project from Affect Labs, a data pro­cess­ing com­pany based in Edin­burgh, and is sup­ported by Chan­nel 4’s 4iP fund. FestBuzz aggregates “tweets” about shows and then uses sentiment detection to create a star rating for the act: reviews are crowd-sourced directly from the people who are seeing the shows, rather than critics.

Twitter has become an internet sensation in the last 8 months: functioning a little like Facebook status updates, you simply tell the site what you’re doing (in 140 characters or less) and then read what other people are doing from their “tweets”. The attraction of Twitter is following other interesting or famous people’s tweets about their lives, creating a stream of consciousness type feed which illustrates the changing mood of the moment.

The prize will be presented to Chris Cox at Mervyn Stutter’s Pick of the Fringe show starting at 1pm on Thursday 27th August. Stutter has been running the revue since 1992 and will be presenting his own Spirit of the Fringe awards on Sunday 30th August.

http://www.festbuzz.com/

What: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by the Beijing Film Academy
Where: McEwan Hall
When: 19:00, August 14–23; 14:30, August 16, 22–23
How Much: £10–12, £35 family

In 140 characters or less: “Dazzling theatre spectacle fusing magic and technology — a modern and enchanting take on an old favourite.”

For a standard, if well-loved, Shakespearean play to stand out amidst the endless options at the Fringe, it must certainly offer something special. The Beijing Film Academy does just this by performing A Midsummer Night’s Dream as viewed through a games console. At first glance this may seem merely a clever gimmick, but the gaming motif is but one element of a richly dazzling spectacle of theatre.

To begin, the royal fairies Titania and Oberon, whose quarrels spill over into the world of humans, are reimagined as gamers toying with the lives and fates of Shakespeare’s hapless human lovers, now characters in a lifelike virtual world. This proves an intriguingly modern take on the concept of fate and the forces that shape our lives. Do video games appeal because they allow us to play God in a world of our own creation? And to what extent does technology nowadays control our destiny? These are the questions left floating as the actors stutter, jerk and bounce as though under the control of an invisible thumb impatiently pushing buttons.

But it is hard to focus too long on the intellectual implications. This Midsummer Night’s Dream is also a sensory treat, with haunting music (including a Chinese rendition of Scotland the Brave) and costumes that tread the line between traditional and futuristic. Elegant dance and martial arts are blended seamlessly into the storyline and set against the already impressive backdrop of McEwan Hall, which is further enhanced by animated digital imagery from the creators of the opening ceremonies at the Beijing Olympics. This all serves to build a truly magical atmosphere around an otherwise unadorned stage, culminating in a captivating final scene in which the building’s walls and murals themselves come to life.

Still, it is the performers who are this show’s biggest asset. Despite substantial sections of the play being performed in Mandarin (and those segments in English being occasionally a little hard to understand), the actors all deliver such vibrant, emotive performances that any audience member with even a passing familiarity with Shakespeare’s play will be able to follow the general gist. Even when the complicated plot does become a little hard to follow, the emotional pathos of the lovers and enlivening scenes of robust physical comedy are still enough amply to engage the viewer. Indeed, the cast proved so compelling that my only regret was being unable to understand for the most part what they were saying, as their voices, expressions, and movements alone captivated my attention.

All in all, the Beijing Film Academy have proved with this fascinating show that great theatre transcends language barriers, and that nowadays technology and art can go a long way toward replacing the magic missing from our modern world.

Festbuzz Rating:

Words: Domenica Goduto

Who: Chris Cox
Where: Pleasance King Dome
When: 8.30pm, Wed 12 Aug — Mon 31 Aug
How Much: £8-£9.50

In 140 characters or less: “Chris Cox has plenty up his sleeves in this confident & rather sweet magic show. Mind reading, technological trickery & good laughs abound.”

Chris Cox is a slight, geeky looking boy who is so sincere when he admits to spending much of his youth in his bedroom with a Paul Daniels’ magic set that it’s almost impossible to doubt him. However, he’s remarkably at home on stage and the audience instantly warm to him. It seems his reputation as a regular Radio 1 guest goes before him, though it’s not immediately obvious how magic can work on radio, the least visual of mediums.

Cox’s main “trick” is mind-reading, though he repeatedly makes the disclaimer that he can’t read minds. Derren Brown is an obviosu comparison, though the truth is that Brown’s patter about psychology etc. is as much a part of his distraction techniques as his jokes, so I’m on my guard already as Cox starts referencing psychologists and sociologists like Stanley Milgram.

Watching a magician with a critical eye is much like watching a comedian in the same manner: you’re waiting to see which way they are directing you in order to work out where the surprise/punchline/magic will actually be. And like watching a comedian, this critical appraisal can ruin the humour by taking the fun out of it. However, it’s good fun trying to work out how Cox’s tricks work as he seemingly bumbles through them. There’s lots of distraction elements, some good jokes, audience participation, lots of puns on the magician’s surname and some creative set-ups. By using Facebook, iTunes and his laptop Cox presents a very modern interpretation of the ancient arcane arts.

I confess, however, that I had a pretty good idea how Chris did every single one of his tricks and I do think some of the earlier stunts in the show needed a little more work on timing so the cracks in their facade aren’t quite so apparent. However, most of the patter was slick, and his charisma carried the audience along nicely. He deserved the gasps of awe he got, though he also deserved a few groans for some of the puns. A great night out!

Festbuzz Rating:

Words: Elise Bramich