NIGHT OF MAGIC

Southland Times, Issue 24433, 13 May 1941, Page 6

NIGHT OF MAGIC

THE GREAT LEVANTE IN REVUE With a generous programme of magic and novelty acts, the Great Levante and his company gave their opening performance of the attractive revue “How s Tricks” in the Civic Theatre last night. With all the suavity of the accomplished magician, Levante admitted freely that his greatest successes were only tricks, but the large audience had small opportunity to" probe his mysteries, which were performed with the slickness of the brilliant illusionist.

There was a quaintly rural atmosphere in Levante’s first tricks, in which he produced pigeons, ducks and rabbits with bewildering speed from apparently vacant containers. He quickly became more ambitious, and attractive women assistants began to materialize from cabinets demonstrated to be as empty as they were strangely collapsible. A pet canary appeared to be whisked across the stage from a box to a cage, and a cylinder of moderate size yielded a tremendous supply of artificial flowers.

I Presenting a trick* which he called i “just a chance,” Levante passed among | the audience inviting women members to select an envelope from three on a tray, after he had told them that one contained a £1 note. It was a chance which did not come off for the audience, and the magician retained his money. A strip-tease act in silhouette proved to be an amusing novelty with a sequel quite unexpected by the audience. Then a marked bullet with a long ribbon attached to it was shot through a female assistant, who appeared to suffer little from the disconcerting experience. In a trick called “A condensed milk-maid,” the magician converted the contents of a tank of milk into a charming damsel. A cathedral sketch gave him the opportunity to produce still another assistant from an apparently empty organ pipe suspended from the roof. But his attempt, to equalize the position by decapitating a girl in a Chinese j guillotine left the associate unharmed.

A MAGIC KITCHEN Levante showed his magic kitchen | which would not entirely delight the housewives because its oven and refrigerator yielded the usual bevy of females and food vanished in disconcerting fashion. Members of the audience were invited to check up on another series of tricks, but they only had the satisfaction of being even more bewildered than the rest of the observers. With incredible slickness Levante changed places with his daughter in a locked steel trunk and was rescued from his predicament only after a laborious process of unlocking padlocks and undoing straps. Later two small boys from the audience assisted in the production of large numbers of eggs from a decrepit top hat and there was general delight when a number fell from the grasp of the overloaded lad. With his magic kettle Levante passed among the audience and generously dispensed beer and other liquors. The magician concluded his performance by apparently shooting a girl encased in a shell from a cannon through a sheet of steel. Making unexpected appearances through the performance was George Corelli, who provided humorous interludes to the delight of the audience.

In the fast-moving revue were a number of novel specialty items of unusual interest. Melba, an English shadowgraphist, gave clever silhouette sketches on a screen by the manipulation of her hands. Rex and Bessie were a brilliant team of acrobatic dancers, presenting an energetic and graceful act. Miss Esme Levante was featured in an Oriental dance scene and the Moderniques presented an unusual dancing act. A novel act was given by Miss Ursula Irving in a series of national songs in a kaleidoscopic setting. The Mayfair Four in instrumental and vocal harmony proved popular with the audience.

The glamour girls of the show spent a busy evening in quick changes and ballet scenes and were always at the call of Levante to assist him in his tricks. A small orchestra under Gordon Girdwood added to the brightness of the show. “How’s Tricks” will be repeated tonight anfi tomorrow night, with a matinee tomorrow afternoon.