I was very lucky to see three magic shows by Melbourne magician Josh Staley, and ‘Surreal’ was the final show I experienced from Josh at this year’s MMF. The audience was all excited to see what mysteries were in store for them, and I can tell you that the show definitely lived up to its name!

At the start of the show, Josh handed out some mysterious packages and boxes for selected audience members to keep an eye on (to be returned to later in the show). Along the way, Josh enlisted the assistance of many audience members which was fantastic to see as people were clearly excited to be selected to help out. Selecting many audience members to help meant that the entire audience actually felt closer to the magic happening. One of the things I enjoyed the most about this show was that it contained a wide assortment of objects – not just the ‘usual’ objects you’d find in a magic show but items like fruit, matchboxes and lightbulbs which added to the mystery and element of surprise.

This show also contained the most storytelling of all of Josh’s shows. Josh excels at storytelling, and these pieces were undoubtedly the strongest points of his show. I don’t want to spoil too much here, but trust me – when Josh tells a story, you’ll want to be an active listener and keep your eyes peeled for some fantastic moments of magic! There were many points during this show where the audience were making sounds of disbelief and shaking their heads, and this continued as the show ended. Many of the audience left the show wondering if they could believe what they had seen, for we had seen some wonderful and bizarre pieces of magic, surreal indeed.