During another magical evening at the Melbourne Magic Festival, I was delighted to watch Nick Nickolas’ show “Gobsmacked”. Nick is a well known street performer and regularly appears as a performer on various cruise ships. I’ve never been on a cruise ship and never seen one of Nick’s ‘full length’ shows so I was excited and intrigued to see his show.

Sitting amongst groups of families in the audience, pre show we all listened to some classic upbeat ‘party’ type songs to get us in a lighthearted mood. All of a sudden, there was an announcement and Nick appeared onstage to a large round of applause. Clearly comfortable on stage, Nick wasted no time delighting the audience with his razor sharp humour, snappy one liners and brilliant smile. Of course, being a magic show there was plenty of magic (and surprising magic at that!) however this was a comedy show as much as it was a magic show. Nick is well versed in comedy – some of the jokes reminded me of vaudeville style comedy with a sprinkling of ‘dad’ type jokes – however Nick also respected his modern audiences so nothing was too raw or controversial (especially given his ‘family’ timelsot).

A highlight of the show for me was the audience participation section involving children. Nick is a natural at conjuring extra laughs out of his audience helpers, and at some points during the show the children in the audience definitely laughed the hardest! There was even a sweet message behind some of the magic and comedy, regarding the importance of kindness which I found really touching (as being kind is something that resonates with me and in my life). Nick also had a genuine quality about him (especially when he was talking to his audience helpers) which can sometimes be overlooked in a comedy based show. It was fascinating to learn snippets about Nick’s life and background and how he came to find magic (or how magic found him). The stories in the show built up to Nick’s finale, which was truly a piece of world class magic and made the audience roar with applause.

VERDICT: A comedy magic show with a lot of heart from a polished performer. Versatile enough to adapt and read his audiences well, this show is a ‘sure bet’ if you’re not sure which show to see. If you ever see Nick Nickolas out and about, be sure to stop and catch his show – be delighted, surprised and gobsmacked!

*Disclaimer: I attended this show as a guest of the performer