Continuing the magical adventures on the last evening of the Melbourne Magic Festival my partner, some close friends and I we were all keen to discover what well travelled magician Davide Kaufmann (originally hailing from Italy) had in store for us in his show ‘Favole’. Davide explained that his show title means ‘fable’ with aspects of fairytales included. Davide has a very engaging nature on stage – lots of wide arm movements and big facial expressions – which were well utilised during a storytelling based show.

Fables and stories were regularly referenced during this show, and Davide used a screen to display pictures to explain the fables he was referring to. This helped give the audience context to the stories that were being explored via magic on stage. Each piece of magic performed by Davide was well matched to a fable or story. I especially enjoyed a piece of magic involving tarot cards (which can be used in of themselves to tell stories).

Sitting in the front row, there were many moments during this show where we were all transfixed. One of these points was during a ‘Russian Roulette’ routine. Davide used various props during the routine to decrease tension and include comedy, which transformed what can be a tense routine to watch into a fun moment. Another moment where I was transfixed was during one of Davide’s personal stories of how he came to be in Australia and came to love this country.

At the end of the show, Davide included links / his contact details in case anyone wanted to know more about the fables explored during the magic show – which was a nice touch. Overall, a very enjoyable show where the storytelling points were as strong as the magic.

VERDICT: A charming story based magic show with whimsical elements alongside some great magic. Very enjoyable – easy to watch and share with friends.

*Disclaimer: we attended this show as guests of the performer