Review: Asi Wind - Incredibly Human (Underbelly Boulevard)

Review by Daz Gale

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

After wowing worldwide audience with his appearance on Penn & Teller: Fool Us, clocking up over 16 million views on YouTube and a sold-out, critically acclaimed run off-Broadway totalling a 448 shows for his previous show Inner Circle, London audiences finally get a chance to experience the magic of Asi Wind for themselves as he debuts his brand new show Incredible Human for an 18 week run at Underbelly Boulevard in the heart of the City. With a title like that, he would have a lot to live up to ensure he really was as incredible as he said, so did he do the trick?

Introducing the evening by describing the two meanings of the word incredible, Asi Wind hopes to not only prove he is worthy of that big word, but also that he is credible at his craft… though he warns us from the offset he will lie a lot. As with any magic show, it’s not about how effortlessly you can figure out how he did the tricks, it’s the ability to buy into the pure escapism of the event and believe in magic, no matter how old you are. In that respect, Asi Wind has no problems whatsoever.

In a relatively small theatre in the heart of London, Asi Wind blends the grandeur of his act with the intimacy of his surroundings, as around 100 people packed in to watch Wind pace around the audience, interacting with them and calling a few lucky (or should that be unlucky) members to join him on stage. His ability to interact with the audience and respond to whatever unexpected details they throw up was part of his immeasurable charm. On this performance I attended, he had his work cut out for him with both a slightly worse for wear member of the public and a volunteer not wanting to follow the trick threatening to derail the act. Taking it all in good humour, Wind remained unfazed and ensured the show went on with quick switch replacements both times. It was his playful nature in situations like this, commenting on how this particular performance may prove longer than the usual, that added to the joyful nature of the evening. It became less about whether the tricks went as planned and more about the skill of his showmanship.

That being said, the tricks he did showcase were mostly outstanding to watch, with many of them leaving me scratching my head as to how he did them. There is an element of necessary secrecy to these tricks and I wouldn’t want to spoil them for anyone else experiencing the show in the future so forgive me for fairly vague descriptions of these acts. Fantastic sequences involving him guessing songs the audience had selected and famous figures from history all brought the house down with his technique and satisfying reveal. Again, it’s not so much how he pulled off this tricks (I don’t want to be controversial but I’m not convinced it was all real magic) but more of the theatre in the trickery and boy, has he crafted a fabulous show through these tricks. It was only an overlong segment involving ten random items named by the audience which felt like a rare misfire throughout, falling flat as it failed to live up to the impressive nature he had demonstrated elsewhere.

Personally, I felt that ‘Incredibly Human’ got off to a pretty slow start which may be accounting to it being an early performance in the run and needing the tiniest bit of tweaking, but once everybody had settled in to the style of the show, that problem vanished. At 80 minutes and a singular act, it proved to be quite a rapid and pacey show, which ended up leaving me longing for a longer set, perhaps with an interval in-between so we could catch our breath ready to be amazed by more in the second half. However, if you are leaving your audience wanting more, it is probably a sign of a good show (most of the time). While it was a rapid show, the speed in which Asi Wind took his quick bow and disappeared off the stage left my head spinning – when you have impressed an audience as much as he did there, I felt like he should have lingered a few moments more to really soak up our applause. However, if that is one of the only things I can criticise in a show like this, it says it all for the calibre elsewhere.

I walked into Underbelly Boulevard pretty unfamiliar with Asi Wind and what he has done in the past. Though his act wasn’t quite perfect, it was an incredible feat of memory and trickey, entertaining at every turn with Wind’s showmanship and skills expertly steering a highly enjoyable show. At its best, this show really was incredible, and even the moments which didn’t quite reach those dizzying heights only went to demonstrate what it means to be human. Overall though, this show was a resounding success and left me believing in magic.

Asi Wind – Incredibly Human plays at Underbelly Boulevard until 5th January 2025. Tickets from www.underbellyboulevard.com