Review: Mark Guest - Believe (Calder Bookshop)

Review by Daz Gale

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

There’s always something magical about a trip to the theatre. Even more so when magic forms part of the show itself, as is the case with Mark Guest: Believe. A magician and a mentalist, his upcoming shows at the Phoenix Arts Club have been the fastest-selling in the theatre's history, so I knew I couldn’t pass up the chance to go to a preview of those shows in Calder’s bookshop. Would this peek behind the curtain blow me away, or would the skeptic in me find it difficult to believe?

You may not be familiar with Mark Guest, and there’s a good reason for that. Putting his passion for magic aside for a career in the corporate world, the loss of his best friend  Luke, from cancer earlier this year, spurred Mark on to pursue what he loves, as life is indeed too short, and so he is returning to his love of magic in this brand-new show, all the while honouring Luke’s legacy and raising funds to support Guy’s Cancer Charity. While it is crucial to suspend your disbelief while watching Mark’s show, this very admirable and real cause helps to ground the show and blur the lines between the real world and the magical one Mark presents to us. A speech early on, culminating with Mark saying he believes there will be a cure for cancer one day, brings another meaning to the title, though in this case, seeing really is believing.

There are some who easily escape into this world of magic and don’t attempt to question what they see, while others are far more sceptical and attempt to find the answers, sense, and logic in what they are seeing, refusing to believe in the magic that appears right before their very eyes. I can fall into either of those categories at any given time, but more often than not will fall into the latter. I am that kind of person who will actively look for how a trick is done on stage, and feel smug in my satisfaction when I figure it out (which admittedly is not very often). However, with this show, I can safely say I don’t have the faintest idea how any of it was done.

I won’t spoil the ins and outs of the tricks Mark performed on the night, but they all relied on audience participation. Meeting the audience before the show and asking them to write things down while other tricks involved spontaneity and randomness, his hit rate was completely faultless. Seemingly reading people’s minds, I couldn’t begin to tell you how it was done, and in all honesty, who even cares? It’s the journey in getting there, and in this case, it was as perfect as it can be. I regularly found myself picking my jaw up off of the floor, particularly when a huge highlight involving completely random audience members giving even more random numbers led to the most satisfying payoff of the night.

The key to what made this show so brilliant is Mark himself. Not just an incredible showman and supremely talented, it is his personality that lights up the stage. From the honesty in his story and the tragedy that inspired this show immediately endearing him to the audience, he has a real warmth and charisma to him that ensures you are always rooting for him to succeed, no matter how much you may or may not believe in magic. His ability to react to audience members and rogue props led to some brilliant improvisation that was a further testament to his talents as a performer. It may have been one of the smallest stages I’ve ever seen a performer on, but from the grandeur of Mark’s performance, he made the whole thing feel that much bigger.

Mark Guest is not somebody I was familiar with prior to this performance. However, in the space of one speedy hour, I became a fan who is sure to follow him along his journey in the years to come. Where his upcoming shows at the Phoenix Arts Club may be completely sold out, don’t be surprised when he goes on to bigger stages at bigger venues following this. If you take my advice, snap up a ticket whenever you get an opportunity as seeing really is believing, and you won’t believe just how good Mark and this show truly is.

Mark Guest: Believe plays at Phoenix Arts Club on 22^nd and 29^th September but is currently sold out. Keep an eye on https://phoenixartsclub.com/events/believe-an-evening-of-magic-mentalism/ in case any tickets become available, and follow @magicmark15 on Instagram to find out about his future shows.