MAGIC AND MIRTH

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2300, 6 November 1914, Page 7

MAGIC AND MIRTH

LEROY, TALMA, AND BOSCO AT THE OPERA HOUSE. About eight or nine, years ago, Leroy, Talma, and Bosco. the merry magicians, ; appeared under tne Fuller management at the old Theatre Royal. Last evening they reappeared at the Grand Opera ■ .House m an 'extension of their former act,, and received a hearty welcome. These talented people, 'whilst performing wonders which easily, dcceive the eye, laugh, and talk, and skip, and dance as they add mystery to mystery,; and one has to laugh with them whilst admitting one's failure to detect their deft trickery. Leroy is the magi-cian-in-chief, a 6iuart, alert Frenchman, who* fills in full time with his, "problems" without wasting too much time I in demonstrating how impossible it is 1 for him to do what he is about to do. •He is a master at the displacement of matter, of dissolving the substantial : into thin air, and teaching the senses a sharp lesson is common observation. 1 Bosco, though a trifle more solid in 1 figure, has not dropped the habit of ! producing jabbits from unexpected : places, and when it chances not to be ■ a rabbit, it is a duck. There are times when the stage becomes a veritable ] farmyard. Where, its populace comes . from or go to, who knows but the comical Bosco. Mdlle. Talma indulges in a little legerdemain, palms come alluringly, ana disappears when called ; upon to do so with amazing complaisauce. Leroy and Talma puzzle one, alresh with their cabimet tricks.. There are two boxes —empty. Into ono creeps Leroy, into the other Talma. When a fraction of a second later the curtains, are whisked aside, the boxes are empty again. . Drawn again, and Leroy appears from that which secreted lalma, _ and vice versa. Leyitation, or the' suspended body, is. a mystifying performance. When the curtain is drawn [aside a lady is discovered lying "on toe bosom oi Vaa air." SVie is TaAsei,' and lowered, a stick is waved above and below, and a solid hoop passed over the body. The girl has no visible •melons of support, -there stie lies suspended. On, another occasion Mdlle. Talma is the subject. She is raised into mid-air,' and covered with a cloth, which on 1 being .whjsked away suddenjy exposes vacant space. "Ghostly visitants" is another mysterious cabinet'trick in which the movements ;of all concerned bafflei all understanding. "The Indian rope trick" deals" with the disappearance of a rope climber from his perch in mid-air, and in the magic water act a whole' yardful of ducks disappear from tw'o wire cages completely, and are discovered a moment later splashing aboUt in a tub : that was filled with water before the audience. Not content with juggling with live farm produce, the intrepid Leroy "disappears" a huge lionj from'a cage in the "Nero" illusion. This is a tabloid edition of "Tho Sign of the' Cross," with Marcus as the ; lower-magician, who. saves Meria from the lion by simply vanishing it at the moment Nero consigns t'h'o maiden to the great beast. The acting was quite good, and the illusion quite astonishing. In lighter vein, the three artists appear amongst the audience and create roars, of. laughter by the "finds" they make in men's pockets and ladies' bags. Bosco discovered rabbits, hares, and guinea pigs galore in the family circle, .whilst Leroy and Talma were reaping a harvest of coin from surprised people below. Apart froin the trio mentioned, there 'are two very excellent vaudeville turns which found immediate favour with the audience. Warner and White are extremely clever eccentric dancers, who preserve! the boul of .rhythm whilst executing the most grotesque gyratious. One of the two has the spirit of a drunken corkscrew, and is a perfect wriggle of delight. Santo Santucci in- ' troduces the piano-accordion—an accor- ■ dion with a pianoforte keyboard, and 1 capable of producing excellent musical effects. He is a master of the instrument, hnd showed it by the "treatment he gave a Viennese waltz, an operatic selection, and a fantasia of national I airs, concluding with "Tho Marseil- ■ laise." A juggling and balancing pcr- ■ formance, very good of its kind, was : also given by .'"the unknown." whoever ■ he may he. A capable little orchestra under Miss N'ellio Black, filled the orchestral well.

There will be a matinee performance to-morrow, commening at 2.30 p.m.