Magic Goes Wrong is a play produced by Mischief Theatre in collaboration with Penn & Teller.
To raise money for victims of magic-related accidents, several magicians gather together to perform tricks for the crowd. Too bad none of them are that good.
A spin-off show called Mind Mangler: Member of the Tragic Circle premiered at the Edinburgh Festival, with more focus on the eponymous mind reader. This show has been renamed Mind Mangler: A Night of Tragic Illusion for its off-Broadway run.
Tropes featured in Magic Goes Wrong include:
- Abusive Parents: The Great Sophisticato’s father, the previous Great Sophisticato, refused to allow his son to touch any magic equipment, favoured his other family in Germany and gave his son’s room and inheritance to his pigeons after the latter moved out. Though it turns out he had good reasons to do this.
- Accidental Murder:
- The Blade kills the cameraman by throwing a knife at him.
- The Great Sophisticato and the Mind Mangler actually saw their benefactor in half by removing the safety bar.
- An Arm and a Leg: The Blade eventually loses his arm in a botched Bullet Catch trick.
- Bad "Bad Acting": The "audience volunteer" the Mind Mangler calls upon (actually his roommate).Mind Mangler: Can you confirm we have never met before?"Brian": No, we are not living together.Mind Mangler: What a strangely worded sentence, but true nonetheless.
- Bait-and-Switch: The Great Sophisticato implies that their benefactor slept with the theatre owner to secure them a spot… only for her to reveal that it was him who did that.
- Bears Are Bad News: One act involves Bäare seemingly turning into a bear, only for said bear to escape and start rampaging backstage.
- Brick Joke: The escaped bear.
- When the Great Sophisticato loses his doves, he warns the audience to look out for them, as they can be dangerous to handle. The obituary reel later shows that someone in the audience was pecked to death by them.
- Butt-Monkey: The Mind Mangler can’t have anything good. His assistant botches his act constantly, the sound cue goes off at the wrong time, the Great Sophisticato doesn’t think highly of him in his will, the teleprompter writers change his dialogue on a whim, the montage of recently deceased wishes death upon him and his car gets repossessed.
- Chekhov's Gun: Bäare and Schitzmause insisting on snapping the Great Sophisticato’s wand.
- Comedic Underwear Exposure: Bäare and Schitzmause's quick change act has them accidentally perform one change too many, leaving Bäare in her underwear.
- Comically Missing the Point: When the Mind Mangler’s "volunteer" forgets his lines, he requests he channels the spirit of Gwyneth Paltrow. When the Mind Mangler tries to rerail the show by suggesting they talk to his grandfather, the "volunteer" says that his grandfather is still alive.Mind Mangler: So is Gwyneth Paltrow.
- Cruel to Be Kind: The Great Sophisticato kept his son away from magic tricks because he knew the latter might not possess the same talent he did.
- Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: The Blade, when showing off how Bäare (supposedly) can’t understand English, says that he can’t perform sexually. Then he begs the audience to forget this.
- Disney Death: The Great Sophisticato during the last act.
- Epic Fail: The show receives little to no donations because the Great Sophisticato forgot to post the website anywhere. And what little donations they do get are subtracted to pay for damages.
- Fun with Acronyms: The Great Sophisticato starts the show with one of his father's tricks, a “Brilliant Display of Stage Magic”, which unfortunately got abbreviated on the production sheet, resulting in some interesting choices in costumes and decoration.
- The Ghost: The Russian escape artist they hired ends up trapped in a safe and unable to contribute.
- Iron Butt Monkey: The Blade takes the worst Amusing Injuries out of everyone.
- Half the Woman She Used to Be: The benefactor of the show ends up being sawn in half for real after the Great Sophisticato and the Mind Mangler botch their "saw a woman in half" trick. She later turns up perfectly fine at the very end.
- Karmic Death: The previous Great Sophisticato was crushed by all the props that he refused to allow his son to touch. And for added icing, said son couldn’t help him because he wasn’t allowed to touch any of the props.
- Last Disrespects: The Great Sophisticato refused to follow his father’s will and snap the wand in half during the funeral.
- Luke, You Are My Father: The Great Sophisticato introduces their sponsor as "my father’s assistant and sometimes mistress, and my possible real mother". The letter from said father thinks the same way.
- Obituary Montage: Played for Laughs. The second half kicks off with a montage of those who have died in magic-related incidents, including characters mentioned in the first half, characters shown dying in the first half, an audience member who was pecked to death by escaped doves and one of the still living performers, whose date of death is “Hopefully very soon”, much to his annoyance.
- Phony Psychic: The Mind Mangler’s schtick.
- Poor Man's Substitute: In-Universe, the magicians are all very inept substitutes for real-world ones.
- The Blade is introduced as David Blaine…’s brother’s accountant’s tennis coach who also does some magic,
- The Mind Mangler is likewise introduced as a magician who was performing at a Travelodge on the A40 ("Not even a real motorway")
- Rage Breaking Point: The Mind Mangler’s roommate grows sick of his abuse and takes back his keys, telling him a prediction that he’ll be sleeping in his car tonight.Mind Mangler: Joke’s on you! It’s been repossessed.
- Signs of Disrepair: The lit-up sign that reads "Disasters in Magic Charity Fundraiser" has various letters go out over the course of the production causing the sign to say various silly things. Examples include "SAT IN UNDIE", "MAGIC ARSE" and "TRAGIC".
- Something Only They Would Say: Spoofed. When the Mind Mangler’s second trick has a stagehand doing an impromptu impression of Gwyneth Paltrow, his “volunteer” asks what movie she won the Oscar for, prompting the stagehand to pull out her phone and search up the answer: Shakespeare in Love. The “volunteer” is astounded to know it is her.
- Special Effect Failure: All over the place! Given the kind of show this is, it's all intentional, with some effects looking hilariously cheap and unconvincing, and that's when they work properly. One example is the Mind Mangler's sound effect that goes off when he says the word "mind", meant to give the impression of the word echoing. But ignoring how often it goes off when it's obviously not supposed to, it sounds nothing like him.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: The last act goes off without a hitch.
- The Mind Mangler’s assistant reconciles with him and allows him to pretend his tricks are successful.
- Unexplained Recovery: The Blade seemingly drowns during a botched Water Tank trick, but shows up mostly fine shortly afterwards.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: After the "saw a woman in half" trick goes badly just before the interval, Schitzmause can be seen throwing up as the curtain closes.
