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The Review - AT THE MOVIES with WILLIAM HALL
Published: 17 May 2007

Peep Show duo try their luck in Magicians

Off with their heads

MAGICIANS
Directed by Andrew Connor
Certificate 15

DAVID Mitchell and Robert Webb are that likeable duo from Channel 4’s Peep Show who came up the hard way treading the boards on the comedy circuit.
Now they team up to try their luck on the big screen – with mixed results.
They play a pair of so-so magicians eking out a living with an act that culminates in a guillotine stunt which leaves audiences gasping.
They split up after an unfortunate incident where Mitchell’s screen wife – and assistant – gets her head chopped off on stage (we don’t see it, but we hear the thud and the cries of horror from the auditorium).
Well, it’s one way of grabbing headlines, if a trifle drastic.
They reluctantly team up for a £20,000 magicians contest in Jersey, in a modest British comedy that’s game for a few laughs, and at least enlivened by moments of ripe black humour.
“Hullo, Jersey,” shouts one desperate contender after his opening joke is greeted with deathly silence by the audience, “You gave a better reception to the Nazis!” before being hustled off stage.
Sorry, but back to the clubs, boys.

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