A Whole Lotta Motta

Writing, painting and film are the artistic media that show up with any frequency in this tiny space. Music will drop in from time to time, and arts infrastructure will pass through once in a blue moon. But an entertainer's never made an appearance until now. So please welcome Bobby Motta, whose show at Measure (formerly Annex Live) last night was as wildly entertaining as it was utterly mystifying. Bobby is reluctant to call himself a mindreader, preferring the word "artist." And based on last night's sold out show I'd have to agree there is considerable artistry involved in what he does.

He began with some straightforward displays of suggestion (he got me) and reading body language (he got me again), but quickly moved on to those parts of his act that would baffle even the most hard headed observer. I know that Bobby is not actually reading someone's mind because as he said if we could read minds then there would be many more divorces. Still, take the seven Frisbees effect and the phone call and dictionary effect as examples. Those who caught a Frisbee and the woman who called her babysitter were just random members of the audience, but Bobby had to make the effects work despite that. He did, to my bewilderment and the bewilderment of everyone else there.

Less bewildering was youngster Chris Mayhew. He opened for Bobby and tried to mix physical comedy and magic. It's been done very well over the years. The late, great British entertainer Tommy Cooper blended broad comedy with tricks which went wrong but which somehow came out unexpectedly right in the end. Unfortunately Chris doesn't have Tommy Cooper's touch yet - hardly surprising given his age. In an email to my son, who's keen on magic, I told him that I thought Chris Mayhew will need to work on his act for another ten years. For one thing he shouldn't shout. If a line is funny it will carry itself.