Piff the Magic Dragon is the star of this chaotic but fun magic show, starring a laconic Englishman dressed as a firebreathing beast of yore, and a Chihuahua from Dundee.
‘Piff’ is John van der Put, a professional magician for the past 10 years and one of the youngest ever to lecture at the Magic Circle. The 30-year-old began learning magic as a teenager.
“When I was 15 I fell ill with a form of MS and was off school for a couple of years, so I lay around doing card tricks,” he explained after the show.
In his early 20s, bad health struck again this time much more seriously. He was struck down by the potentially fatal condition, pancreatitis.
“I had to go through a few fairly major operations and I was told there was a one in four chance of death. When I recovered, I thought screw this, I’m becoming a magician.”
Since then he’s been magician-in-residence at Heston Blumenthal’s Michelin-starred restaurant, the Fat Duck, and supplied effects for David Blaine and the National Theatre.
His current show is somewhat more whimsical than these past glories. Dressed head to toe in a gaudy dragon suit, John mixes sleight of hand with flights of fancy and some pleasantly childish jokes.
He’s periodically joined by Mr Piffles, a Chihuahua he bought from a couple in Dundee last summer.
“He was matted and in a bit of a bad shape when I got him,” he says. “He growled at passers by and had a hit reflex he’d cower when you put your hand near him.
“I kept him in my jumper for three days and concentrated on getting his life back before we started to think about getting him involved in my show. He’s turned out really well though.
“He enjoys being on stage, and we have a woman comes in regularly to check we’re not doing anything that might upset or distress him.”
Mr Piffles is a quite delightful stage dog, eliciting ‘awws’ from the audience and providing plenty of good-natured humour. The climactic levitating dog trick is fairly impressive as well.
I attended the dry-run preview show, forewarned that there may be some glitches. A few things did go awry, but I suspect the show is meant to have a slightly chaotic feel to it anyway, and when the brown stuff did hit the fan, John’s amiable stage presence saw him through.
Pifftacular 2: Get Rich or Die Trying is at Just the Tonic : The Caves, 253 Cowgate at 3.15pm until August 29 (not 17th)