Josh Staley is very open about how he’s lying to you; it’s one of the first things he says in his show Lie To Me, showing at The Lark in Gluttony. Opening banter plays on our expectations Staley covers his hand with a cloth, asks a man in the front to name a number between 1 and 5, and then pulls the cloth off to reveal he was holding up that many fingers the whole time! A fine joke, but conceptually the beginning to a jenga tower of bits and moments that at any point could fall in a heap – except they never do.

Staley is a charisma machine; incredibly energetic and endearing, he disarms the audience by simply being nice, being friendly. There isn’t any pretense. It’s clear he loves what he does and gets just as much enjoyment out of the magic as the audience – for fans of the genre, a younger, more Australian Shawn Farquhar is a decent comp and it’s a very well-earned compliment.

Staley refuses to be bogged down in one style of trick, constantly bouncing between old cup and call sleight of hand, to some mild mentalism, to some of the most fantastical “coincidence” building I’ve seen live. When I use the “jenga tower” metaphor, I really mean it. Staley builds his tower of tricks, bits, and moments, each resting on another previous moments, and slowly but surely pulls blocks out as he reveals over and over that he was in control from the start.

I can’t fault his style, his comedy, his bits – I’d suggest maybe some mic tape to keep his audio a little more consistent wouldn’t go astray, but when you bounce around the room as much as he does, I’m sure it would disappear the same as his cards. Lie To Me is running til the end of the week, he has a children’s show, get to see Staley before he’s even more famous, I promise a magical show!