Tom Weil is a magician and mind reader with 20 years of experience. This makes for a satisfying series of gasps and applause from the Adelaide Fringe audience packed into the Kingfisher tent in Gluttony. His particular speciality of mentalism leaves many wondering if, indeed, he can read minds. How did he predict where people would end up sitting? How did he predict which famous person someone was thinking of? What drawing was made? Is it clever trickery or actual mentalism?

Weil has immediate charm and charisma, warming the audience instantly. His easy charm is sprinkled with wit and cheekiness. Audience members are selected using an inflated balloon, to make sure that there is no trickery involved. Some of the participants are rewarded with a token of the trick, a cutout or an inscribed book, for example.

There were some complications with the radio mic cutting out, which distracted slightly from the otherwise seamless banter. A loud generator at the rear of the tent was also quite distracting. However, he took this in his stride, as they say in the classics, and the show must go on. Before you had time to analyse how the trick might have been performed, he was onto the next one. Envelopes containing answers. Predictions on notepads. It was all there.

The musical number to finish the show seemed to not quite go over as well as the mentalism seen on the rest of the show, but was still warmly received.  Overall, although the audience ranged from teenagers to those in their autumn years, the humour resonated with everyone. Despite promising no sleight of hand, one feels that there was some trickery involved. What is satisfying is watching a trick done well. Which is Tom Weil’s forte.