lucas wilson
If the crowd watching Lucas Wilson and Kelly Defilla’s illusionist magic show Soaring Above Reality at The Toronto Fringe’s Fringe Kids Festival, which kicked off July 1st at the George Ignatieff Theatre, were a little quiet and slow in their ovations it was only because everyone was so flabbergasted as their brains struggled to make sense of the impossible feats their eyes just witnessed. In the true sense of the word, this show is awesome. Wilson and Defilla will fill you with awe and bewilderment.
The show begins with Defilla in a cardboard box levitating above the stage and sees her permeate through ten metal rings, shrink so that it seems as though her body has completely disappeared, and then ends with a variation of one of the tricks that earned Wilson a place in the Guinness Book of World Records, escaping within moments, from a straight jacket and being placed in a chained, locked, wooden trunk. You have to see the tricks to believe them, and even then, you likely won’t believe your eyes.
Wilson has a sweet rapport with his young audience members, two of whom come onstage to assist him during the show, and he and Defilla create a safe, friendly, affable space for the children, which ensures that they clamber to come meet him after the show and enthusiastically want to purchase the magic kits and magic wands that he has for sale. Surprisingly for such a successful magician and illusionist, Wilson and Defilla don’t have the bravado often associated with buskers, and at times their unassuming affability is completely endearing, but sometimes it causes their more humorous banter to fall a little flat. There’s room for them to punch up their shtick a bit, and also to stretch a few performance ideas even further. For example, when Wilson takes his young volunteer back in time, there’s room to create that world of the past a little more, perhaps with a costume piece for the volunteer or some other marker to distinguish the beginning and end of that journey.
In all, however, Wilson and Defilla’s magic is so extraordinary, that it’s almost impossible not to leave this show both breathless and impressed.
TWISI FRINGE RATING: 
Soaring Above Reality plays at the George Ignatieff Theatre (15 Devonshire Place) at the following times:
show times
July 03 at 01:30 PM buy tickets
July 05 at 06:30 PM buy tickets
July 06 at 04:15 PM buy tickets
July 08 at 11:45 AM buy tickets
July 09 at 05:00 PM buy tickets
July 11 at 11:45 AM buy tickets
