OBSERVER: Fool Me Once
The 2025 Melbourne International Comedy Festival is blessed with having a conjurer extraordinaire in Josh Staley, performing his one-man show at Brewmanity and Askal.
Josh’s showmanship, confidence and personable manner shines throughout his one-hour performance.
He amazed with disappearing bottles, coins and cards sleight of hand, mind-reading and predictive tricks, including a pre-show post prediction on his Instagram.
Even when he explained how he did the tricks, he managed to flabbergast the audience by taking the trick to a new level of improbability.
Josh was particularly impressive with his rapport with the children in the audience. Audience participation is a big part of the show and Josh’s banter with everyone was superbly crafted. The audience felt included in each trick and the creative outcomes were astonishing.
The highlight of his show was the replication of the Harry Riser’s card trick. This absolutely blew our minds.
Instead of just doing trick after trick, Josh was able to create a clever cohesive story using each facet of his show, so that the finale linked many of the individual illusions together, leaving the audience spellbound and realising that we had witnessed a world-class artiste.
If you get a chance to see Josh Staley perform, you will not be disappointed.
Performance Details: April 17 – 20 at 7pm; Fri April 18.
Venue: Brewmanity, 50 Tope Street, South Melbourne
Bookings: comedyfestival.com.au
Review by Lyn Hurst