Imaginings in the Dark

I am a big fan of magic, and I don't mean the Disney kind or the Wiccan kind or anything along those lines. I mean sleights of hand, illusion, mentalism and tricks. I find them both fun and fascinating. and I find them to be even more so when the person performing them throws his heart and soul into them so that they are not only good, but reflect the personality of the person performing them. That is probably why I love Stuart Lightbody's shows so much.


Last year I went to see Stuperstition, which ended up winning a Standard Bank Silver Ovation Award, and absolutely loved it! So when Stuart returned to town with another show in his box of tricks, we knew that we were going to have to see it! With all of his shows booking up fast, we decided to book our tickets nice and early, and I'm glad that we did. This show was no exception and there were crowds lining up half an hour before the show even started. There could be no personal greeting upon entrance this time around as the door was stampeded with people trying to get good seats. If Stuart had tried to greet each person with a handshake as he did at the show last year, he would have been crushed by the crowds.


The show itself is a little darker in nature than Stuperstition as the name might imply. It's not that the magic itself is dark or that the humour is dark or that there is less of it, but it is a more thoughtful show and more serious in nature I found. Which, I might add, I see as a good thing. Before the show even starts, each audience member is handed an inkblot picture, and it sets the mood for the show as people discussed what it was they were seeing while waiting for the masses to settle. Throughout the show, the audience is invited and encouraged to consider what is happening before them, to question and, most of all to think.

While the theme of Stuperstition revolves around superstitions and mentalism and Stuart educating the audience on how these things can be done, Dark Imaginings makes more use of the mentalism and slights of hand and becomes less educational and more demonstrative in its nature. It makes for a great show! Stuart is hilarious as always, entertaining as always and brilliant as ever. He works his charms on the audience and enraptures them. Gasps of amazement and wonder were heard more than once and even skeptics found themselves challenging their views.

I would highly recommend seeing at least one of Stuart's shows at this year's festival, but if possible I would recommend seeing them both. There is little similarity between them and I know that I would see them both again in a heartbeat.

Lesbian Vampire Killers Review

When I see a movie entitled Lesbian Vampire Killers, I do not hold much hope for the kind of movie that it will be. Other similar titles leap to mind, titles like Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter and Zombie Strippers. It makes me think of a combination of porn and terrible horror, the kind of movie that Paris Hilton might star in. And yet, somehow, I had only ever heard how good the movie was. And this wasn't only from men who might be oggling the girls with fangs making out. This was from some of my female friends as well!

And so, last night, I decided to give it a go. I put the movie onto a flash stick and prepared to be horrified. And then the movie started, and from about two minutes in, I was getting stitches from laughing so hard. I'd had the best intentions going into the movie, preparing to find it crude and revolting and just completely over the top, but I actually thought that it was pretty damn good, and certainly better than the title could ever have led me to imagine.

The movie starts off around 200 years in the past when the Queen of the vampires, Camilla, is killed by a Baron. Just before he manages to off her, she puts a curse on him and the town, the basis of which is that every girl who turns 18 will become a vampire. *GASP* And not just any vampire either. No. A lesbian vampire!! *DOUBLE GASP* This curse will continue until one of the Baron's relatives returns to the town. Then she will rise again, with the aid of a virgin's blood. It then jumps to the present day when two friends are leading equally dull lives and decide to go on a hiking trip. Arriving in the vampire ridden town (in daylight) they are directed to a local inn to stay the night, an inn where the vampires feast on unsuspecting visitors.

The style of the movie is great, reminding us of the older horror movies like Rocky Horror Picture Show, but the humour is fairly modern. It can get a little crude at times, and there is some minor nudity involved, but overall, I found the movie to be funnier than it was gross, and not particularly off-putting despite the occasional obvious play on the sex theme. I had expected a lot worse considering the title, and the most that is seen are occasional breasts through transparent clothing or through cracked windows.

There are no well-known actors in the movie, but I thought that the main characters were great, particularly the chubby and, for the most part unlikeable, Jimmy. Despite his supposedly being the secondary character in the story rather than the hero, I felt that he took over the role of hero while Fletch kind of sat on the sidelines being all quiet and moody and stuff. The one thing that did annoy me slightly were some of the accents that were portrayed. I cannot tell you what they were supposed to be. That is how bad they were.

Overall, I would suggest this movie to anyone who enjoyed movies like Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz, and anyone who enjoyed some of the older horror movies. I would describe this one as a horror comedy, and I think that anyone who watches it with an open mind may find themselves enjoying it more than they thought.

Fantastically Light

I know that it sounds like a lame play on words, and yes, it is, but it is the best way that I can think of to describe The Light Fantastic. It really was fantastically light and just what I needed.

Over the past few months, I have been struggling through books - through one book in particular. I have been enjoying it when I get around to reading it, but it is not the kind of book that I find myself wanting to pick up. It is not the kind of book that I can read anywhere and anytime. I have to be in the right frame of mind to read it. I have to be concentrating, otherwise I find myself getting lost and having to backtrack to find out what I missed. It is a problem, because even now, when I pick it up and open the book to the page that I had been on, I have no recollection of what came before and no interest in what is going to come next. The writing is exquisite, but getting through it is a daunting task.

This is why, when I picked up The Light Fantastic, I was thrilled to find that it really was fantastically light reading. It was the complete opposite to the kinds of books that I had been reading over the last few months and it was the kind of book that I wanted to pick up and read, rather than finding it an effort to do so. There was a bit of a break in between my reading of The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic, but that didn't hinder my reading of it in the slightest. Pratchett picked up where he left off with the story of Rincewood of Twoflower, not recapping too much - a practice that tends to annoy me in series as they spend our valuable time recapping what happened in the last book when they could be continuing the story. Pratchett doesn't waste time like that. He spends perhaps one or two sentences explaining how the characters got to where they are, in a humorous way as is always the case it would seem with Pratchett, and then he carries on with the storytelling. It is writing as it should be. It is reading as it should be. There are no drawn out descriptions, no unrequited love stories. Things happen as they happen and he tells it as it is. And I like that. A lot.

That isn't to say that there is no suspense to the book. Not at all. The book is full of suspense, and Pratchett has a way of leaving stories hanging at important moments and continuing with a seemingly completely separate story that he somehow connects at the end. It makes for suspenseful reading, but in an enjoyable way. You are constantly sitting on the edge of your seat waiting to find out what happens, but you are not bored to tears by unnecessary details while you are waiting. No. Instead, you are treated to further adventures, which you suspect will somehow end up relating to the story, but are not quite sure how yet.

Pratchett is a talented writer. There can be no denying it. And now that I have read two of his books, I am utterly hooked and cannot wait to delve into more. Though I know that the next book in the series is not one relating to Rincewood, I am looking forward to getting to know some of the new characters that the Discworld can provide. Equal Rites, here I come!