Connected, Black Swan State Theatre Company ·
Virtual performance, 16 September 2022 ·

Lawrence Leung is a magician. I hadn’t realised this when I booked to see his show, Connected, presented by Black Swan State Theatre Company.

BSSTC bills the show as comedy and certainly comedy is what Leung is known for (Choose Your Own Adventure, Unbelievable, Sucker) but Connected is actually more like a kind of poignant magic. It’s rough, ready and honestly amazing.

Leung, a Melburnian, created the show in the depths of his city’s record-breaking lockdown. This three-show season is a reprisal, the original performed for Melbourne International Comedy Festival’s digital (aka COVID) program.

… interacting with 150 (albeit muted) people on screens and having them participate in an organic, meandering magic show is a risky proposition.

To attend the show, you connect via a Zoom invitation that lands in your inbox on the day of the performance. I don’t know about you, but despite my Zoom fatigue, a show that I can attend while lying in my pyjamas on my bed, eating pizza, is a primo deal. It was Friday night and I was off to the theatre, except that I wasn’t. Brilliant!

There were about 150 of us in the digital audience, most with the decency to be sitting attentively in their living rooms. The audience was mostly composed of groups – families; friends; a surprising number of people who appeared to be hanging out with their grandparents. One of the delights of going to the theatre, of course, is the people watching, and Connected provides the richly voyeuristic opportunity of checking audience members out, unobserved. Well, you are being observed actually, possibly creepily observed, but you don’t realise because you are too busy observing others.

After a countdown featuring some delightfully retro tunes, Leung appears on your screen. He’s a performer who is as much at home onstage as I am in my pyjamas on my bed – suffice to say, despite the potential awkwardness of the encounter, you feel entirely safe. Which is no small thing – interacting with 150 (albeit muted) people on screens and having them participate in an organic, meandering magic show is a risky proposition.

It was strange actually – despite the barrier of the screen, it somehow felt more risky, more inclined to fail, than a regular show where you would be making the same ask of people who were not muted. There’s an intimacy to Zooms that can feel scarier than meeting in person though, yes? I’m not sure whether that’s about the fact that people will definitely notice that spot of spinach on your teeth, or whether it’s the strange knowledge you acquire by seeing someone’s living room, but whatever the case, it feels awfully personal.

What followed was an hour of magically perplexing feats, casually shepherded by the goofy Leung. I’m abiding by his request for no spoilers, so all I will say is that the tricks are based around Leung guessing information provided by audience members, or “reading their minds” to obtain such information. Yes, I am the perfect audience member for magicians because I am the most gullible creature on the planet, but honestly, I have no clue how he did any of it.

There were (briefly unmuted) gasps and cries of shock, stunned looks and general mayhem whenever Leung unveiled a new revelation.

And in defence of my natural gullibility, neither did anyone else. There were (briefly unmuted) gasps and cries of shock, stunned looks and general mayhem whenever Leung unveiled a new revelation.

My only thought was that perhaps it was all staged and that perhaps Leung was choosing his friends for these tricks, all of whom enjoyed prior knowledge. But then he chose me and I had never met Leung before in my life. If I said more, it would spoil the show, but let me assure you, it was freaky.

But quite apart from the freakiness, this was also an unexpectedly heart-warming experience. To witness all the grinning faces, these random strangers from all corners of the country, sitting in their living rooms on a Friday night, was strangely beautiful. One could only imagine the almost overwhelming poignancy the show would have conjured during Melbourne’s lockdown. I’m pretty sure I would have cried.

Connected is on for two more nights. And you can watch it in your pyjamas! “Go” see it.

Connected continues until 18 September 2022.

Pictured top is Lawrence Leung performing ‘Connected’. Photo: Courtesy of BSSTC.