It’s not a Fringe season without a Matt Tarrant show, as he’s returned once again with a few tricks up his sleeve! The multi-award-winning Adelaidian is back with his new show, FATE, showing us yet again why he is a magician worth watching. We had the pleasure of covering his performances back in 2019 and 2021, so you better believe we came back for thirds!

Matt Tarrant: FATE brings back the usual range of illusions, which includes sneaky card tricks, and mentalist/ psychic readings through the theme of predestination and determination. Even his opening trick of pointing at an electronic board keeps you on your toes for what Matt has in the works for his magic hour. While there is fun in trying to figure out how exactly Matt does the illusions, especially as most of them are done in person with no optical help, it's just as enjoyable just watching the prestige part of the trick.

As always, getting to see Matt enthusiastically interact with his audience almost makes the tricks more endearing. While he still sticks to a specific structure of performances, the spontaneous reactions between Matt and participating audience members that creates such unique experiences. One trick involving a ring managed to turn around the joy from the chosen participant who CLEARLY didn’t want to be on stage initially. So it's almost worth going just to see what kind of reactions he’ll bring out from the crowd! We also get an appearance from his 20-year-long stage partner, Bruce The Goose, who has special mind-reading powers. So be careful if you’re called upon to play a game of noughts and crosses! But as always, there are some subversions that lead to a big finale, which is guaranteed to leave you going “Wow!”

Overall, Matt Tarrant: FATE is another highly entertaining performance from a proud Adelaidian magician. If you’re in the mode for some creative illusions and want to support a local performer, I can definitely recommend intertwining your fate for the night with Fate!