When magician Tim Motley responded to the mindshare questionnaire whether your show had a mental health theme he may have missed the memo that we were going to take a critical look at that. The show 2 Nuts for Dick Tricks: A Dirk Darrow Investigation is a magic show that has a narrative arc which sees Detective Dirk Darrow undertake a 1940s murder investigation in a mental health institute which in that time was called an assylum. So in short this is a magic show where Motley interchanges between murder suspects and Detective Dirk.
As a mother of a 12 year old boy who loves a good magic show I’ve seen a few. So I will get to reviewing the magic part. However I need to address the reason why I went to this show in the first place.
Motley’s main character is a 1940s detective whose investigation of a murder mystery allows him to adapt to many characters to bring a new element to the show. Being set in a ‘lunatic asylum’ allowed him to use language we don’t use now like ‘funny farm’ and ‘nuthouse’. With this in mind I did wonder was this necessary? Using a narrative arc like this allowed him to use changing into characters to bring a new element to what could be just another magic show.
But did we have to go into an institution that is no longer accepted and use language we no longer use? And - spoiler alert - the murderer could have been any character he had created. Now that is said, I’m going to look at the rest of this as a magic show review.
Motley was a clever magician, he was witty and engaging. Admittedly this was an adult show with lewd references but his ability to connect President Donald Trump to 1940s jokes was very clever. His magic was captivating and it left you wondering - which is exactly what you want from a magician.
His ability to engage the audience and bring them in to the show was really well done - and I’ve seen a few magic shows in my time and that is not an easy task.
As a magic show I would highly recommend 2 Nuts for Dick Tricks: A Dirk Darrow Investigation as an advocate for mental health awareness, maybe be not so. So don’t go there expecting to be enlightened, but you will certainly be entertained.