I Want To Be The World’s Greatest Magician
Tandanya Theatre at Gluttony
Wed 11 Mar, 2026

Annanya George is a skilled magician. He’s not yet the world’s greatest, but he has an entertaining bag of tricks mostly involving cards, paper and rope.  He sings us a couple of songs, (you can join in if you know them!), cracks a few jokes, and performs his magic while all the while telling a story.

George is originally from India, spent several years in the US following his dream of being a magician, and then had his visa revoked. It hasn’t been an easy journey for him. Like many male children of well-to-do Indian families it was assumed he’d be a doctor, and there his troubles began. George had other dreams.

Magic shows are not usually delivered with a chronological narrative but this one is. It is quite a fascinating story he’s telling but it’s not always clear what’s more important – the magic or the story. The magic is fun, but the story is at times quite angry. Being suspected of being an Arab terrorist because of your skin color would I imagine be infuriating. But George also has a lot to say about magicians not being respected or valued that borders on a rant. And it’s delivered with lots of F words and bluster that feels like misplaced anger.

For the record he doesn’t blame Houdini for this lack of respect, but he does question whether Houdini should have been known as a magician.

It’s a curious show. There’s a lot of impressive magic, and George makes good use of the ample stage with the aid of some really effective lighting and sound effects. However, whatever the source of Annanya George’s anger, it’s disconcerting to have magic and anger bundled so tightly together in the same show.