Lucy Darling: An Indulgence in Wit and Glamour
Lucy Darling means glamour in the true sense of the word—as in both elegant fashion and spellbinding mystique. The stage persona of Carisa Hendrix, Miss Darling is a self-described female magician and “classy bitch,” hosting a sophisticated yet scrappy 1950s Hollywood look complete with a smooth drawling accent. Darling is highly recognized for her efforts, as a 15-time Award-Winning Entertainer featured in the Guinness Book of World Records and Ripley’s Believe It or Not, as well as recipient of the 2019 Allan Slaight Award and two-time winner as well as current reigning Stage Magician of the Year at the Magic Castle.
Lucy Darling In Indulgence begins with Darling making a formal entrance from behind a lavishly bedazzled silvery curtain, in a figure-hugging and floor-length cream gown covered in sequins. From beneath a sleek auburn bouffant, with two points that give her a cat-like appearance, she simpers and winks at the audience throughout the performance. Darling started off by remarking on the locale, bemoaning Kingston’s state of being a throwback to the days of prohibition (given the LCBO’s recent labour strike). Radiating luxury and, if you will, indulgence, Darling is characterized as a bit of a lush herself. Many of her tricks involve making alcohol appear or disappear in all kinds of receptacles including bottles, glasses, and shakers.
Darling’s magic tricks are stellar and truly mesmerizing. Her repertoire is flawless, and it’s easy to see why she has received so many awards and accolades. While I logically know that these are sleights of hand and deceptions of the eye, it felt as though there was more than a little real magic in the room. Darling herself referred to this as well, commenting on the current state of affairs where people don’t believe in magic as they used to, or confuse magicians with salespeople on television. There was a genuine spark of playfulness and whimsy throughout the show that seemed to enchant the whole audience.
Beyond magic tricks, Darling deals out impressive improvisational comedy—in fact, this felt like the majority of the performance, though the magic is intertwined with the humour. Darling’s bread and butter, aside from tricks up her sleeve, is banter and audience interaction. She repeatedly involved a select few audience members, who in turn rose to the occasion and clearly enjoyed the repartee. With one audience member in particular, Darling flirted mercilessly, dropping her magician’s handkerchief repeatedly and waiting for him to gallantly retrieve it for her. Her flirtatiousness is a staple part of her persona and made for a lot of laughs.
Some segments didn’t involve magic tricks at all, including a film noir-esque plot line between two strangers in the audience who were recruited and became part of an ad-libbed story orchestrated by Darling. On the other hand, audience members also had integral contributions to some tricks, such as selecting a cocktail from an example of “classic literature”—500 Cocktails—at random that Darling then made appear for them. Or, at another point, three audience members provided one distinctive ring each that Lucy then joined together in a row, then separated, and returned back in perfect condition.
The audience as a whole didn’t always respond enthusiastically to some call and response jokes (mea culpa), and we were perhaps rather timid overall, but Darling made the best of it with a little sassy repartee. It was hard to say how much of the show is scripted and how much is fully improvisational, but Darling was certainly very quick and responsive to the audience and her selected participants in a very impressive way.
Although the show is largely lighthearted and bubbly as champagne, there are some brief discordant notes. In particular, one of Darling’s tricks involve not chopping someone’s finger in half with a miniature guillotine-like device. While she (happily) pulled off this trick successfully, and although it invoked classic magician work like not sawing a person in half, it was a bit sobering and overly serious for the show’s otherwise lighter fare. At this same trick as well, Darling made an offhand joke about using the guillotine to make herself into a “female magician”. For one thing, this comment didn’t fit with the delicately risque fliritness of the rest of the show. On a more serious note, it perpetuates a confluence of gender expression with genital appearance which is a dangerous and harmful thing to do. As far as jokes go, it was certainly low-hanging fruit that is best avoided, as well as jarring to hear.
Overall, the show felt like indulging in a sweet treat with a playfully sour note, like the classic vanilla sundae with a cherry on top—but this time, Darling made the ice cream appear based on one audience member’s wish. While daring and a little cheeky, a couple small parts were a little too sour to go down smoothly.
“Lucy Darling In Indulgence” ran at the Tett Centre’s Rehearsal Hall for two shows on Saturday, July 20, 2024, and was presented by Theatre Kingston. Find more information about Carisa Hendrix here, and read Haley’s feature of Hendrix here.
