Laughing Horse @ The Hive
6 - 30 Aug (not 17), 6:00pm (7:00pm)

Oh my goodness, what are we doing?  We're recommending a conjuring show.  Performed by a man in a dragon suit.  Who calls himself Piff, has a mind-reading fish... and according to the Fringe programme, suffers from a "penchant for princesses".  Have we taken leave of our minds?

We don't think so.  When he saw Piff The Magic Dragon in cabaret show The Aviator Club, our editor Richard Stamp found his dead-pan routine the unexpected star turn of the night.  "Imagine Jack Dee as a stage magician," he wrote, "and you'll have an idea of Piff's style; his twist on the old saw-in-half trick was simply brilliant, the dismembered woman singing her heart out while he shambled, bored rigid by it all, round the stage."  He liked, too, Piff's well-judged ad-libs, as the self-declared princess-hunter played cheekily with the audience but never crossed the line.

The man inside the dragon suit is actually a highly-talented magician, taking home a prestigious prize for close-up magic just last year.  All the same, we've a slight concern about whether this novelty act will stretch to an hour, especially when it's stripped of the glitz and glamour of the cabaret.  But this show's got one more big thing going for it - it's free.  And at that price, it's got to be worth taking a punt that you'll love that rascal Piff.