REVIEW: Aaron Calvert: Awaken – La Belle Angele, Edinburgh

The lure of the stage rather than the stethoscope has led trained doctor Aaron Calvert to Edinburgh for his second stint at the Fringe. Inspired as a child by feats of human strength and the US Intelligence services’ selection process, Calvert presents a combination of psychology, hypnosis and ‘telepathy’ in Awaken.

Calvert’s show isn’t exactly treading new ground. With king of mind-control Derren Brown touring the country and new star on the block, Edinburgh’s own ‘forensic mind-reader’ Colin Cloud (who is also appearing at the Fringe, and currently a finalist in this year’s America’s Got Talent), the public are used to a lot more pizzazz and showmanship than the clinical Calvert. Brown’s Svengali-like persona and Cloud’s Steam Punk persona and psychological mischief, lead the audience to believe that their shows are going to be magical, mysterious events. There are undoubtedly impressive psychological skills here, but Calvert’s act seems terribly out-dated, like an end of the pier variety show from another era. He’s a handsome, suited and booted young man, but there’s a coldness to his delivery that’s hard to like.

The set up for the hypnosis section of the hour-long show takes an interminably long time, especially for the non-participants and the pay-off, while faintly interesting, doesn’t reflect the time taken to get there. You can tell that a lot of time and thought has gone into the technical aspects of the show, but this needs a huge injection of personality to take it from the cabaret circuit to the big time.

Runs until 27 August 2017 | Image: Contributed

Originally written for The Reviews Hub