Self-proclaimed “Magicians, time-travellers and all-round spiffing chaps,” Rhys Morgan and Robert West even have full biographies of their Victorian selves (both born in 1865) on the history page of their website.

Adorned in full Victorian formal dress, the pair performed a variety of ludicrous magic tricks, with buckets of silliness and slapstick humour thrown in.

Much of the humour derived from the character acting and banter between the bumbling, socially inept West, who doesn’t wait to hear volunteers’ reply when asked their name, and the charming larger-than-life, eager- to-please Morgan.

From stacking coloured cups to card tricks, there was tom-foolery and deliberate hopelessness aplenty. “Someone has stolen my intellectual property”, complained West, as he learns that balloon animals have already been created, before he fails to twist his balloon into anything, so declares it an elephant trunk.

For “ages five to 105”, the show suited the six to ten age-bracket of children who eagerly went back and forth to the stage to participate and hold up banners exclaiming an amazing, death-defying, underwater card trick, which actually did conclude with an impressive magical illusion.

The moustached duo, who are currently touring the country with this show and their adult act Parlour Tricks, have adeptly polished their Victorian personas.

Three stars