From the moment The Amazing Max rides out onto the stage on a mini sports car to the tune of Low Rider, you know that this is not going to be your garden variety magic show.
And that’s a good thing.
It’s hard to say who has a better time at The Amazing Max’s show, the adults or the kids. Sure, the magic tricks are super cool (we especially loved one trick involving an audience member’s ring disappearing…and then reappearing in a “How did he do that?” location). But what really makes for a fun experience is The Amazing Max himself. Intense, funny, and with that dash of sarcasm that New York City audiences go for, Max Darwin is fun and funny at the same time. He deftly (and dare we say, snarkily) handled a front-row five-year-old heckler in such a way that we almost fell off our seats with laughter.
Because that’s the thing. There are so many shows geared towards kids that either talk down to them, ignore the interests of their parents, or both. That’s not the case with The Amazing Max. When you’re at the show, you feel that it’s meant for both kids and adults to equally enjoy, and that’s not an easy feat to pull off.
The audience participation-heavy show is also ripe with one-liners. At the opening of the show, The Amazing Max said to the crowd, “I know what you’re thinking. I wonder if this guy is gonna be any good. And frankly, more importantly, I’m wondering if you’re going to be any good.” “The Amazing Max and The Box of Interesting Things” is so good, so totally entertaining, that you hope once the show is over that you were, indeed, good enough for him.