BEST OF FEST TICKETS HERE.
From 17 time Fringe Fest Award Winner Tim Motley,
BEST OF FEST Award, Ottawa Fringe 2017
★★★★★ “Incredible” -Edmonton Journal
★★★★★ “Something special” -Vancouver Sun
Gritty 1930’s film-noir retro collides with futuristic sci-fi in this hilarious time-traveling stage magic spectacle! Charge your flux capacitors & sharpen your Blade Runners, cause there’s a new steely detective in your future.
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FRINGEWORLD 2022 | Dirk Darrow: Magic of Futures Past | 4 Stars
February 4, 2022 Fourth Wall Media Review | Peter Spence
Hold on to your fedora and trench coat folks, you are in for one hell of a ride! This multifaceted show has all the bases loaded with Babe Ruth at the plate. Get ready for some magic, some comedy, some mentalism, some time travel and a private eye story to chill you to the bone.
Dirk Darrow is the long time character of FRINGEWORLD superstar Tim Motley, who has travelled the globe, wowing audiences with multiple award winning shows, causing a laugh or two and many a jaw on the floor having you wonder ‘How the hell did he do that!?’ An accomplished magician and a terribly funny comedian, Motley’s new show Magic of Futures Past has us all laughing out loud, completely mesmerised, and almost biting our fingernails to the bone in some terrifying stunts. Enough to make us worry for his life – or at least his neck.
Motley is a true draw card, with more than half the audience admitting to attending his previous shows, and returning for more. When Dirk Darrow, the 1930s private eye becomes a time travelling crime fighter, using his ‘Like… Totally bodacious’ time machine, he brings both the magic of the stage and the real magic to the audience, keeping everyone enthralled from the get go. Definitely catch Motley’s shows this year as the Dirk Darrow character is seen across the festival in a few shows, proving he is more than just a time travelling private dick.
Fringe Review: 6 Quick Dick Tricks: A Dirk Darrow Investigation
By Apartment613 on June 12, 2017 Reviewed by David Currie
58 min / Comedy, Magic / PG
“Dick” in this case meaning detective rather than penis. Tricks in this case meaning illusions. 6 Quick Dick Tricks is a show with mind bending acts of illusion performed by Tim Motley. The subtitle of the play is A Dirk Darrow Investigation and in that subtitle lies the shows hook and anchor.
Right o the bat, the illusions in this show are fantastic – I have no idea how Motley is able to guess the name of a person’s childhood pet, or pull numbers seemingly from out of people’s heads. The long illusions are mesmerizing and performed very well. In fact, on the merits of it’s magic, this is the perfect show. Having the opportunity to watch six incredible acts of illusion in one hour is certainly worth the cost of admission.
The opening was a delight to watch, the run is sure to sell out several times before the end of the festival, so get your tickets early.
Edmonton Journal
Fringe review: 6 Quick Dick Tricks: A Dirk Darrow Investigation
Publishing date:Aug 14, 2016
I showed up expecting a sort of Puppetry of the Penis, scantily clad men showing off their well-endowed manliness. Instead I got Dirk Darrow, a private investigator with incredible mental abilities.
I don’t mean he can add large numbers using only mental arithmetic or recall every Oscar winner going back to 1974. Instead, this show is a vehicle for Darrow’s guessing abilities that verge upon the magical. Have an old girlfriend or the name of former pet you want to keep secret? Too bad, Dirk Darrow will be able to pry the information from you with his amazing mental abilities.
Originally from the 1940s (as much as that’s a place to be from), Darrow was launched into our timeline after passing through the Bermuda circle. The trip must have also done wonders to his mental abilities, making him some sort of sorcerer of mental acuity.
Throughout the show, Darrow pulls members of the audience onto the stage and somehow guesses the names of long-dead pets, former flings and cards pulled from a deck of cards. OK, maybe you have to be there to truly appreciate the magic, but it’s something special when you are.
Tim Motley, as Darrow, performs his tricks with the dry wit and slick delivery to get away with his cocky attitude. He’s going to amaze you while throwing barbs your way, but you will stand there and take it and say “thanks for the cutting insult.” He’s just that charming.
— Justin Bell
6 Quick Dick Tricks: A Dirk Darrow Investigation
• 5 stars out of 5
Fringe 2015 review: 2 Ruby Knockers 4.5/5
BY COLIN MACLEAN, EDMONTON SUN
FIRST POSTED: THURSDAY, AUGUST 13, 2015 12:25 PM
2 Ruby Knockers, 1 Jaded Dick
The streets were dark with something more than night. The shamus oiled into the room, a little weasel of a man in a snap brimmed hat. As the fat man once said. “There’s only one Dick Darrow, Investigator.”
This time out Darrow solves the case of 2 Ruby Knockers, 1 Jaded Dick. You remember Darrow, don’t ya, Clyde?
He’s hung his fedora and raincoat on this rack before.
Sam Spade voice
He’s the Aussie film noir reject who lowers his voice into his best Sam Spade monotone and solves complex crimes.
Not with his brains and gut but by using magic and reading minds. He’s an audience participation kinda guy. Which means that when he gets the crowd percolating it’s O.K – when he doesn’t, it’s murder. The night we saw him,
the theatre was sold out and the audience was a push over — laughing in all the right places and willing to go down any dark alley the gumshoe led it.
Tim Motley’s Darrow is a smart mouth and his act is peppered with enough double entendres, wise cracks, cynical snappy patter and groaners to power a burlesque show. Sez Darrow, “It’s tough being a jaded dick. Just ask Steven Harper.” He grinds out as Ruby Knockers enters, “ She walked into the room and every eye was plastered on her like a bulimic seeing a Big Mac.”
Well, you get the idea. Strangely enough, most of these hoary jokes work and if they don’t — just wait — there’ll be another a second later.
If you don’t laugh immediately he looks at you sourly and observes, “Take your time, Edmonton.” Travels the world
Motley has been travelling the world for some time now and he works the audience like Spade worked over the gunsel. But wait. There’s more.
He’s also a top notch slight-of-hand artist.
There’s this remarkable deck of cards. Motley plays canary with some convoluted tale, told at the speed of a Thompson machine gun, and the cards he pulls out of the deck match everything he says.
You would expect that since the show has two distinct parts there would be some dislocation but the performer keeps things running as smoothly as a P.I’s flivver on an L.A. freeway.
He ends with a killer trick that involves a bill in a sealed envelope. Amazing.
Reviewed at the Saskatoon Fringe
https://apt613.ca/fringe-review-dirk-darrow-future-past-magic/