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TrickStars – One More Time!
Richardsons Hemsby Beach Holiday Park
26th August 2026
Reviewed by Steve Majes MMC
‘TrickStars’
was originally devised and performed by Chris and Belinda during the late 1990s.
As a professional illusionist team, they regularly created and toured their
cabaret shows all over the UK before eventually moving on to develop their
individual acts.
Over the last 20 years, Chris has performed as ‘The Victorian Conjuror’, along
with his solo shows ‘Curious Tales’ and ‘MentalismLIVE’, while Belinda has
developed her own shows as her alter ego ‘Tracy TrickStar’, as well as teaming
up with ventriloquist Paul Henri for their variety show, ‘Magic & Mayhem’.
When the opportunity arose for Chris and Belinda to team up once again, they
decided to revisit one of their favourite original shows, TrickStars! This
teaming up again was originally intended as a final celebration of the show.
However, its successful return has proved that TrickStars might not be quite
ready to take its final bow just yet.
Knowing a little of its history, and having seen the original show back in the
1990s, I was really looking forward to seeing TrickStars again at the Hemsby
Beach Holiday Park.
TrickStars were announced and Chris and Belinda burst onto the stage in a blaze
of fast-paced, visual magic and fun. It was exactly what I remembered about the
original show and immediately established what TrickStars was all about!
Chris and Belinda introduced themselves, and the light-hearted banter between
them soon revealed a “friendly rivalry”. Which of the two was actually the
better magician? There then followed 45 minutes of fast-moving magic, with
plenty of lighter fun moments, alongside originality and clever magic, keeping a
family audience amazed and engaged throughout.
The show whooshed by and was already nearing the end, something Belinda
apparently knew, even if Chris didn’t. She reappeared sweeping the stage. Chris
was having none of it and, with an enthusiastic audience wanting more, he
decided she should try out his new illusion!
Belinda climbed into Chris’s final creation and her head was twisted through a
full 360 degrees while the rest of her remained perfectly still. Then Chris did
it again! All this neck twisting clearly wasn’t good for Belinda, as eventually
her head was twisted completely off! Fortunately, Chris managed to restore her
to full health and, after a quick change, Belinda joined Chris once again for a
final bow together.
What struck me throughout TrickStars was just how much Chris and Belinda still
enjoyed performing together. There was an easy chemistry between them that can’t
be manufactured. The friendly rivalry, little looks and exchanges between them
felt as important to the show as the magic itself. This is, after all, an act
with history.
TrickStars belongs to an earlier chapter of their performing lives. They created
it and successfully toured it together, then eventually moved on to other shows
and other projects. Bringing it back all these years later could easily have
felt like simply recreating something from the past. Instead, it felt like two
performers revisiting a long-lost friend that everyone was happy to see.
There are routines in the show that come from different eras of magic, from
linking rings and rope escapes to colourful visual magic, comedy, mentalism and
illusion. Yet that’s also part of its charm and wonder. TrickStars doesn’t feel
as though it’s trying to prove anything. It’s two experienced entertainers
having fun with material they clearly still have enormous affection for and
inviting an audience along for the ride.
Shows are strange things. Unlike a film or a book, when a stage show reaches the
end of its life, much of it survives only in photographs, programmes and the
memories of the people who created it and those lucky enough to have seen it.
For a while in the late 1990s, there were TrickStars, and, rather wonderfully,
in 2026 Chris and Belinda decided to bring them back. It seems now that “one
more time” has turned into maybe many more times! And judging by the audience at
Hemsby Beach Holiday Park, there’s still plenty of life left in the TrickStars
yet!
© Steve Majes MMC, September 2026