Comedic magician Grant Freeman charmed audiences with controversial and magical comedy

Grant Freeman, comedian and magician, came to Coralville Center for the Performing Arts and led a sold-out auditorium in laughter and inappropriate magic tricks on Wednesday night.

Abby Watkins for The Daily Iowan

Comedian and magician Grant Freeman makes a man in the moon joke while telling a story at the Coralville Center for Performing Arts on Wednesday March 4, 2020.

Ashley Dawson, Arts Reporter


Magician Grant Freeman entered the pink-lit Coralville Center for the Performing Arts stage on Wednesday night to a rock n’ roll drum cadence. Standing in a plain, gray t-shirt with jeans and a gray button up with the sleeves rolled to his elbows, he proceeded to perform his touring gig, An R-Rated Magic Show.

To begin the show, Freeman pulled a Crown Royal bag from his suitcase, and said, “I know exactly what you guys want.”

The crowd cheered, and Freeman pulled out a miniature Rubik’s cube from the bag, to the audience’s amusement. For his first magic trick, he handed the Rubik’s cube to a member of the crowd and had him jumble the cube as Freeman took a normal-sized cube from his bag. The audience counted down from ten as Freeman attempted to solve the regular cube, but he left the audience disappointed when he could not solve it.

“I never said I was a good magician, just an R-rated one,” he said. The audience responded with laughter.

However, to everyone’s surprise, Freeman had matched his cube to the miniature one that the audience member mixed.

Freeman quickly proved the show’s R-rated-ness. Full of swear words and magic, the show did not disappoint. At one point, he pulled out a blank coloring book and began telling the story of how he started doing magic. He showed the audience the uncolored pages, then shut it and snapped his fingers. He opened it again to reveal perfectly colored pictures. Then, he shut it one more time, snapped his fingers, and revealed the pages once more to show nude photographs.

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Freeman tastefully sprinkled comedy throughout his show, which was not without a healthy dose of audience participation. He called a member onto the stage and asked her, “Do you like card tricks?” The member nodded, and Freeman replied, “Awesome. We’re going to do a rope trick.”

Freeman also played with controversial jokes. Lance Armstrong and his missing testicle and Caitlyn Jenner and her gender-reassignment procedure were both given mention between tricks. With mind-blowing magic to fit the comedy, the sold-out auditorium roared in laughter for the entirety of the two hour show.

After a short intermission, Freeman came back to the stage and pointed out his lack of a beautiful, scantily-dressed assistant, then announced his newly-found assistant. He walked to the side of the stage, and brought out “Becky” — an inflatable love doll. He walked through the crowd, doll in hand, and made sure to hit multiple audience members with the doll’s feet, legs, and intimate areas on his way back.

Freeman used Becky throughout the remainder of the performance as a simple prop, even shoving his hand down the mouth opening to pull out a card for another one of his tricks.

From jokingly demeaning audience members, to at least 100 f-bombs, and the use of inflatable dolls, a Fifty Shades of Grey toy box,  and audience participation, Freeman kept the audience entertained and laughing all night.

Freeman’s comedy and unconventional magic show was rewarded with a standing ovation and an auditorium filled with thunderous applause.