It's Magic, Jim, but not as we know it

Hands up anyone who was in on Friday evenings a few weeks ago. Were any of you watching Channel Four post-“Friends” by any chance? Well, if you were, the chances are you saw a programme called Derren Brown: Mind Control. For those of you who didn’t, you may well have caught one of the three original Mind Control shows that were broadcast between 1999 and 2001 (and there is a fairly good chance you did, as they rated in the top ten most viewed shows of C4 in the months they were aired). And if you haven't seen those, you almost certainly saw the publicity for Derren's latest stunt, playing Russian Roulette live on TV (well, someone has to fill the power vacuum left now that David Blaine is sat in his box). If you have seen one of these shows, I’ll bet you will understand why I was so excited to find out that Derren’s spring tour was coming to Newcastle. And why it was a capacity audience.

- A Magical Mystery Tour
As a big fan of the Mind Control shows that Derren had produced for C4, I was eager to see the act live – everything we see on TV has an air of unreality about it, and it is only when you see this sort thing performed right in front of your eyes that you can fully appreciate it. BF had also become hooked on the shows, so it was no effort at all to persuade him to some to the Tyne Theatre with me last night. We were both so excited to see how this sort of magic appears in the flesh that we were like a couple of school kids (but so was everyone else)!

To start with, Derren has a simple trick for us. A board with three coloured shapes is on the stage. A member of the audience is asked to pick one of the shapes and write it down. The chosen shape is then compared to a prediction in a sealed envelope that has been on stage all along. And guess what? That’s right, the prediction matches the shape the man from the audience chose. This is course not magic – it is simply that tests have shown that a large majority of us will choose that shape above the others. The audience of course realise that, but it forms a lovely introduction for what is to come...

Not satisfied with this, Derren also has a quite astounding feat of memory to perform. Before the show, he set about memorising the phonebook for North Tyneside. No, seriously! Any member of the audience who was listed in it could volunteer their name (as it appears in the book) and the number of their house, and Derren would be able to produce their phone number. And their street name. And the page number of the phonebook the number appeared on. And the phone numbers directly above and below it. And be correct every time. The way you do this is to use visualisation and attach symbols (which you can remember more easily than a random number) to each of the digits you need to memorise; when you want to recall the number, the visual scene you have created will act as a prompt. I have used this technique for remembering dates for exams, but to do it on this scale is simply staggering!

- It may be real, but is it reality?
What a night – it lived up the all the expectations I had and was a thoroughly enjoyable couple of hours. Derren is not only an excellent magician, but is also an accomplished performer and manages the audience very well indeed. He doesn’t take things too seriously, and therefore is a very funny man to watch – when things don’t quite work out, his charm and audacious confidence get him past what could have been an embarrassing point (and he often ends up looking all the better for it anyway). He is obviously a very intelligent man, but uses this to be witty rather than condescending. The show was a pleasure to watch from beginning to end.

Overall, the best thing I have been to a theatre for in years. It was, well, magic. Highly recommended to anyone with an interest in psychology, human behaviour or magic – or who just wants a different night out.

Oh, and if you don’t like audience participation, don’t sit in the stalls!

Derren’s personal website can be found at:
www.derrenbrown.co.uk