Derren Brown Live

Ever since I was little, when I first saw Derren Brown appear on television, I was astounded. I had always been interested in magic, but this mixture of magic, psychology, and mind control was something very new and revolutionary.

If I asked you to think of the first vegetable that came into your mind - you would say what? Carrot? - That is the most likely response and is a very "in a nutshell" idea to how he performs a lot of his tricks.

I used to be interested in card magic, and coin magic etc. However when I watched him on television it made me more interested in psychology and the idea of being able to influence people into thinking certain things and influencing people to be in certain state that they could not control. I immediately wondered how he did all of these "tricks".

Being only 18 at the time, when I found out that he was performing a live act very near me, I just had to go and see it all myself. Derren Brown is the sort of person that performs tricks which make you say "I will only believe if I see it."

Well, after seeing the show, I did believe it. This "psychological illusionist" performed many, many different tricks which all were a huge success with the audience. The show was made of two parts, the second we were told not to talk about with anybody else, so respecting his wishes I will not mention what it was he did in the second part, although I will tell you it was similar to one of the special programmes he made in the past couple of years.

The first part however, I am allowed to tell you about. We started off in an auditorium where the atmosphere was beaming with excitement, everybody wondering what was going to happen. Derren appeared in a godlike state, his voice bellowing out of the speakers on the stage. The act was to begin.

He could see everybody on the stage, but nobody could see him. Fairly soon he called up one member of the audience and asked them onto stage. On the stage there were three shapes written on flip chart paper. One is a square, one was a circle, the other was a triangle. Basically, he asked the man to select a shape. On the stage as well there was an envelope, and sure enough the audience member picked the shape that was revealed in the envelope. That was the beginning of a very entertaining three hours.

Whilst watching the show, we were strictly told that we were not allowed to take any cameras, dictaphones, or any other recording or photo equipment. Apparently, there are a lot of hidden cues in the show, so when you play it back you may be able to pick up our Derren gets to influence the people.

Here are a few examples of the sort of tricks that Derren did (although, after reading a couple of other people's reviews, it seems that his material changes depending on where he is):

One of the first tricks he did, was to select someone from the audience, and asked them to think of an object, something which was not particularly common. The aim was that Derren was to be able to pick out what the man was thinking of and draw it on a piece of paper, which the man was also doing. The man was thinking of a bomb. Did Derren get it right? Well, is the Pope Catholic?!

Another trick he did was about hypnosis. He got a participant on the stage, and did very comedic things with the man, like whenever he said a certain word the man would not be able to move his left leg or something along that line. He also got the man to sit on a chair and make the man not be able to get his rear off the seat which was hilarious to watch.

Let us get a couple of things straight, the people he does choose to take part in the show are NOT stooges - they are genuine members of the public and their reactions to the show is amazing.

Derren uses areas from suggestion, psychology, hypnosis, and bare old comedy to acheive many of his effects. He participates with the audience a lot too - and don't think because you are near the back or on the balconies that you won't be chosen for a participation!

I personally think that you have to be a certain sort of person for Derren to influence. You need to be willing to take part, open to suggestion, and easily influenced. In one of his things he asked the whole audience to participate in an experiment, where everyone has a coin in their hand, and they have to choose which hand it's in and sit down if it was a specific one etc etc etc..... so this is one example I think of how he chooses his participants.

The show is extremely entertaining, runs for about 3 hours, with a break in between, and costs very little in comparison to his private shows, this show cost me £14 per person which I think was a very good deal.

A couple of other reviews said he signed programmes after the show, he didn't with us, but maybe I missed that :(

He is doing another UK tour this year!!! So put your jacket on and go to one of the most entertaining evenings you will ever encounter! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!!!