derren brown
On Sunday, August 16 from 9pm Channel 4 is airing a night celebrating the work of Derren Brown. 20 YEARS OF MIND CONTROL: LIVE will look back at some of his most jaw-dropping moments and feature new bits too.
Derren Brown is set to return to Channel 4 this summer with a live stunt and a viewer-voted retrospective. Celebrating twenty years on Channel 4, the multi-award-winning trickster will surprise one unsuspecting viewer as part of Derren Brown, 20 Years of Mind Control: Live, a dedicated night honouring some of his most jaw-dropping moments on TV.
Magic and comedy have become familiar bedfellows in recent years with the likes of Pete Firman, Barry & Stuart, Chris Cox and, of course, Derren Brown blending and blurring genres with notable success. And then, of course there is Jerry Sadowitz, who has been garnishing the same combination with a liberal sprinkling of expletives for three decades. There is nothing new here, though. Tommy Cooper and Paul Daniels were among those who also conjured up a similar mix with great success, albeit without the potty mouth, years ago.
I went to see Adam Hills film his new live DVD at the Hammersmith Apollo last night. There was a hiccup with the ticketing which meant that Hills started an hour late. You'd expect this to put the audience in a pretty humourless mood, but with Hills it had the opposite effect. After a brief apology it was on with the show and everyone was more delighted than ever that the gig had started. Maybe it helped that the great British comedy audience had extra drinking time, but I suspect that it was just Hills' winning personality.
I'd had a hectic time this week so decided not to review Derren Brown's new show, Infamous, at The Palace Theatre. Looking at the reviews that have now appeared I'm torn. Part of me wishes I'd reviewed it. Part of me is glad I didn't.
Update 21/5/13. After this piece was published I was contacted by Chris Cox, self-styled "mind reader who can't read minds" and we had a very interesting chat about the use of plants in magic and mentalist shows. My interview with him appears in italics on the next page after the end of the original article (click on "next" at bottom right of this page).
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