Thursday, March 27, 2008
Derren Brown - Worthing Pavillion
"Psychological illusion, perceptual manipulation and persuasive technique”; devices Brown claims to use to allow him to (seemingly) memorise phonebooks, defeat nine chess Grandmasters at once and even sink 14” nails into Robbie Williams.
Whilst a repeat performance of the latter was sadly never on the cards (excuse the pun) on Wednesday, Brown still turned in a gripping performance; heart-stopping at times, relentlessly eerie and yet brimming with edgy wit and flair.
E9 was the rather ominous number on my ticket when I arrived. It seemed dangerously close to the front. Would I be the one drawn onstage and made to bark like a dog at passing cars for a week? Maybe he’d just erase the whole show from my memory instead?
Mercifully, none of his erratically dispatched Frisbees fell to me, but by the close of the 2 hour show I nevertheless remained rather hazy as to what had actually occurred. I think I saw floating tables, pendulums, Gorilla suits and Brown cold reading thirty plus random participants in quick succession with jaw-dropping accuracy. I was dazzled and light headed. And like most people, grasping at a zillion questions filling the air as we shuffled out. The general consensus seemed to be though, when illusion and theatrics are such sensational, good fun, why bother reasoning?
posted by: Jim Brackpool @ 6:15 PM
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