Derren Brown: Infamous

Derren Brown

Infamous

Sunderland Empire

3.5.2013

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Attending a Derren Brown show brings a true sense of the unknown. We've all seen the shows on TV where members of the audience are selected randomly by flying Frisbees, brought onto the stage and then...endure?...enjoy...? an experience they won't forget. Unless they've been hypnotised to do so.

So it was with a mixture of excitement and trepidation that we went to see his Infamous show at the Sunderland Empire. If a Frisbee landed on me, I was thinking about giving a false name and denying every deduction.

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It was my first visit to the Sunderland Empire. It is an impressive venue with great character. It is also the place Sid James died on stage back in 1976 (and, interestingly enough, Sid would have been 100 today. No doubt our hero is up there somewhere, staring at unfeasible amounts of cleavage and commenting with his trademark ''Yak-yak-yak!'')

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The show starts with a virtually empty stage and a single, nondescript chair. Needless to say, things get much more exciting very quickly as the showman, hypnotist and trickster puts on a show which will be talked about for years to come.

Unfortunately, we were asked to keep the content a secret so I can't offer a full, blow-by-blow review.

Frisbees did indeed land in various places, but nobody was forced to come up on the stage. We were treated to an extraordinary series of seemingly possible feats of memory, deduction and general mental wizardry. Anyone with even a passing interest in Derren Brown will love this show.

I was merely relieved to reach the end of the show having not woken up on the stage to find myself walking like a chicken while hammering a nail up my nose to the sound of 2,000 people laughing.
Try and catch one of the tour dates! Details here.