Derren Brown: Enigma

I bloody love magic. Pretty much any kind of magic. Autistic, card shuffling weirdos; tantastic bouffant-haired Blackpool types; edgy (and often completely gross) Penn & Teller-type stuff; Paul Daniels…I even like David Blaine. I doubt even David Blaine’s Mum likes David Blaine…

But for me, the most magic of all magicians is weirdy-beardy mindbotherer, Mr Derren Brown. He’s probably most famous for doing mean things to unsuspecting people on Friday night, Channel4, but he’s yet again gone back to his live performance roots and is starring in a new one-man show, Enigma, at the West End’s Adelphi Theatre. If you like what he does on TV, or even if you don’t, I urge you to go and see him live.

I’ve seen one of Derren’s shows before, and Enigma is similar in its structure; a first half of light-hearted, quick ‘trickery’ before the post-interval action turns a wee bit darker and more intense. Aside from the truly wonderful finale, I think I preferred the first half, but am pretty certain that die-hard Derren fans wouldn’t agree with me.

The earlier ‘tricks’ were probably much less impressive from a technical point of view than their complicated and serious second half counterparts, but the quickfire early stuff was hugely entertaining and gave Derren the opportunity to reel off some genuinely hilarious banter. One thing you rarely see on Brown’s TV shows is humour – he’s often too busy being the waistcoated, arched-eyebrowed magician cliché – but he really is a very, very funny man and this is a very, very funny show.

There isn’t a huge amount more I can write about Enigma, as the main reason I love magic and this particular show so much, (apart from the beards), is the pure child-like joy that comes from being completely and utterly surprised. It’s funny, it’s impressive, it’s weird and it will, without a doubt, leave you wondering what was real, what wasn’t and ‘just how did he do that…?’ for days to come. The finale is truly amazing, and will put a feel-good smile on your face that even the sweaty Tube journey home won’t dislodge.

Enigma is showing at 8pm, Monday to Saturday until July 18 at:

Adelphi Theatre
The Strand
Covent Garden
WC2E 7NN

Tickets from www.seetickets.com or 0844 579 0090

Image by Indigo Goat courtesy of Flickr