Derren Brown - Svengali

horgan_p

Hey all ,

Right.I'm back with about 2 weeks from seeing this in London and have had time to digest it.First off , I am unashamedly a fan of this mans work - I think the way he does what he does is amazingly clever.

However - he is sorely missing Andy Nyman.And it's very noticable. The show is missing that little extra kick of showbiz. To see what I mean , watch the last 15 - 20 minutes of Enigma. That to me is the pinacle of what he's done , forget "the specials" forget "mind control" this guy is an out and out showman , first and foremost. That ultimate wtf moment is unfortunatly (for me at any rate) missing from this show.
The set design is quite poor , giving a dungeon-esque type appearance, and the main prop - while very clever - isnt really fooling anyone.
Some of the effects are amazing , dont get me wrong. However some are things I thought Derren had left behind in his distant past.And there's a reason he left those things in his past - that these days most magicians worth their salt can see them coming a mile away. Even my partner , who is an endless fountain of patience from coming home to find me waiting to unleash the latest and greatest effect I've been practicing spotted a couple of things in this performance which she had seen done in our kitchen.
Derren (to me) is at his best when , like in Enigma , he's using very old effects long forgotten by ordinary magicians , dusted them off and given them a polish.
He moves from effect to effect with only a very tenious common thread tying the whole thing together , it seems a little bit disjointed and could have have done with some more scripting.
To be honest I won't be attending his shows in Dublin this time around because (and I never thought I'd say this) I just dont want to see this particular show again. And this is from someone who'd gladly pay every night for a week to see Enigma again live.

Derren Brown at his best is one of the finest mentalists and showmen performing today.
This ,however, is not Derren at his best.

If anyone who has seen the show would like to debate any of my points above then please PM me and not reply with spoilers on thread , as I'd like to respect the artist's request for secrecy.

Couldn't agree more, bar a couple of the svengali tricks, I can't think of many that I didn't figure out almost immediately, it was a fun show but material wise was severely lacking..the climactic reveal went on entirely too long and was just kinda goofy.

Had presumed it was Nyman's exit that brought on the drop in quality, yet saw his Ghost Stories show the next night and it was a complete dud.