Friday, August 15, 2008

Mentalist Chris Cox has a Run-In With Derren Brown

This past week, the Times Online posted a piece about mentalism, including a discussion of 24-year-old mentalist Chris Cox's experiences with Derren Brown:

When he was 18, [Cox] interviewed Derren Brown for a student newspaper in Bristol. They got on well, and later Brown offered him a job as his assistant tour manager. Cox opted to stay at university. Then he put on his first show at a tiny Bristol theatre, for which he “borrowed” a couple of Brown's tricks. A magician was in the audience, and told Brown what had happened.
Cox got an e-mail from Brown. “It taught me the word ‘galling',” he says. “I had to go and look it up in the dictionary. I felt so embarrassed and ashamed.” He sent apologetic e-mails, but the two haven't met since. And when Brown visited his workplace one day - Cox's day job is working for Radio 1 - he hid until Brown had left the building. “I went through a stage when I wouldn't watch any of his stuff so I couldn't be influenced by it,” says Cox. “The only good thing about it is that it's made me find my own persona.”

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?


1 comment:

gary said...

Who doesn't want to imitate Derren? No one can be Derren, though. Derren has the showmanship of Derren, and that's why he can not be duplicated.

Since I was a little boy I have been obsessed with Charlatans (more along the lines of Leonardo). I have seen a few mentalists perform on stage, and they all lack the concept transitions Derren has developed as a professional.

Like Penn and Teller, you watch a show and think, "this is real," even though you know it must be something else.