Tonight, millions of Brits will be perched before their televisions, keen to watch Derren Brown’s latest bit of magic. I use the word ‘magic’ deliberately, because despite this protests to the contrary, Brown is a magician – and a consummate one at that. He’s also a superb hypnotist and this has been evident in many of his performances.

I’m a big fan of his, having attended one of his live shows and enjoying it immensely.  But anyone out there who actually believes Brown can ‘read minds’ or predict the future is, I’m afraid,  naive in the extreme.

Brown’s latest stunt, set for half past ten tonight, is predicting the national lottery.  Of course, he can’t really do this; it’ll be an illustion and a damned good one.  As a long-time admirer, I truly hope it proves more convincing and exciting than Brown’s ‘Russian Roulette’ stunt of a few years back.

That too was hyped up, not least by Brown himself, even though it was obvious to anyone capable of rational thought that Brown wouldn’t really be risking his life on live television. The fact that he’d arranged for his parents to watch as events unfolded was a whopping great clue.  Not that there was ever any doubt.

Yet plenty of people afterwards insisted that Brown had indeed been playing with live rounds and that his life had been on the line. I recall listening with utter astonishment the next day as otherwise intelligent people argued that had the trick misfired -  pun intended – Brown would have died.  On live T.V. It was absurd – and must have been music to Brown’s ears.

This time round, the hype is just as intense, with articles in several national tabloids. Channel 4 is allowing Brown’s ‘prediction’ to be shown live on all four of its channels, making him the first TV personality to secure these  simultaneously.

And on Friday night, Brown will apparently be telling us how he correctly predicted the winning numbers.  I suppose the same people who believed he was really playing Russian Roulette will also now believe he’s somehow managed to predict the Lottery.  As for yours truly? I’ll be watching and enjoying Brown’s showmanship. He’s a fab magician and always original.  His shows get people talking and hey, here I am blogging about him. No doubt about it: Brown is an exciting performer.

In that respect, he is indeed magic.

related post

• The War Of Words That Israel Must Start Winning
• When Is A Moderate Muslim Not So 'Moderate' After All...?
• "Completed Jew"? A Complete Insult!
• Geert Wilders Banned - But Racist Saudi Sheikh Welcome

Tweet This Post