Derren Brown is Infamous

in·fa·mous  [adjective]

Notorious, disreputable, ill-famed, of ill repute, legendary, fabled.

In his new stage show, Infamous, Derren Brown claims that he wishes to be exactly that, infamous. Not one assumes as disreputable or of ill repute, but certainly legendary or fabled, although if he were to put his talents to nefarious use I'm sure he could do so quite easily! I was fortunate enough to see the show recently and although this is a review of sorts, I won’t be going into detail on what the show comprises as the audience were especially asked not to do so and I’m sure that if any of you intend seeing the show, you wouldn’t want me to.

What I can tell you is that even having seen Derren on television, both some of his recorded stage shows and experiments, I was unprepared for how good this show would be. As you are probably familiar with his work I won’t try and describe it, though he says himself that his act combines "magic, suggestion, psychology, misdirection and showmanship,” which sums it up nicely. His shows frequently see him reveal information about members of his audience which make him appear to be psychic, although however he does it he is not a psychic; in fact he is possibly an anti-psychic, claiming no such powers and he is in fact a frequent debunker of those who claim such talents.

A common theme that runs though all of Derren Brown’s work is the power of the mind. On stage that is his mind, controlling and misdirecting to achieve his illusions but it is also the power of the minds of his subjects in which he is interested. He is clear that he does not wish to manipulate people's real-life decisions or belief systems; rather how can they alter the way their minds work to achieve more positive outcomes.

Although I've not included specific references to the content of Infamous, in the following paragraphs these is some detail of some of Brown's previous works by way of examples, which I don't believe should spoil these shows for anyone as they've been on TV and on DVD for some time, although if you've not seen The Assassin or Fear and Faith, and want to keep them as a surprise, you might want to skip to the penultimate paragraph, but please come back and read the rest once you've watched the shows!

Of all of Derren’s  TV “experiments” quite my favourite is The Assassin in which an unsuspecting member of the public “assassinates” Stephen Fry but is completely unaware that he has done so. To describe the technique which is used to achieve this as hypnosis does not do it justice, this is programming a human being. The show tests the conspiracy theory that Sirhan Sirhan assassinated Senator Robert Kennedy under hypnosis on orders from the CIA or similar agency and was further programmed to have no recollection of the events. It appears to be compelling in proving that this is possible, although it is in no way proof that Sirhan Sirhan was hypnotised. Like all good conspiracy theories, any denial of the fact that Robert Kennedy was assassinated as a result of CIA activity will be assumed by the supporters of the theory as evidence that their ideas are correct.

In Fear and Faith, Brown takes a group of people with various fears and phobias and tells them that a new wonder drug will conquer these fears and phobias. The drug, Rumyodin (Your Mind) is a placebo; the participants overcome their fears and phobias, such as fear of confrontation or phobia of heights, through the power of their own minds. It is powerful stuff and there is no doubt that Derren Brown’s techniques worked, although some of it left me uneasy. The participant who had crippling social anxiety and a fear of conflict and confrontation was placed in a variety of situations in which such confrontations occurred. The other participants in these situations were actors; obviously their reactions were predetermined by Derren Brown himself whereas in real-life situations the actions of others would be unpredictable and potentially violent. My fear was that the young man who was participating in this part of the show could have become involved in some dangerous positions in real life where no actors were involved. There being no evidence that this did happen, I hope that my fears are ill founded.

Our minds are like muscles; they need to be exercised but the ways in which we tend to exercise them are predictable; our minds like to find patterns in randomness. In Fear and Faith a young woman is told she has been selected to take part in a TV show, Intervention and that actors will interact with her. She keeps a video diary and describes these interventions, but as you probably guessed, there is no show, and there are no actors. The woman ascribes the random events that occur as part of her normal life to her interactions with these fictitious actors. Her mind has found patterns where none exist; the mere suggestion that these would occur caused her to look for things that simply were not there. The challenge here is to dispute the evidence of our own minds and to look beyond the obvious.

And that, challenging the evidence of our own eyes, is how to approach Infamous. Much of what Derren Brown does on stage is explicable; in fact much of it he explains for us. The rest however much it must have an explanation, is unfathomable (well it was to me at least), but what is required is a dose of realism as Brown himself says, “I happily admit cheating, as it's all part of the game. I hope some of the fun for the viewer comes from not knowing what's real and what isn't.”

Ultimately Infamous is entertainment, and excellent entertainment at that. The show is currently touring and comes to London in June, running till the end of August. If you have got tickets I am sure you will enjoy it and be entertained, mystified and awe struck by turns; if you haven’t got tickets I seriously recommend that you try and get some!