Derren Brown
Tonight I went off to watch "Derren Brown: Enigma" at the Adelphi Theatre (SJA duty). I'm not familiar with any of his previous work, although billyabbott has recommended one of his books. Anyway, it was very impressive, and I enjoyed it. He describes himself as a "fake psychic", i.e. he's not claiming to actually have any psychic powers, but he also insists that he doesn't use stooges in the audience (which would be the simplest way to pull off his tricks). I have a couple of ideas about how he might achieve some of his effects, but lots of them have me completely baffled. In Vertigo comics, Cain and Abel own the House of Mystery and the House of Secrets, and Cain's theory is that mysteries are only important as long as they stay mysteries, which I can agree with. At the end, he asked people not to give away any details of the performance, so as to preserve the surprise for other people, and I'll respect that. However, if anyone else does go off to see it, I'd be interested to compare notes with you afterwards.