TV illusionist Derren Brown has admitted he was near burnout after his last tour.
TV illusionist Derren Brown has admitted he was near burnout after his last tour
The 52-year-old ‘mentalist’ doesn’t appear on stage in his new theatre show ‘Unbelievable’, and instead uses a cast of non-magician.
He told The Sun about how it came about after he decided he need to give himself some rest: “I needed a bit of a break after the last tour which was like a year and a half and also crossed over with doing this show.
“It got a bit burnouty.”
But he reassured fans: “I’m not going to stop any time soon, but it’s nice to explore this different way of approaching it.”
The show, at London's Criterion Theatre, uses entertainers with no magic backgrounds to explore how tricks can be performed without the “learned behaviours and instincts” of professionally illusionists.
Derren added: “That’s been a fun part of it – some have a background in magic but some don’t – and it’s great to see what they bring to it, all the baggage.”
The trickster’s controversial telly shows have included the 2018 Netflix special ‘Sacrifice’.
It featured an unsuspecting participant taking part in a faked medical experiment to increase his bravery and empathy before he is put in a situation where he must decide whether to take a bullet for a stranger or save his own life.
Derren has said about his new show, which was three years in the making and which is running in London until 7 April 2024: “We have reimagined what a night of illusion could be.
“We have taken the love and experience we’ve put into my own stage work over twenty years and created, from the ground up, a proper, original, theatrical experience.
“I think we have liberated the magic show. It’s going to be a glorious thing.”
The show features a New York Subway band and a company of performers, plus, an updated version of a one act play not seen on the London stage in over 100 years – ‘Will, The Witch and The Wolfman’.
Derren co-wrote and directed the production with long-time collaborators Andy Nyman, 57, and 60-year-old Andrew O’Connor, and it’s a career first in his shows that he isn’t personally appear on stage.
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