Review: DERREN BROWN: ONLY HUMAN at Apollo Theatre

I probably fall into the latter category when it comes to such productions. I greatly admire the skill and work which goes into developing and mastering magic shows, especially where the variable at each performance is the audience and its collective susceptibility to suggestion, coupled with a desire to be entertained and mystified in equal measure.

Brown successfully traverses the demarcation between human relatability and exercising his skills as an arch-manipulator. A puppeteer with a seemingly kind and caring persona. We trust him. We want his showpieces to work. We long to be drawn-in and surprised by a twist, a fumbled moment which comes right, the occasional, amusingly glossed-over, glimpses of fallibility from this master of prestidigitation.

In truth, for his shows to work and impress, every element has to be micromanaged by a control freak to work successfully — whether it be Brown himself up there in the spotlight, or those creators behind the scenes like long-term collaborator and former quiz show impresario Andrew O’Connor (I did Chain Letters with him back in the late 90s), who directs here.

DERREN BROWN: ONLY HUMAN leans heavily into audience engagement and participation, of which humour is a vital component. For all that, Brown is careful never to mock or make anyone appear foolish. He instinctively discerns when someone doesn’t fit the bill and quickly swaps out an unsuitable stooge for another who may be deemed more malleable, accommodating, or susceptible for a specific trick. That he does so quickly, without making anyone feel awkward or inferior is a noteworthy trick in itself.

When a participant appears genuinely confounded by a ‘time travel’ scenario or another beams “You’re really good” as Brown unpicks the details in an image by reading involuntary facial tics (as they manifest in response to a carefully phrased question), we collectively smile in appreciation at the pleasure it brings. Of course these are “people skills” and techniques which can be learnt, but rarely will individuals have the bandwidth to develop and master them in the way Brown has spent his life honing. For that alone, he deserves our respect and applause. That, and the way in which he continues to present his shows with a quintessentially British aesthetic, eschewing the gaudy razzmatazz and tacky melodrama of his American counterparts (the dreadful Now You See Me Live this summer at the London Coliseum for example).

DERREN BROWN: ONLY HUMAN continues at Apollo Theatre Shaftesbury Avenue over the winter period until 30th January and runs approx 2 hours 15 mins with interval.

Derren Brown: Only Human Tickets