Derren Brown's first book for magicians in 20 years. 520 pages on performance theory, the process of creating his theatrical shows, and on-stage technique.
This is the 2nd printing of this book. We have a limited number available.
“I met Derren Brown in London in the summer of 2017.
I had just arrived back in the UK after giving a series of magic lectures around Australia & New Zealand, and no sooner than I’d defeated the jet lag had I received a phone call from a man called Simon.
Simon was the company manager for Vaudeville, Derren’s production company. Simon invited me to meet him and the team at a rehearsal studio in Bermondsey one morning to discuss the possibility of my working on Derren’s upcoming theatre show UNDERGROUND.
I took a tube to London Bridge that morning and headed to the theatre space.
In this outwardly unassuming studio I met with the three co-writers, directors and creators of what I knew then to be “Derren Brown”: Andy Nyman, Andrew O’Connor and Derren himself.
The greatest minds in magic, the best mind-reader in the history of theatre.
I joined these three along with the rest of the small team for a disarmingly casual chat, and magic was vibrant and new again.
It was during the SHOWMAN tour, on which Derren was beginning to write this very book, that I became very close friends with Andrew Frost and Bradley Hodgins, two of the very best card magicians in the world."
"From the morning I met him in 2017, Derren has had a striking presence. I was met gently, encouragingly, and welcomed to the group. I moved from utterly star-struck to warm awe and remain deeply proud to have been a part of this legacy."
"I went on to work with Derren on and off for five years, culminating in helping his most recent show SHOWMAN onto its feet with a UK tour, before I decided to focus on THE NEAT REVIEW Publishing Concern full-time, stepping away from touring at the end of 2021.
It is a true honour to have worked with this legend of a man, on both his live shows and now this seminal work of mentalism and showmanship. I’m very proud to have been asked to lend my aesthetic to this work, and to edit & publish Derren’s first book for magicians in twenty years. In every instance spent with him, I’m reminded that he is smarter and kinder and darker and funnier than his already staggering on-stage character portrays. He is a one.
So here it is: Notes from a Fellow Traveller.”
— ALEXANDER HANSFORD
Details
520 pages
Derren Brown
Derren Brown is perhaps the best mind reader in the history of mentalism. He calls himself a 'psychological illusionist,' gaining international acclaim through a 20-year television career in the UK, 11 sell-out theatre shows, garnering two Olivier awards and a broadway run in New York City. He has gained a reputation as a performer consistently prepared to break down boundaries. Amid a varied and notorious TV career, Brown has played Russian Roulette live, convinced middle managers to commit armed robbery, led the nation in a séance, stuck viewers at home to their sofas, motivated a shy man to land a packed passenger plane at 30,000 feet, hypnotized another to assassinate Stephen Fry, persuaded a racist to change his ways and lay down his life for an illegal immigrant, and created a zombie apocalypse for an unwitting participant after dramatically ending the world.
Alexander Hansford
Alexander Hansford founded THE NEAT REVIEW in 2019, after printing a string of limited-run artist books to accompany talks he was giving to magicians worldwide. Across a 14-country lecture tour, from Vienna & Sydney to Beirut & Los Angeles, his books were met with a unique reverence by the magic community. Alexander's long-running collaboration with Derren Brown spans Derren's live theatre shows, including Olivier Award-winning “Underground,” “Secret” and “Showman,” to consulting on the card magic pieces for Derren's “Only Human,” which comes to London’s West-End in late-2026.