Chris Cox: Control Freak ***

This show was introduced to me by a bloke with flyers who said "Have you heard of Chris Cox. He does all the stuff that Derren Brown does, but without being a W****r". (Chris Cox also alluded to Derren Brown in the show - so I don't apologise for my many references and comparisons with Mr Brown contained within this review).

This opening pitch caught my attention, but also put me off at the same time. I quite like Derren Brown. I read his book and found it very informative and enjoyable.

Never the less a free ticket was forthcoming, (which was rather refreshing because I ended up paying for the first two shows that I saw), so I went along to see what it would be like.

The show wasn't bad. Most of the tricks worked, some nearly worked and one was completely given away by one of the volunteers. Not that anyone actually volunteered - he must use at least 15 audience members over the show (including me twice for small bits although I didn't have to get on stage thankfully). But overall he did rather well and his finale was quite impressive.

There were however two major downsides to the show for me.

Firstly, as someone who has watched all of Derren Brown's shows, I don't think he offered anything new. He's just doing the same tricks about three years later.

Secondly, as I mentioned previously, I have read Derren Brown's book so I pretty much know how he did every trick. There was nothing on show that I couldn't have explained to you.

He apparently sold out last year and I can see why as he is reasonably good at what he does. I've also never seen Derren Brown live; without the benefit of TV editing, so it could be argued that the above two criticisms are not entirely fair as it's not a level playing field.

If I'd never seen Derren Brown I would have been very impressed. Unfortunately I have, and so has most of the population of the UK, which is a very big problem for Chris Cox to get around. He either needs to do something new or do it better than him which is a very hard task indeed.

This show is on daily in the Pleasance Above at 6.20pm

3/5

http://www.edfringe.com/shows/detail.php?action=shows&id=976