micks of the trind

This last weekend I started reading Tricks of the Mind, which is by Derren Brown.

How I came to buy this book is a little convoluted. Over Chrimbalo there was a Derren Brown special which was a recording of his recent live show. I think I mentioned it on the blog before - I was puzzled a big nervous tick he seemed to have where he rapidly nods his head.

Anyway, I was intrigued by this tick and tried to look it up online. I found some bits and stuff about him, though not much about the tick. It was mentioned on a forum that he explained it in his book.

The mention of a book intrigued me and I searched for it on Amazon and made the purchase. Perhaps the old mind-mongler was influencing me into making the purchase, who knows?

Anyway, the book is quite interesting, but it's weirdly undirected. It's part auto-biography, part introduction to becoming a conjuror, part explanation of what he gets up to on stage, part explanation of why there's no God and, most unusually, part self-help book (ish - the memory stuff especially is intriguing).

One thing it does have is some very humorous anecdotes. I suspect that were he ever to turn his hand to writing proper he'd be rather good at it. The style is very interesting. As a fan of Robert Rankin it chimes quite well with me. There's a lot of overly-ostentation wordage, which kinda plays into the cocky persona he's created for the magic but also hints at Derrens' devilish wit.

There's also an undercurrent as with all his stuff of self-deprecation. For example, it's clear the cocky persona is entirely a construct for the act and he plays with it a fair bit. He also lets it ease down when he gets more serious with relaying the teaching stuff and then brings it right back up when he's doing more entertaining stuff.

Anyway, I've certainly enjoyed reading it and am more than a third of the way through. I'm saying that because I'm not a quick reader by the way - it means I "couldn't put it down" as they say.