Magic. It's a bloody good thing. Of course it doesn't exist, it's not real, but for hundreds of years magicians, such as myself, have taken to the stage in an attempt to convince people that the impossible can become possible and that magic might really exist... and in a way, it does.
It exists in magic shops around the world, where for a costly sum you can purchase a trick, be it a prop, a book, or a DVD, you can learn a method and presentation and just a few hours later you could be performing it for a friend in a pub. Unfortunately it is because of this that material theft is so prevalent in the world of magic. Every magician starts off by copying magicians they love, by performing similar routines, often word for word, and entertaining their friends, but there comes a point where you have to move on. If you ever want to consider yourself a professional magician you must start creating your own tricks, your own routines, your own jokes, your own material, yet so many people seem to go for the easy route and continue to buy off the shelf material and perform it with the script given. You know what? That, to some extent is fine, if that's what that person wants to do then fine... they won't get hugely far but they'll have fun and entertain and that is a good thing. Where things start to get bad is when you start to professionally perform someone else's tricks or act when it's never been sold.
I've worked harder than I've ever worked before on my recent show Fatal Distraction (which is on the 19 June at the E4 Udderbelly on the South Bank... just in case you were wondering) to make sure that everything was unique to me, narrative, tricks, jokes, methods, I wanted to make sure no one would have seen any of it before, it's the very least I could do as a performer... yet so many people simply don't bother.
The most incredible example of magical theft recently occurred to Piff The Magic Dragon, who many of you will know from Penn & Teller's Fool Us TV show. One day I got an email from Piff saying, "It's finally happened... someone had stolen my tricks." It wasn't just his tricks that had been nicked, but his whole act. Someone had performed it on a TV show in Russia and it was now all over the internet, you can see the similarities for yourself below.
I asked Piff what he thought about it, and this is what he said... complete with a very subtle plug for his upcoming Edinburgh Fringe show.
"Since I performed the act on national television and it went viral on YouTube, I've had a few emails from individuals asking me how to build a Tacular, where to buy a magic sneeze and claiming to have had the same idea many years ago. Whilst I had a nasty feeling it was only a matter of time before someone did something about it, this is ridiculous. He even ate a banana! And a guinea pig called Mr Piffles? A guinea pig??! Can it levitate? No. Can it do card tricks? No. Does it cost ÂŁ900? No. Mr Piffles would be spinning in his grave if he weren't alive and well, currently deep in preparation to stake his claim as the World's First Cannonball Chihuahua in his return to Edinburgh with Jurassic Bark every day at 7.10pm, King Dome, Pleasance. Needless to say I am supremely miffed as I had hoped the Russian market was where I would truly establish my name. Now I guess they will have heard of my younger brother. Andriy."
Penn said "it's just amazing. I've never seen anything like it." I have. My act."
So how did it make you feel when you saw it?
"I can't describe it. It was an out of body experience. Literally. He looks eerily similar, although annoyingly, slightly taller and thinner. He's not only copied my act, he's copied my mannerisms and waggling eyebrows. It's as if a window has opened to a parallel universe where I was born and raised in Russia with only a guinea pig for company.
I've had stuff stolen before, and it's annoying and violating, but never anything on this level. I know this sounds ridiculous, but I think I have really been going through the four stages of grief with this thing. Denial. Anger. Despair. Acceptance."
Did you expect someone to eventually steal some of your act?
"Yes, but not on this scale. I thought maybe someone would dress up as another animal, or make a duplicate table or magic sneeze. But not this. Not move for move, beat for beat, banana for banana.
"And on that note, the bit where I ate the banana and Teller is jumping out of his seat with joy is a really special memory to me. This guy ruined that for me. Munching that banana with no clue as to why he was doing it, or why this was funny. Then, as Kate Medvedva is chewing him out about stealing my act, you can see it start to stick in the back of his throat, and it becoming more and more difficult for him to swallow. The shame rises in his face, and now it's no longer a banana, it's a mark of his shame, a Shamenana, and he's cowering behind it, a bewildered expression on his face, choking from the inside."
Why don't other magicians get that you can't steal material in the same way that comedians do?
"It happened to Teller recently. He asked the guy nicely to stop, he refused and now it's expensive lawsuit time. But not all of us have got the financial security to be able to sue.
"Apparently some guy stole Max Maven's whole act and got a few television specials out of it in Japan or Asia. TELEVISION SPECIALS!!! What message does that send?
"I think the difference is that comedians police their art form in military fashion. If you steal, you are shunned. The vast majority of magicians are so lazy, plagiarising has become the acceptable sin, and the undefendable are either shrugged away, or worse, defended! With lines like 'there's nothing new under the sun'. You know who says that? People who haven't come up with any good material."
Perhaps magicians must simply accept that once you put material out in the public domain it'll eventually be stolen, or perhaps they will come together to put a stop to material theft. Only time, or someone who can predict the future will tell.
Iâve been with Tim Minchin backstage at The Royal Albert Hall as he dicked around, mocked his orchestra and did a short vocal warm up before bursting onto stage, heâs a man who can play it cool.
A self-proclaimed mind-reader who can't read minds, Cox has been critically acclaimed for his live shows, which combine magic and comedy in equal measure. He lives in London
My big loves in life are comedy and musicals, and seeing Tim's first show during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2005, with that white piano on stage, ticked every box. I wanted to see everything he did.
From the beginning, his comedy felt like a magic trick. We even talk about how he constructs his songs like tricks; he saves bits to reveal later and just when you think you know what's coming, you get something different. I remember meeting Tim for a coffee during the Ealing Comedy Festival a few years ago. He was preparing for a gig and he played me his song "Prejudice" for the first time, and when that punch-line hit [the song revels in the lines, "A couple of Gs, an R and an E, an I and an N/ Just six little letters all jumbled together have caused damage that we may never mend" before Minchin reveals that he is singing about people with ginger hair], I spat out my drink all over the table. It was exactly the reaction I look to get with my tricks, and after hearing that song I went home and rewrote my latest trick, to give it that effect. I get frustrated by how good he is, but it inspires me to do better.
When he got the gig writing [the stage show] Matilda, we started going to see other shows together, and after each we would talk new ideas. We went to see [the musical] Billy Elliot together and at the interval we went for a drink at the bar when a guy came up and asked, "Do you know the score?" We both replied, in unison, "We're pretty sure it's Elton John's" and he went, "No, no, the football score!" Turns out it was the Champions' League Final that night and neither of us had any idea. I said to Tim, "OK, so in case anyone else asks, we watched the football together last night â we didn't see Billy Elliot."
We're very different as people, though: he wears way more make-up, doesn't wear shoes on stage. And he's much more of a perfectionist. We were in Vegas recently, where he was going to a comedy festival. I sat in on his soundcheck, as we were going to do lunch after, and it took him three hours â it was ridiculous.
Tim Minchin 36
After winning the Best Newcomer Perrier Award at his Edinburgh Fringe debut in 2005, the Australian comedian, musician, writer and actor gained a huge following with his blend of musical cabaret and most recently his adaptation of Roald Dahl's 'Matilda' as a musical. He lives in London
I can't put my finger on exactly how we met, as it was during Edinburgh several years ago â and like many moments there, it was one of the forgotten ones. But with Chris, once he decides he wants to be your friend, there's no going back.
He's a diplomatic genius; he seems to know everyone. I realised what a genius of social lubrication he is when we met up again in New York in 2007, where I was doing a series of gigs. He was friends with a load of models over there and before he returned to the UK he introduced them all to me. After each of my shows I'd have dinner with these tall, beautiful women, feeling like a rock star yet also knowing the only reason I knew them was this boy-magician who looked like a 12-year-old.
I constantly describe my comedy, rather pretentiously, as being like a magic trick; there's a long build-up towards the final reveal. So I love all his magic stuff â my heart soars when I watch his close-up work because I can't figure it out, though I would never ask him how he'd do it.
There aren't many David Copperfields around now, so live magic is mostly dismantled with comedy, which Chris is very good at. His magic connects us on a fundamental level, too. All performers understand how human psychology is vulnerable and unreliable. To be a magician you have to understand how easy people are to fool, so you can hardly be a magician these days without being an atheist, and as a matter of course we've both become critics of religion.
What's interesting about Chris, particularly as a straight man, is his love of musical theatre. I was in discussions about Matilda when he approached me about it; he seemed to know about it already, possibly through his telepathic abilities. He said, "I'm really good at getting free tickets, fancy going to see some other musicals?" So we went on a series of man-dates, and we'd analyse how other shows worked. After we'd seen, say, Sondheim's A Little Night Music, I'd feel overwhelmed by the task of writing a musical, but Chris was incredibly knowledgeable. And showing him my material, and getting his positive feedback, gave me a lot of confidence.
Tim Minchin is performing at festivals across the UK this summer; for details, see timminchin.com. Chris Cox will be performing his show Fatal Distraction at the Udderbelly Festival, London SE1, on 29 May and 19 June
"I always disliked people who pretended to be a psychic," declares Englishman Chris Cox.
"What I always liked about magic is that you were dishonest - but you were quite truthful in that you were lying to people."
It sums up Cox's credo and partly explains his billing in the New Zealand International Comedy Festival as "the mind reader who can't read minds".
The funny thing is that while Cox, 28, can't read minds, he's so good at what he does that more often than not it appears that he really does know what we're thinking.
Ahead of Cox's shows next week, Wellington audiences got a 10-minute teaser during First Laughs at the Opera House on Sunday night. Cox brought three audience members on stage and asked each to choose a different coloured headband to wear, then sit on one of three chairs on stage. One woman was asked to go through a bag containing bits of paper describing pieces of clothing, while Cox said he would know the answers to a series of yes and no questions he put to the three. Cox appeared to get some of the questions wrong. But in a twist that left many in the audience gasping and whispering "how did he do that?", Cox then went on to reveal that he knew all along what he would get wrong or right. He also knew ahead of time which coloured headbands each of the three would choose, the specific chair they would sit on and the item of clothing on the chosen scrap of paper.
Cox is well aware of the long history of "mind readers" as entertainment. "In the early days it was often a swami going 'I know what you were thinking'.
"For me what's interesting is pulling back the curtain a bit. You put your cards on the table and say 'look, I'm not actually able to do this. Here are some of the techniques I use, now watch what I can do with it'. I like to start off gently and show some of the techniques behind the things as I'm doing it - and that stuff gets hidden more and more as you go down a slightly more incredible route."
Cox says it's also an acknowledgement that today's audiences are smart enough to know that people can't actually read minds. "But within that you still want to enjoy it as if it's real. I always hate the idea of someone that sat in the show seeing it as a jigsaw puzzle and trying to work it out."
Cox's approach has paid off. Since he began his act while at university eight years ago, he's become a star of the comedy circuit. It's included several Edinburgh Fringe shows - along with two Fringe awards - three West End shows and numerous television and radio spots. Kelly Osbourne and Dannii Minogue are fans and one of Cox's biggest champions is British comedian Ricky Gervais. Cox says praise and recognition from big names has helped. "It's flattering for anyone to like me, let alone someone whose work I admire. Live entertainment is the best thing in the world. It's a great thing to go and do. But, particularly in the UK, money's tight for people and it's a lot of money to come out and see a show. Hopefully those people liking me, that other people recognise and admire, [makes] people think 'he's worth the risk'."
Cox got his first taste when he was given a magic set when he was six years old. "My parents used to take me up to London to see my uncle and aunt and we'd always pop into a magic shop there and buy a magic trick. I always enjoyed performing and magic I gravitated towards."
And yes, he says, there have been moments in his shows where he's stumbled with an audience member. "It happens quite often, there are lots of times I'm good at covering it so no- one will really know. Rarely a week of shows goes by where I won't pick someone to use for a trick and then look at them and change my mind and send them back."
One of the most significant developments in Cox's career he could only confirm in the past week: the Syfy channel in the United States has signed him up to do what at the moment is known as "the untitled Chris Cox project".
"It will be a mind-reading show following my life as I try to mess with people's minds," Cox says.
"I am quite excited. [Television] is a very different beast. I know the world of theatre and performing my own shows, I know how to do the tricks and how to make stuff work. We're trying to develop it in a way to make that come across on TV and still get the wow factor - still get people to feel involved and enjoy the performance.
"I still feel that I'm at the very early stages of my career. I haven't hit a point where the momentum suddenly explodes. What I like now is the excitement of being able to come to Wellington for the first time and I'm still a 'new act' to the city. I'm a new act with a load of experience."
Chris Cox - Fatal Distraction, Whitireia Performance Centre, May 8-12, 7pm.
The New Zealand International Comedy Festival begins this weekend bringing local and international comic heroes to our stages. Here, Chris Cox talks about his forthcoming shows.
Describe your show in 10 words or less:Â Mind-Reading, Magic, LOLZ, Love, Narrative, Wow, OMG, I Love Cox.
Will we have heard any of the jokes before? That depends. Did you see the show during its sell out five-star run at the Edinburgh Festival last year? Or maybe you came to my award winning UK Tour. If you did, then yes it's possible. If you didn't then HELL NO. This is a completely new show.
So, why should we go to your show instead of saving our money for Flight of the Conchords in July? I've spent 27 hours on a plane to bring the show to you, it seems only fair you sit for an hour and watch me tit around on stage pretending to read minds.
What is your pre-show ritual? I have a lucozade in the UK, but if I remember rightly you don't have them in NZ so I have to replace it with a Gatorade, I also have a banana. I do some vocal warm ups, a few stretches, and then do a stupid dance in the wings during the opening video.
Is dying on stage a rite of passage for a comedian or something to be avoided at all costs? If you don't die, you'll never get better or develop the resilience and confidence which you need to own an audience's attention.
It also can mean you're not trying hard enough.
Are members of the audience fair game? Or should they be treated with respect at all times? Both. I have to credit my audience with a lot of intelligence as I know they are sat there trying to work out what I do, I also have to respect them as they are really the stars of my show. Everything, every single trick involves them - so I need them onside.
If you were a superhero who would you be? I kind of am a superhero. I just don't wear the lyrca outfit. At least not in public. I have superpowers I suppose. I can read minds after all. Or at least make you think I can.
For those of you who don't have a musical aspect to your show ... how do you compete with all those clever dicks offering the double whammy of musical comedy? Simple. Replace music with magic. Boom. Job done.
Who will you be heading along to see during the festival? The Axis Of Awesome, Fan Fiction Comedy and The Boy With Tape On His Face.
Who:Â Chris Cox
From:Â Britain
In:Â Fatal Distraction
Where and when:Â Rangatira at Q, April 30 to May 5
Chris Cox Mind Reader meets Jamie East and blows his tiny little mind
You know we love a magician at Holy Moly (check out our interviews with Dynamo and Hans Klock too!) and Chris Cox is certainly one of those. He is a mind reader who can't read minds. Well that's a lie - because he ACTUALLY FRICKING DID, How the HELL did he do that?!
Hoping to expand on their programming options and return to the sci-fi genre, Syfy has unveiled their list of projects that they are developing.
What you might see next season:
Chris Cox Project: What do you get when you mix the mind manipulating abilities of Derren Brown, the mischievousness of Ferris Bueller, and the comic eccentricity of Mr. Bean? The personification is named Chris Cox who is a mind reader who canât read minds. Follow him as he visits everyday places and amazes and confounds real people with his âability.â
Comedy Festival 2012: Quickfire Q&A with UK "Mind Reader" Chris Cox
Comedian Chris Cox is the UK mind reader who canât read minds and was voted Best Live Comedy Show in the UK in 2011 by Venue Magazine. Book in to see this talent at the 2012 NZ International Comedy Festival!
Chris Cox comedy in five words is...
Mind-blowing, Magical, Theatrical, Dazzling, LOLZ (all caps with a z).
What should we expect from your shows at the NZ International Comedy Festival?
Incredible mind-reading (despite the fact I can't really read minds) and a wonderful narrative. The audience will feel real emotion, be surprised, be amazed and leave the theatre thinking that they love Cox. I'll be doing tricks which have never been seen before and at one point offer complete control of the show. The audience should come thinking about things theyâd like to see me do, and there is a chance I will end up doing them.
Where do you find all your content for your shows?
A mix of things including theatre, television, cinema and the world around me. In my last show the content was based around general annoyances in life. This year all the tricks came from a mind set of what would I like to see someone do and what would be entertaining. I then worked backwards from there to try and find methods to make it all work. Normally it does, but I donât promise anything.
Are there any comedians that influence your style of comedy?
Tim Minchin is a friend of mine and he has constantly influenced me, not just because he is stupidly and somewhat annoyingly talented, but his drive to create unique and new stuff makes me work harder.
What is an ideal audience to perform to?
A sexy semi-nude one, get stripping New Zealand! Actually to be honest, whenever anyone asks me a question like this not in New Zealand I always say a New Zealand I genuinely had the best audiences last time I was over in Auckland, you're up for it, keen to take part, friendly and really care and seeing and enjoying live entertainment. You guys are the best.
Can you read our âvirtual mindâ?
Yeah, I can give it a go. Right you are currently thinking âthere is no way he can read my mind via emailâ. Am I right? I bet I'm right. Wow I'm amazing.... alternatively want me to quickly control your body? Sure you do. Okay, lift your right foot off the ground and start circling it in a clockwise direction, keep that going and put your right hand in the air with your foot circling in a clockwise direction. Now draw a massive number six with your right arm in the air and YOUR FEET WILL CHANGE DIRECTION. WOW! Look at that, me controlling your feet, and making you look a bit weird if you're doing this in public. Boom. Cox power.
What has been your best stage performance?
I loved doing the Gala last time I was in New Zealand. It was a beautiful theatre, big crowd and lots of TV cameras. It was perfect for my ego!
What constitutes a âgood jokeâ?
Ideally one that makes you laugh at the end. I personally like those jokes that make you laugh then instantly go, ohhh, should I have laughed at that. That said one of my favourite acts is The Boy With Tape On His Face, who says nothing, yet his show is full of jokes and visual things. Especially people falling over. Never. Not. Funny.
Have you ever had any memorable âbloopersâ on stage?
I've been quite lucky on the whole, especially considering the amount of audience participation in my show. I've done the obvious things like performing most of the show with my fly down... fortunately I'm blessed with tiny genitals (so no one saw anything). I've had tricks go horribly wrong, so much so there is absolutely no way back and I just have to say, yep this has gone wrong, let's move on. Always awkward that, but hasn't happened for a while... if it happens anytime soon I am blaming you EntertainMe for jinxing me with this question.
If you could tell one joke, what would it be?
It'd be a good one, a bloody good one... shame. Mine are all mediocre. My favourite joke in the show is I ask people to think of a song, but not the Lion Sleeps tonight, people always want to think about that song - they are only ever just a whim away... a whim away, a whim away, a whim away....
By Olivia Young
Book your tickets to the 2012 NZ International Comedy Festival here.
Interview with Chris Cox: âthe lanky, brilliant âAward Winning Mind Reader Who Canât Read Mindsâ is as cheery and exuberant an interviewee as he is on stage. Before speaking to him, I was feeling unwell - he perked me up again, a lovely comic medicine.â
Chris Cox, the lanky, brilliant âAward Winning Mind Reader Who Canât Read Mindsâ is as cheery and exuberant an interviewee as he is on stage. Before speaking to him, I was feeling unwell - he perked me up again, a lovely comic medicine. Cox has a wonderfully upbeat manner that makes everybody like him; his shows have had rave reviews, garnering serious praise from many. Heâs described by Time Out as âdoing tricks that would make Jesus proudâ. Essentially, then, heâs a miracle-worker - bloody impressive for someone whoâs only 28. Where did it all begin?
âI was one of those annoying kids that got a Paul Danielâs magic set for my sixth birthday. Then we went to Cornwall one holiday and I got a video of Pen and Teller. I watched it over and over - it blew my mind! Iâm friends with them now, we go for dinner when theyâre in London. Itâs weird, but amazing. Â I studied psychology at college - I was interested in the mind, finding out how that side of things worked, and I started doing the Edinburgh Fringe around the same time as Tim Minchin. He really inspired me. Heâs constantly surprising his audience, and he made me work so much harder; he knows how to give an audience the best magic.â
Is it hard to keep the old ego in check? He is avidly admired by fellow perfomers; Ricky Gervais has said heâs âbrilliantâ, and heâs been hailed as the ânew Derren Brownâ. Itâs quite the accolade for a young âun.
âItâs weird and great. Itâs odd - you perform because you want to be liked, and if people like you...I have to not let it get to my head. But then the good reviews help people find out about you and come to your show. When I heard Ricky Gervaisâs distinctive, screechy laugh at my show and I thought âI did thatâ - well, that was pretty cool. I hugely admire him, it was an incredible feeling. I want to walk around quoting my good reviews! But I wonât.â
You canât begrudge him wanting to boast a tiny bit; heâs got the goods to back it up. And he has adoring fans, too - they even bring him snacks. âBefore I go to bed, I like to eat cheese and crackers. Itâs lovely. Anyway, I was in Edinburgh last year and I couldnât find Jacobâs crackers anywhere, and I said so on Twitter, and this lady turned up to my show with a box. Brilliant.â
I wonder if heâs had any other strange experiences with over-zealous followers? âNo...apart from the crackers. I worry when they ask for a kiss it will turn into something more inappropriate.â
Perks of fame? âHah, yeah - I suppose so! Iâd probably just go for it anyway.â
Funny, charming, and seriously talented - Chris Cox is magic.
Chris Cox will be performing his award-winning show, âFatal Distractionâ, at E4âs Udderbelly Festival in Londonâs South Bank Centre in May and June. For tickets, go to https://www.underbelly.co.uk/Chris-Cox. To find out more about Chris, go to http://magiccox.com/.
TNC EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: CHRIS COX âFATAL DISTRACTIONâ, AT E4 UDDERBELLY FESTIVAL 2012
Going to see Chris Cox, the âmind reader who canât read mindsâ has become a TNC tradition during the Edinburgh Fringe festival. His type of show is pure magic to see with a packed out audience who become willing players in his great delusion. The showâs magic stems from Coxâs professionalism and beauty as a performer who makes it seem effortless even though you can be assured he has given his soul to the show.
Sitting as far back away from the flying teddy as I can get I watch the show hoping that I can pick holes and see âhow he does itâ, but after seeing him three times â once even making the stoney-faced Amanda Holden look amazed â your 100%Â guaranteed leave his show puzzled and bemused.
Chris Cox has youth on his side but the maturity of an act who has been playing the circuit for years and he gives his all to his audience. There are only a few acts I have doffed my cap to, Cox is one of the best! And you can catch Chris Coxâs Udderbelly Festival show two times this year details can be found at the end of hisTNC EXCLUSIVE interview and on the Udderbelly Festival Website.
Hey man how are things going, you had much rest since Edinburgh?
Things are going good thanks for asking, how nice and polite of you. Rest since Edinburgh seems to have been lacking, I finished my successful sell out run then pretty much went straight out on tour till the end of the year. Then this year started with me filming in LA, Iâm just about to head out to do a big load of shows in New Zealand and some more LA filming, and then Iâll be back to do the two Udderbelly shows. Those props are going to have a lot of air-miles on them.
Why thank you. I can only assume the second time was due to a terrible administrative error when booking tickets. Shows take me ages to put together, itâs why I only do Edinburgh every other year now. Fatal Distraction was about a 18 month process. For me it starts with ideas for tricks, what sort of stuff would I like to see done, what would be entertaining, what would I do if I could really do this stuff, that sort of thing. Then I try to work out how to do those tricks. I really want to create stuff that no one has seen before. If you go see a few magic shows you very quickly start to see the same tricks, props and methods, and I want to avoid that, so spend forever coming up with my own stuff. The big difference with Fatal Distraction is that I wanted to do a narrative based mind-reading show themed around love. So for this one I wrote it originally as a one-man play.. and then turned it into the show which you saw and hopefully others will come see at the Udderbelly.
It is an easy process to start producing a new show?
Nope. Far from it, the ideas come quite quickly, but turning them into something thatâs good, now thatâs where the struggle is. I love theatre so try to put theatrical production values into my show, set, lighting, direction, narrative threads, highs, lows, laughs, tears all that. I want to make it as entertaining as possible so put a heap load of pressure on myself to try do that.
60% of the show is the audience and how you interact with them, how much can you do without them?
Youâre right, the show is so audience dependent, if anything the audience is more important than me, and the audience is the real star of the show. Thereâs not a huge amount I can do without them, because itâs their thoughts and their minds that Iâm playing with and influencing. Everything relies on those responses. Thereâs a whole section of the show where I have nothing planned, I just ask my audience to think of things for me to do, and I start doing them. That would be a very quiet bit if they werenât there.
For a young performer where do you get the confidence from to work an audience like you do?
I suppose there are a few reasons why I have the confidence, mainly because although Iâm young, Iâve been doing this forever. Iâve always wanted to perform and entertain, I always wrote in to get on TV shows when I was young, I ended up on Run The Risk and Live & Kicking oh and The Big Breakfast. I used to perform in shows and plays, so I am never happier than when Iâm on stage. I adore it, itâs where I feel most at home. Iâve done 5 years worth of Edinburgh shows, a couple of UK tours and international tours, so I think the confidence shines through now because I am so use to what Iâm doing and so comfortable doing it. Iâm sure if youâd seen me a few years ago itâd have been very different, but I feel I know who I am, who my audience think I am and what I want them to do, to be able to control and play with them. Also on a purely psychological level if they arenât comfortable watching me and donât see me as confident and knowing what Iâm doing⌠then the whole show is kind of lost.
For those who have not seen you show tell us a little bit about what you do?
Iâm a mind reader who canât read minds, so the same as all those other mind-readers, but a bit more honest. I use various techniques including a bit of magic and psychology to make people think that I know what theyâre thinking. So basically Iâll read your mind, but promise you that I canât actually read your mind. The current show has a lovely theatrical narrative, and is loosely themed around love, thereâs loads of fun audience participation and no two shows are ever the same.
Because you use the audience quiet a bit in your shows do you ever get nervous that they might be a little too quiet?
Thatâs always a worry, Iâm only as good as the audience, I donât shine, if you donât shine. Normally Iâm quite good at turning a quiet audience round to be the audience I want them to be. Often at the start of shows they are a bit quite, but quickly realise weâre all in this together and end up getting really involved. In fact, itâs always nice after shows when people say to me that theyâd normally never want to go on stage, but sat there hoping to be picked.
How did you get into magic and not being able to read minds?
Like I said earlier, performing has always been what I want to do and magic kind of joined in with that. I got a kit for my birthday when I was young and always used to perform tricks to friends and family, then in my mid teens I got into mind-reading, as I felt it was all about theatricality and performance and instantly loved doing it and havenât really looked back.
What was your first show like?
My first Edinburgh show was somewhat scatty, but the basics were there. I used my student loan to put it on and I hadnât quite found who I was on stage, but enjoyed playing the, I might be shit, but Iâm not, card. I think there wasnât the expectation of, well this should be good, then, so it came as more of a surprise when stuff actually started to work and was impressive. I had this whole section involving me interacting with versions of myself on a screen which I remember really enjoying performing, but it never quite working the way I wanted it to⌠Iâd like to find a way to re-work that in the future. However there were two very early versions of my two favourite and most performed tricks in that show.. so it wasnât all bad.
Would you ever give away any of your secrets?
Some of them yes, some of them no. I donât mind giving some away if it enhances the trick and the experience for an audience. I hate to think people sit there watching trying to work out how stuff is done, because it means they arenât living in the moment of the show.. I try to build in things that means when you go home and talk about or think about the show, methods appear to you and you might see how certain bits were done.. and I think thatâs a really good thing to do. Thereâs an old saying of magicians guard and empty safe, which is true, because the actual secrets are boring, you donât really want to know them, itâs much more fun enjoying it for what it is and trying to work it out yourself.
Your taking part in the Udderbelly Festival this year, what can we expect?
You can expect to see the award winning, multi 5 star show Fatal Distraction in the best shape itâs been after the Edinburgh run, a UK tour and Iâll have just come back from playing to 600 people a night in New Zealand. Expect to laugh, to go wow, to think that was amazing, to be able to control me, to get a bit emotional and to have a bloody good time. Oh and you might get your very own I Love Cox badge.
And finally, what advice would you give someone who might want to follow in your footsteps?
Donât. Find your own path to walk in⌠it takes a while but when you truly find who you are as a performer and entertainer then you will be the happiest you can be. Alternatively offer me enough money and Iâll tell you exactly how I do it all.
FATAL DISTRACTION
29 MAY 2012Â 21:00Â E4 UDDERBELLY FESTIVALÂ ON Â SALEÂ ÂŁ12.50
19Â JUN 2012Â 21:00Â E4 UDDERBELLY FESTIVALÂ ON Â SALEÂ ÂŁ12.50
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