It should come as no surprise that Derren Brown’s new Broadway one-man show, Secret, has received rave reviews from magicians like David Copperfield. Magicians know what amazing things can come from Mr. Brown’s very fertile mind. He is, in a word, incredible.
But beyond the common magician or human audience member, there is the critical eye of the critics who with their often very critical pen draft criticism of nearly every new show that hits the Great White Way.
Given that truth as prologue, we were very impressed that the New York Times, the Gray Lady, praised Mr. Brown’s show and Mr. Brown in particular — which makes sense in a one-man show situation.
They wrote:
As a showman, Mr. Brown has none of the smarminess of Las Vegas prestidigitators or carnival hucksters. He feels nonsynthetic in his smoothness, and his jokes directed at the audience stay carefully on the sunny side of insults.
We have long taken a firm stand in favor of smarminess of not only Las Vegas performers and carnival hucksters but we are broad-minded enough to accept non-smarmy presentations of our grand art as well. It could be that we like smarminess because we are in fact smarmy. We tried to go to those camps where they sweat the smarminess out of you — we were surprised our insurance company covered the 30 days at Malibu Smart Not Smarmy Treatment Center and Spa, but they did and it didn’t work.
We even wrote an article for the Journal of the American Medical Association, “Smarminess, The New Epidemic?” It was a case study of magicians and hucksters across the US, Canada and parts of Luxembourg. Yes, the study was later rejected by real doctors but at least we brought the issue to the attention of medical professionals. And yes, it was removed from the site and replaced by a study on cancer or heart disease or something. We didn’t read the replacement article — hence proving that we are smarmy by mentioning something that cannot be found to back up our claim. Quod Erat Demonstrandum, amigos.
Mr. Brown is showing his non-smarmy, smart, intriguing and, to some, “life changing” show at the famous prior home of Doug Henning, The Cort Theater in New York.
We look forward to seeing his show as soon as we can get to New York and purchase tickets to this sold-out show.
It is axiomatic that if the New York Times likes the show, the tickets will no longer be available in the short and middle-run. We are willing to pay scalpers’ prices to see Mr. Brown. That is saying a lot because we are cheap, very cheap. We wear the same suit we wore to our baptism (we had to expand the pants a bit because we grew since we were an infant). Our world-famous father once said, “save your money and you’ll always have money saved.” He also said other things that have nothing to do with money unless you consider horse race touting as money related.
If you are in the New York area — including bordering states and parts of Canada — we urge you to work against your cheap ways and go to see this show. It is guaranteed to be a once in a lifetime experience. Mr. Brown is, in our father’s immortal words, “a sure thing upon which you could bet both lungs.”
Hurry though. The show is scheduled to close January 2, 2020.
Get tickets for Mr. Brown’s show — when they become available here.
Check out Mr. Brown’s website here.
Read the New York Times review here.
Let us avoid the debate that often ends conversations between magicians. One cannot mention Penn & Teller without the fans of Penn or Teller entering into an instant squabble. 