Jaw-droppingly brilliant... that’s about all I can say about this show.

With eight nights still to play in the city, illusionist and hypnotist Derren pleaded with the audience not to give the game away.

But in truth, I couldn’t possibly reveal any trade secrets because I spent the whole two hour show scratching my head wondering ‘‘how on earth did he do that?’’

Without fear of spoiling any lucky ticket-holder’s enjoyment, I think I can report that Infamous, Derren’s sixth stage tour, is possibly his most captivating yet.

There was some gruesome sleight of hand, some against-all-odds mind control and some card tricks that in his younger days got Derren banned from casinos.

One schoolboy hit the jackpot but still ended up cursing his luck, while another young man was sent on a ‘‘rejuvenating spa break’’ as the rest of us supped our interval drinks.

The 42-year-old, as quick witted as he is mesmerising, garnered his biggest gasps when about 50 audience members were invited on to the stage for a faux medium show.

Derren repeatedly stated that he had no psychic ability, yet the 100 per cent accuracy of his ‘channelling’ still clearly shocked and unnerved those ‘contacted by the dead’.
Doris Stokes would have been turning her grave.

For his finale, the showman exhibited a memory to match a super computer and mathematical ability to shame Carol Vorderman then left the stage to the kind of wild applause normally reserved for pop stars.

It’s one thing seeing Derren on the telly, quite another when you can safely eliminate any possibility of camera tricks and stooges.

He’ll continue to astound and amuse nightly until Saturday May 25, excluding Monday 20th

And seeing is believing. Or not, as the case may be.