An absolutely astonishing talent.
THE pages of The Post may not have featured so prominently on stage in a show in Bristol since Ricky Gervais read out a bad review at the Colston Hall, critiquing my colleague Steve Harnell’s words line by line.
Going line by line through The Post is also something that Chris Cox must have done sometime on Monday, then distributed pages of the newspaper among his audience at the Tobacco Factory Theatre that night, asking them to name a page and then saying which stories were on that page, even going as far to recall a particular crossword clue.
Born in Bristol and living in the city until he finished university, Cox’s shows have previously been described by Gervais himself as “brilliant, he’ll blow your mind”.
It was not just a copy of this very newspaper you are holding in your hands right now (the trick wouldn’t work so well on a computer screen), but also the pages from an old Edinburgh Festival programme that he once again had completely memorised, correctly being able to name one of the 2,000 or so shows from the page number given to him, and if that wasn’t enough also saying both the venue and start time.
The astonishing thing about this astonishing show was that astonishingly this was not even its most astonishing element, but unfortunately it will ruin the astonishment of future audiences if I reveal any more of the secrets of Cox.
Currently in development for his own television series in Los Angeles, this was the first homecoming appearance for his current show, which he has taken around the world. It is called Fatal Distraction for good reason, but thankfully there were no mysterious deaths reported in Southville on Monday night.
Cox calls himself “the mind reader who can’t read minds”, although this is doing somewhat of a disservice to a young man still in his early 20s who has become an Edinburgh regular and wowed global audiences.
Combining chit chat, magic, psychology, body language, influencing and lying, this was an absolutely astonishing show from a young man with a very bright future.
Derren Brown better watch his back. Chris Cox should soon be filling many column inches of newspapers up and down the land, probably memorising every word.
