A REVIEW BY GABRIELLE MARIE

Since the age of six, Chris Cox has been under the spell of magic. Now, eighteen years on from the dawn of the Paul Daniels magic set, Chris brings us his award winning Edinburgh Fringe Festival show: Control Freak. The entertaining mind reader who can’t read minds brought his production to the Southbank Centre for his last tour date of 2008.

A tone of intrigue had been planted. As we entered the room we were greeted with the invitation to write down any word from the English language, and then drop it into the bowl that lay in wait on stage. I take my seat, and ponder whether the wide-eyed Chris Cox from the show-reel on stage will bring us a brand of Derren Brown style mind control, or Tommy Cooper tomfoolery. I hope for more of the latter, as my seat is still too close to the stage and I’m in no hurry to hear the words ‘…now look into my eyes’.

While we wait, our senses are titillated by the familiar sound of well known signature tunes, from classic films such as Jaws, Back to the Future, and even the unmistakable Pearl & Dean jingle (freshly squeezed from any pre-movie cinema experience). We were offered blink-and-you’ll-miss-it snapshots of the superstar-famous such as George Lucas, Cameron Diaz and Paul Daniels! Other subliminal images that flashed onto our retina were of popcorn and the words ‘listen and learn’. So…I do.

With bums firmly in virtually every seat, the magic was ready to be released. As the film roles on screen, none other than Keith Chegwin, (yes, that’s right,) pops into view to deliver a sprightly introduction to the man they call Cox.

A lithe figure leaps from behind the curtain. We meet Chris, who promptly engages us with his upbeat likeability and a toy ferret, (that is later christened as Freddie, through a series of random choices). No time is wasted in selecting unsuspecting volunteers by means of launching said ferret into the sea of metropolitans who harbour in this Thames-side audience. (The lucky person to catch the ferret selects someone else to join our magical mind reader onstage). A battalion of impressive tricks flow freely involving a hybrid mix of magic, NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming), reading of body language, and psychology to prove he’s a mind reader who can’t read minds.

Mr Cox recounts a personal story, which relays the message that when a course of events are altered, this can lead to a different set of consequences. We are challenged to consider if we have free choice and free will, and the possibility that our actions are shaped by other factors. Chris reminds us that “our ability to make decisions makes us unique”.

This moral threads though an intricate show that is guided by the lightning speed mind of the accomplished producer. What we may not know at first glance is that Chris has gained striking experience in the realm of entertainment production, working with luminaries such as Chris Moyles and Russell Brand.

Chris ends the show with a spectacular DVD finale that ties together a complex series of events. We watch as the revelations unfold like a Poirot mystery conclusion.

Amazed and entertained, we applaud the mind-maestro, who is now circling the stage with a victory lap while sporting a shimmering cape. I collect my tongue-in-cheek ‘I heart Cox’ badge from the man himself after the show, and leave under the spell of this generous performer.

Chris Cox was billed as a mind-reader who can’t read minds, I had no particular interest in the show; however, after a frenetic hour filled with trickery, cheeky quips, multiple double entendre’s and a soft toy ferret in a jumper – I can officially say I Love Cox.

Cox is a charming entertainer full of manic energy and wins you over with his earnest, self effacing stage persona while simultaneously perplexing the audience with his hybrid blend of comedy and magic.

Throughout the show, he repeatedly assures us he cannot read minds but instead uses psychology, misdirection, subliminal suggestion and the ability to read body language to pull off his feats. Despite this, I was amazed at how he was consistently so accurate in his guesses and began to wonder if he really does possess the gift of telepathy.

For someone who looks unnervingly young, he presented a slick performance which really shone when there was audience interaction (of which there is a lot and where the ferret plays a feature role in the selection process). There were a couple of moments where it appeared he had made mistakes but shortly after it is revealed it was actually part of another, larger, more impressive trick.

Aside from his obvious talents with ‘mindreading’ he also has an easy flair with comedy and peppers the show with powerpoint interludes, hilarious anecdotes and even busts a move mid-show to Beyonce’s Single Ladies.

I won’t give away too much as it really needs to be seen to be believed, but the finale was downright extraordinary, revealing that every single moment in the show had been carefully crafted and Cox is deserving of all the praise that has been heaped on him.

While leaving the show, I could hear that I was not the only one pondering out loud, “How did he do that?”. This is a must see show.

NZ Herald Review – by Russell Baillie 19 April 2010
And what do you for a job? asked Chris Cox of one of the six whom he had dragged up on stage for the grand finale. His target hesitated, looking too embarrassed to admit his occupation. “Oh, you work in porn,” quipped Cox to titters from the small but rapt audience. “No,” said the bloke, “I’m reviewing the show. And I have to say, it’s going well so far.”

Well, it got a laugh. But just my luck. A preview show to the forthcoming 2010 NZ International Comedy Festival, and I’m called up for audience participation service. No, I didn’t volunteer. It had something to do with sitting next to someone who caught a stuffed toy tossed into the crowd. Being down the back didn’t help. But in this case, the stage experience did help convince of Cox’s peculiar genius even more.

Billing himself as “a mind reader who can’t read minds”, the beanpole Englishman combines stand-up, psychology, magician’s diversionary techniques, motor-mouthed showmanship and technology (a video screen, laptop and Facebook), to deliver a dazzling display of non-telepathy. Seen Lie to Me or The Mentalist on the telly? Imagine Simon Baker or Tim Roth replaced by Gareth from The Office and over-caffeinated and heavily gelled. That’s Cox’s stage persona, kind of.

His show is a series of demonstrations of how our instinctive responses are so predetermined he can appear to read our minds about them. The routines cover everything from telling what card we picked out of a pack to – in my case – determine what was the slightly rude word another audience member (thanks, pal) had submitted on a piece of paper at the start of the show and was now hidden in my hand. Which might not sound like much, but I was one of six lined up on stage, all with a secret word or a letter as well as a number. Cox got them all, and to explain more would probably ruin the fun next time.

His musical diversion into Beyonce’s Single Ladies was near Glee-quality. And the rest of his fast-paced hour-plus was as much of a mind bender as it was a funnybone rattler. It’s a show that takes some risks in its heavy reliance on audience participation. But personally speaking, getting too close to the action had its own bonus.

Everyone else was probably left wondering “how did he do that?”. But the thought “how did he do that to me?” will still be inducing a silly grin for weeks to come.