Alright? Excitingly I’ve been on the TV a bit recently. You can check out The Mentalist Revealed on Channel 5, or The Culture Show on BBC 2 or this thing on the real life internet at BBC Scotland
Enjoy you mofos x
Half Way There
Good morning from my bed,
It’s another Edinburgh day and I have now passed the half way stage, which means I’m starting to get a bit sick so I’m taking it easy today and will be in bed reading, eating, drinking and doing some tidying.. changing my sheets…making my room pretty that sort of thing. It’s pretty hard work doing two shows a day… but the other day it was even harder work as I took part in the pretty darn amazing Mark Watson’s 24 Hour Show
This was Mark’s final 24 hour show, where he does a show for 24 hours. I went along to watch and help out doing various mind-reading stunts… Watson loves this sort of nonsense, and this was his reaction to one of them.
Him and I also got to prove our manly powers by punching Brendan Burns. I tried 4 times. I hurt my hand. He seemed fine. I also correctly predicted which person Simon Amstell would pick for Blind Date during the show before joining him and everyone else on stage for a rendition of Band Aid to finish the show. It was a unique and incredible experience, one I was lucky to be involved in.
My Venue Crew also had a night out the other day where I treated them all to a drink. I have the fab Damian who does all my tech stuff, also Will who is the venue manager who looked after me last year and is doing another good job. He often calls me Mr Cox to inflate my Ego. Steph makes lights work, Chris is more efficiant than anyone else in the world and Kelly does amazing drawings for me. I’ll put some on here soon. She’s bloody good.
The Hotel which is the other show I’m doing is going very well.. I mind read Denise Van Outen and Lee Mead the other day in my alter-ego of Eric. I also appeared on The Culture Show last night as part of their piece on the show. That’s kinda all that’s been happening for now… quite a lot and I have a busy few days coming up but I’ll blog again soon I promise.
Chris x
One4Review: Mind Over Patter Review
Chris Cox is a self-proclaimed mind reader who can’t read minds. But he can certainly make his audience think he can.
As the audience entered the King Dome a video was playing at the back of the stage with various numbers and images and clips of Chris in action on a loop, along with instructions for us to write a number between 1 and 49 on a slip of paper and put it in one bowl on a small table at the front of the stage and to write a letter or a word on another slip of paper and put it in a second bowl. The reasons for this would become clear at the end of the show.
When Chris bounded on stage his energy (and sparkly silver shoes) immediately grabbed the attention of the audience. What followed was an incredibly entertaining hour of mentalism. Chris’ innocent persona only helps him engage with the audience and I was willing all his ‘magic’ to work. Despite a couple of tricks that didn’t quite come off, Chris’ talent is impressive by any standards, but especially considering he is still only 25.
I would urge you to catch Chris Cox while he’s still playing to relatively small audiences – I predict that it won’t be long before Chris is filling theatres.
And as for those numbers and words that we wrote down at the beginning of the show? Chris used them in a trick involving 6 members of the audience that literally blew my mind. Four days later I’m still trying to work out how he could possibly have done it, and despite what Chris would have us believe, I can only conclude it really was magic.
I had a day off
Hello one and all,
Yesterday was my day off, which meant I was finally given the chance to properly see shows. Prior to that I had a pretty mental weekend of knock out, sell out shows, fun drinking with friends and 5am bedtimes. Ah the life of a mind fiddler.
So what did I do with my day off I hear you cry? Well, I’ll tell you what I did. It was a good question ask. I started it by waking up. I shall now continue but with less detail. Met the rather fab Pete Firman to interview him for ThreeWeeks and then we went for a nice bit of lunch (smoked salmon bagel for me, chicken salad for him since you asked) I then attempted to see 3 different shows, all of which were sold out. So instead I had some tea and a nice cupcake with Philip Escoffy who like myself and Pete is doing an excellent show here. If you can only see one magic show this fringe see mine, if you can see two, see mine twice, if you can see three, see mine, and Pete’s and Philips.
I finally managed to get round to seeing one of my favourite acts, Pappys Fun Club. After clashing last year and not getting to see the show, last night I got to experience what is surely the most uplifting and joyous show in Edinburgh. Working beautifully in the huge Pleasance 1 the boys knocked my socks off. I also managed to head over to the Gilded Balloon. I took a punt on Princess Cabaret which was a hoot. A handful of Ozzie girls perform sketches and songs as Disney Princess in a show which worked wonderfully well, causes huge belly laughs and has heaps of talent on stage. Finally I rounded off my evening with a drink in the Loft Bar with the guys from Axis Of Awesome after I’d gone and seen their show. Last year they were a stand out highlight for me and they haven’t disappointed this year. Beautiful and funny songs, proper laugh out loud moments, and an update of the incredible 4 chord song. They’ve really stepped up to the mark after a very successful year last year and are doing another painfully good show. I can’t recommend the shows enough.
So now I have to do my show again tonight, very excited about getting back on stage with Mind Over Patter and doing my thing in The Hotel. See you there?
C x
Fest: Mind Over Patter Review
It seems something of an injustice to wedge Chris Cox wedged in the ‘comedy’ category, but wedge him we must. Mind Over Patter is poles apart from the countless stand-ups and comedy troupes that litter the rest of the Fringe brochure. Cox’s show bears more similarity to the conjurers and mind-readers of Victorian England. He also adds a modern twist, by cheerfully informing us that none of what he does is magic or psychic, merely impressive psychology tricks and subtle manipulation of the audience’s perception.
Happily, he keeps everyone at a tantalising arm’s length from actually knowing how he does it. Though a sizeable chunk of Cox’s jokes consist of crap wordplay on his surname (Cox = cocks, geddit?), this doesn’t detract from his high-energy, consistently engaging stage manner. It’s impossible to elaborate on the tricks without giving everything away, but rest assured that they are well worth tolerating his schoolboy humour for. It’s unashamedly old-fashioned, family entertainment and it requires enthusiastic audience participation. And yet, amidst so much gnarled, cynical stand-up and tediously pretentious theatre, Mind Over Patter is a surprisingly enjoyable breath of fresh air.
As the audience jostle their way out, a considerably nervier Cox is at the entrance agitating. It is, he admits, the hardest night he’s ever had. It’s not unlike the scene in the Wizard of Oz where the curtain is drawn back to reveal an ordinary man pulling the levers. With Cox’s consummate professionalism however, the curtain remains – for the most part – firmly in place.