A Young illusionist will be showing off his talents in Bristol next month in preparation for his show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Former Bristol student Chris Cox will be playing nine dates at the festival in August.

But first he will be giving a preview of his innovative multi- media show in his hometown of Backwell.

In the act, which he has called You Can’t Read Minds?, Chris performs alongside a 2D version of himself on television.

He said he is looking forward to the Fringe festival but is pleased to be able to practise in Bristol beforehand.

He said: “The Fringe festival is such a big thing to be involved in. It’s really exciting and quite scary actually.

“I have been going to the festival myself for the past six years to watch stand-up comedy and have always wanted to perform.

“Hopefully it will lead to more shows.

“Ideally, I’d love to one day take my show on tour.”

The 22-year-old is following in the footsteps of another former Bristol student – psychological illusionist Derren Brown. But he says he is keen to put his own stamp on the show.

He said: “My shows used to be quite similar to Derren Brown’s, but now there is a much more comedic side to my mind reading.

“I decided to introduce a ‘Little Chris’ into the show – a 2D, pre-recorded version of me on a TV screen.

“He interacts with the audience and predicts what they will say, but it is all pre-recorded so I couldn’t have known what the audience member would say.

“That means I have to influence them using suggestion and mind control.”

Like Derren Brown, Chris combines confidence and intuition to subtly guide human behaviour. He describes his craft as a mixture of applied psychology, magic, misdirection and showmanship.

He said: “The unique blend of magic and psychology gives the impression of mind-reading.”

Chris began performing at age six, after receiving a Paul Daniels magic set as a gift.

He has been featured on television shows such as The Big Breakfast, Live and Kicking, The Real Holiday Show, Jack Dee’s Happy Hour and The Biz, and also appeared in a series of adverts for Comic Relief.

Chris now lives in London but comes back to Bristol to visit his mum, who lives in Portishead, and to work at the BBC, in Whiteladies Road.

Performers like Derren Brown and David Blaine have revived an industry previously stereotyped by white rabbits, children’s parties and Paul Daniels. LUCY PARKINSON meets a young Clifton-based illusionist and learns some mind-boggling tricks.

Interviewing a mind control expert isn’t a situation that I find easy to approach. My initial fear is that this young illusionist will use his psychological prowess to steer the interview in his favour and somehow wipe clean my mind at the end of our meeting, leaving me with nothing more than a few meaningless scribbles from which to write my feature.

But meeting 20-year-old Chris Cox is like meeting an old friend, although he did later confess that his friendly nature was partly an act to win my trust.

“It’s really important to get people’s trust, they need to like you. Some magicians can be cocky and I don’t think it does them any favours,” Chris explains. “While you have to get the audience to warm to you, I try to be just the right side of charming.”

Chris doesn’t claim to be a mind-reader. Instead he describes his craft as a mixture of applied psychology, magic, misdirection and showmanship. Like TV’s Derren Brown, Chris combines confidence and intuition to startling degree, enabling him to subtly guide human behaviour – usually with astonishing results.

A student at Bristol University, Chris is currently in his second year of a degree in drama, theatre, film and television. He began performing magic at the tender age of six after receiving a Paul Daniels magic set as a gift, which he holds responsible for sparking his passion for magic, saying: “That man has got a lot to answer for.”

He has been featured on television shows like The Big Breakfast, Live and Kicking, The Real Holiday Show, Jack Dee’s Happy Hour and The Biz, and he has also appeared in a series of adverts for Comic Relief. He gave me a demonstration of his skills – beginning with a few seemingly simple card tricks, such as guessing which card I had picked from a pack by asking simple questions and monitoring my reactions.

But I was keen to witness more complex techniques he had told me about prior to the interview, such as memory recall. Chris asked me to draw three pictures of something I love, something I loathe and something I like.

He then claimed to be able to tell which drawing corresponded to which emotion by the detail in the picture and extremely subtle changes in my facial expressions. He encouraged me to make the links between the drawing and the emotion as tenuous as I liked. For example, for something I love, I drew a very slap-dash sketch of the ss Great Britain to signify my love for Bristol.
I’ll admit to being shocked that he guessed each one correctly. He said the tiny detail of the ship’s flag waving in the wind indicated that I took slightly more care over this picture, and so was able to deduce that it was, indeed, something I loved.

While demonstrating his tricks, Chris was happy to explain how he was apparently able to read my mind. “The unique blend of magic and psychology gives the impression of mind-reading. In my performances I attempt mind-reading using various psychological techniques. “I try to take the theory behind magic, a bit of showmanship and acting techniques, and the psychological programming and profiling ideas behind hypnosis in my tricks. “It’s a form of psychological bullying, I suppose.”

I asked Chris if he had ever used his skills to attract women or influence his friends. He said: “I don’t try to influence my friends’ thoughts because if I did that they would never get to know the real me, I suppose if I wanted I could try and influence a girl and try to make her like me. For example I might get her to talk about something she likes, and as she was talking I’d make a particular gesture, like touching my face. Then, later on, I might ask her out on a date and I’d make the same gesture, which she would subconsciously pick up on and link to the feeling of happiness she had experienced previously, and hopefully she would be more likely to say yes.”

In meeting Chris I had gained an intriguing insight into the world of illusion and mind control. But with my new-found knowledge of some of Chris’ most perplexing tricks, would I be willing to share the secrets I have learned? Now that would be telling.