Cardiff and Woking and Coco the Mind-Reading Parrot
The curious phenomenon of audience identities continues: Cardiff crowds (though I expected a big raucous crowd) were very quiet, but saved it all up for the end. Which was a relief the first night: after that, I knew to expect it. I, to the amusement of many, struggled with audience members’ names and answers, as I did in Belfast and Dublin. The combination of unfamiliar names, strong accents, microphone amplification and the wobbly acoustics of the auditoria made this an unexpected comedy highlight. I do apologise.
Woking brought great, enthusiastic audiences – or rather ‘brings’, as I have one more night there tonight. The house has a resonant, bright sound, which helps the show enormously – it’s lovely to hear every reaction clearly. We have all benefited from a day off and time at home – although my builders have all assembled to work at mine this week, which has made the long-awaited time at home more stressful than being on tour. But hey, whaddyagonnado. Tonight, Andy comes to see the show: he hasn’t even seen it this time round, being taken up with Ghost Stories (transferring to the Duke of York Theatre on June 25th). That’ll be good.
The voice is improving, and I imagine I’ll be back to signing once we get to Stoke on Tuesday.
What else? This:
‘Tis true. Our very own Neil, from the Parrot Zoo, of which I am Patron Saint, presents Coco The Mind Reading Parrot at SkegVegas – the tourist attraction centre for Skegness. Coco has been trained in all sorts of arcane mentalist techniques and presents them to the public for the price of a pumpkin seed and a chunk of finger. Here’s Neil and Coco practising their elaborate two-person code  (man on left saying ‘Is it a cup of tea?’):
Expect further updates from Coco as they unfold.
x
PS Thank you also for your response to the Dench portrait. I did anticipate the request to see it in its various stages: once I’ve absolutely finished it and have had it properly photographed, I will post a little step-by step thingette in case it remains of interest.
Is that no parrots a promise? As they; along with anything else of the flappy winged variety; are my phobia!!
Glad to hear you are on the mend – looking forward to Manchester in June!
Has your hayfever kicked off yet?
Surzy xx
Wishing you all the best for the new show Derren! 😀 XXXXXXXXXXXX
whats the closing date for applying to the show xoxo
Aw that’s sweet 🙂
Glad to hear the voice is improving!! Can’t wait to see you in Glasgow! I’m applying for the new show and fingers crossed I get picked! Xxxxx
The show in Woking last night was fantastic as usual; I’m still reeling from the first effect and still laughing from the first joke. Thank you to everyone who put the show together, I’m just sorry you had to venture in to Woking – a salt bath and the blood of live cat should get the smell out.
Looking forward to more news on Coco although there is rather too much of a smug, conceited glint in his eye.
Thank you again
Just to say I loved the Big Issue article. Glad you are having such varied entertainment yourself. Perhaps stage by stage portrait and a stage by stage taxidermy parrot.(re: auction) All the best!
The step-by-step images of your art would be awesome to see 😀
Enigma was absolutely incredible! That’s the first time I’ve seen any of your shows, but it was so amazing, words can’t give it justice! Will be coming next time 😀 … a year? two years?
😀
Can the age restriction for the show not even be announced? eyyyy
Good show in Woking – really enjoyed it. That said I enjoyed the two previous tours a little more. Think there was a little too much close up stuff that needed a camera. Previous shows had less of this and so a bit better suited to the stage? Still, great show, highly recommend to people.
What was going on with the chap upstairs? He really seemed to have lost it. DB did a wonderful job of keeping going from that and didn’t ruin that part of the act. Really thought it could have gone very wrong there.
Aren’t you in Birmingham starting from Tuesday? I really hope Stoke was a typo (or maybe you’re just visiting?) otherwise there’s 1300 people on Tuesday night (plus us staff types) at the Alex who are going to be massively disappointed!!!
Glad to hear the voice is on the mend. See you next Sat up in B’ham x
I have a parrot – he is manipulative, not mind-reading!
Loved ENIGMA–would adore seeing the new show. Dang it, was just in Cardiff a few weeks ago! If only! I long to be blown away again!
Had lots of fun at the Thursday show at Woking – almost the best £30 quid ever spent. Wondering whether a small box with a postit note on top has got to you yet as I asked an old man in a wheelchair at the stage door reception to get it to you. Have a good one for the last night of Woking x
I want to give a massive thanks to Derren and the team for coming to Woking; shows of that quality rarely visit our town and I enjoyed Thursday night’s performance so much!
Can’t wait for this evening Derren! Hope your voice gets better soon. Bring on Woking 🙂 x
I think people were able to look past forgetting names. Its easily done by all. I attended the second night at cardiff and you were outstanding. My friend and I were both wowed as clearly all the audience was. I would with out a doubt see you live again and recommend anyone to go see the show.
Well I am so happy that you gave nothing more away about your show! :-L I guess it really is a closely guarded secret… That parrot mind reader sounds quite interesting strangely enough.
The reason why I’m unsure to sign up for the new show (yesterday I firmly said that I wasn’t going to sign up… But I’m changing my mind every 4 hours) is because Im worried that you’ll pop out in the middle of class!! Don’t know if I need parents permission… Sounds childish I know, but I’m just totally baffled because I can’t show the form to any third party! Ohhh dear – but never mind, it seems that I’ll just wait for when I change my mind later and enjoythose few hours, before finally changing my mind and getting back into the same confusion that I’m in now.
Good fun.
I was at Cardiff in 20th, your show was amazing! I went to it tired and got out refreshed (thanks :P). However, it was sad to hear that you wouldn’t be coming out to sign things after the show!
Saw you yesterday in Woking, really fantastic, all 8 of us found it incredible and enjoyed it so, so much. Many thanks!
Ooouuhh, all exciting things to come 😀
X
Hi Derren – loved the Cardiff show but might a suggest a change of Cardiff venue in the future? The acoustics in St David’s Hall are bloody dreadful with the result that some of your best patter was lost (which may account for the relative quietness of the audience). The Hall was designed around its massive organ (careful) and so is basically useless for anything else.
The Millenium Centre would do nicely.
aww that is so cool, i used to sponser a parrot named Coco, not sure if it’s the same one but I absolutely LOVE parrots, especially the Macaws, they are my fav 🙂
isnt that a macaw…?
damn skippy those builders are stressful, darlin. i know EXACTLY how ya feel–& have fer a few months now! :0
So glad to hear the voice is improving Derren, and the tour seems to be jogging along nicely (blimey, can’t believe we’re nearly in May already! Tempus Fugit and all that……)
Aww Coco is lovely. I used to have a thing about drawing parrots & birds when I was younger. Especially toucans for some bizarre reason. But I’m really a horse person and donate to the Redwings Horse Sanctuary when I can. But I digress……
Take care & I hope your health and everything else continues to keep improving for you 🙂
LC x
PS Love the new ‘share’ buttons…….
No parrots involved? I’m out, parrots are a dealbreaker for me.
Just to let you know, you can join Coco as a friend on Facebook. Just search for ‘Coco Macaw’ .
Fame is going to her head. She is now asking for lights to be attached around her mirror! Her tour dates will be released soon for ‘Something Feathery This Way Comes’ lol.
Fantastic show last night in Woking. It was the first time I had see one of your live shows and it was wonderful. It must have taken an enormous amount of work and planning to make it all look so effortless! I suspect I will be wondering for weeks how you managed to do the seemingly impossible!
Best of luck with the rest of the tour and the new show!
x
Parrots that read minds? Hm, what if there is no mind? What will they read then? The sun gave me a great tan but also took care of my mind in such a way that I can’t trigger it back anymore into its normal state. I’m sure I will sleep quite well tonight. I’m so easy going right now man … mellow me .. so I think I will log off now .. and hang here for a little while till I lay down my head on my pillow .. somewhere in a bed, my bed.
That tour of you is long Brown. And still so many places filled with people that haven’t seen it yet, but would love to see the show. Life’s not fair.
Saw show in woking on Fri thank you it was amazing as expected 🙂 ***SPOILER REMOVED*** The balance of magic/de-bunking is spot on 🙂 we read the note on the stage door and although a shame it’s defo wize that you rest if u lost ur voice that would be a bit of a problem 😉 (glad no-one ruined the end for me loved it) oh one bad thing.. my friends who came with me who I once impressed now respond to my close up magic tricks with “well, its not exactly Derren Brown” grr darn you sir! x
I’ll be in Birmingham too on Saturday, if i’d have known you were there i’d of come to see you. Going dancing instead 🙂
I agree with toby townrow. The sound was awful at Cardiff st davids hall. It was a shame, still enjoyed though. 🙂
Was at the last night in Woking. 2nd time of seeing the show, came with a few friends that hadn’t seen it. Even though I knew what was coming, everything was still as fun and mind-boggling as before. Certainly a much more enthusiastic audience than when I saw it in London. Loved the looks on my friends faces at all the tricks that just have such unexpected endings. Also my boyfriend said that he worked one thing out reasonably early on and sat there feeling smug until the point he realised that that was barely a scratch on the surface compared to the rest of it! Brilliant job!
What a fantastic show! I saw the saturday at Woking, such a brilliant vibe from the audience too.
You never cease to amaze me and blow my tiny mind!
Read the note on the stage door, hope the voice gets better soon.
Lots of love and admiration
xxxxxx
What an amazing show at Woking on Saturday – we all loved it. Just as good as ever…. had a couple of DB virgins with us and sufice to say when they left at the end they had to admit you had them amazed…. lol
The audience loved you and so did we…. keep up the good work and never stop coming to Woking….
xx
Saw you in Cardiff on the 21st and it was bloody brilliant. I’ve not stopped trying to think of ways you could have pulled off some of the things you did, but you’ll be pleased to know I havent really got anywhere at all 😉 When you come back to Cardiff (you will come back at some point, won’t you?) I would reccomend trying to get into the Millennium centre in the bay since the acoustics there are much better and the audiences will probably be bigger and better 🙂 Hope to see you there!
Meeting you after the show was like a dream come true, you’re like a personal hero to me and I’d love to one day be able to do what you do 🙂 Thanks for taking the time to sign things and take pictures and hug us (even if we did kind of ambush you as you left). Thanks for making my year!
Good luck with the rest of the tour, not that you need it 🙂
x
p.s. don’t worry about not being able to understand some of the audience, the Welsh accent is ridiculous 🙂
Does CoCo know any mind reading and mentalism tricks?
haha parrots are awsome! 🙂 did u train coco? lol