Derren Brown: Svengali, Shaftesbury Theatre

Derren Brown is witty, urbane, clever and a keen student of what makes humans tick - which must come as a huge advantage when you are developing an evening’s entertainment based on kidology. He makes it clear he’s not a psychic or clairvoyant and that there is a rational explanation for everything he does in his two and a half hours on stage, and indeed describes himself as “Illusionist, mentalist and sceptic” - I imagine emphasis is on the sceptic.

Brown is kind enough to explain what he’s doing as he goes along, winkling out various audience members’ guiltiest secrets simply by reading their body language - this is not a show to go to if you have bodies buried under the patio or you’re cheating on your partner - guessing their occupations, or tricking them into choosing the box without the prize. But even when you know how he’s doing it - by suggestion, subtle touch, or deductive reasoning - you still find yourself saying, “How does he do it?” And at least two members of last night’s audience, who provided some of the evening’s funniest moments (to the rest of us at least) will have had some explaining to do to their partners on the way home...

This is all straightforward mentalist stuff, of course, and the first act involves routines done many times by many performers over many centuries, but Brown has developed and reworked them, added a dash of his own magic and taken this kind of show to a new height. He’s much helped by a ready wit and an ease of manner that means he could persuade you to part with your life’s savings, but he is never cruel to his subjects and absolutely does not humiliate them when they are “hypnotised” - although he never uses the word - on stage.

But he can be sharp, too; when an audience member was choosing people to join her on stage for one of his illusions, he said, “Don’t choose anyone saying, ‘Me, me, me,’ because they’re a fucking nightmare on stage.” In another life, Brown could be a stand-up comic.

After the interval, during which Brown is in Victorian evening dress, the stunts become more sophisticated and he introduces the automaton after which the show is named, a wooden doll built by a bereaved father as a model of his dead son. Brown tells a mesmerising story about the doll’s supposed supernatural powers in superstitious 17th-century Hungary, where it was the only non-human ever to be exorcised because people thought he could control humans’ thoughts.

The subject brought up on stage for this section was a profusely hair-gelled bloke sitting behind me. This was the weakest part of the show but I was delighted; his presence on stage meant that the lover of product wasn’t able to take part in a running commentary with his friends, as he had done throughout the show. And they were so utterly gobsmacked by the trick that they were also sent into stunned silence for the trick’s duration - many thanks, Derren, much appreciated.

The finale - which makes inventive use of balloons and children’s counting blocks - is astonishingly, brain-hurtingly complicated and thrillingly presented. There were a couple of loose ends that remained untied and I found Svengali totally uncreepy, but Brown, a master showman, has yet again fashioned a clever, funny and engrossing show. Oh, and Will Bowen’s Heath Robinson set, all switches, cogs and engine innards, is a continual delight.

• Book tickets for Derren Brown: Svengali at the Shaftesbury Theatre, London WC2 until 16 July, then touring from 20 February, 2012
• Find Derren Brown on Amazon