ON the first of two sell-out nights, Derren Brown dazzled an entire audience for a good two hours at Lighthouse.

There was one bloke sat behind us who had never heard of Derren Brown and even he was taken in.

How does he do it?

Well, listen very carefully and for the most part he tells you.

Levitating table?

Conjuring trick.

Spinning crystals?

Power of suggestion.

Guessing the questions in sealed envelopes?

Just like the Oracle stage acts of the 1930s he's so fascinated by, he didn't open a single one and yet several people left the hall convinced he had answered their private inquiry.

He tells us he has no psychic powers, dismissing the work of spiritualists as "vile", yet employs the same techniques to apparently reveal the personal lives of his subjects.

He knows all along that the man at the top of the show really thinks there's five grand in a covered box going home with him, not £500.

He leads his mark to believe and gives him every opportunity to change his mind.

He doesn't and goes home empty-handed.

Derren Brown has a keen grasp of human nature, a deep understanding of neuro-linguistics, graphology and a fine eye for reading body language.

He's a master of sleight of hand, offering a barrage of distractions and diversions disguised as facial ticks, mistakes, jokes - he even faints at one point - as he weaves his "magic". What's more he doesn't care who knows it - after all, he tells us what he's doing.

All he needs is for people to believe; and they do believe because they want to believe.

Above all though, Derren Brown is a consummate showman. It's flim-flam, shazam! There's nothing mystical at work here, but an incredibly hard-working, extremely clever, ferociously watchable master of amazing ceremonies.

And we're all part of the show.

That's entertainment. That's all, folks!