To magicians and mentalists – and even many in the laity - the name Derren Brown needs no introduction.

Brown is to mentalism what Blaine is to guerilla street magic or Copperfield is to grand illusion; he is one of our most iconic and prolific living performers whose reputation far transcends the limits of the magic community alone.

With 30 years of ground-breaking stage performance under his belt, Brown has released Notes From a Fellow Traveller: a hefty 500 page tome that largely serves as a book of practical performance theory for magicians and mentalists. But there’s much more to it than that.

Published gorgeously by UK magic publisher The Neat Review, Notes From a Fellow Traveller quickly dispels any worry that this sizeable text will be anything close to a slog to get through; in fact, throughout, Brown maintains a voice that is personal, funny, provocative, vulnerable, and erudite without feeling inaccessible. Simply put, it’s an entertaining pleasure to read.

Structurally, expect diary-style entries where Derren documents the process of performing and touring his latest piece Showman, and the fresh lessons he and his team learn along the way, including lessons gained through outright failure.

Among those entries are more focused essays about some element of stage performance that he has gained practical, valuable experience in over the past three decades of his career: how to structure a show’s emotional arc, how to take care of your voice and body as instruments, how to choose spectators who won’t tank your routine, how to proceed if they do, how to manipulate applause cues in your dramatic favour, how to tap into your most vulnerable and naked self onstage, how to fall in love with your audience each night, how to effectively craft dramatic tension in your climax, how to maximize your ‘silent script,’ and so, so much more.

These deeply insightful lessons and theses are typically augmented by fascinating anecdotes, philosophy, and technical advice while striking a balance between the profound and the digestible. No serious magician will come away from this book remotely uninspired.

Sure, this book is largely geared towards serious stage performers and comes through the lens of Derren’s very specific experience; but it doesn’t take much digging to figure out how to apply these writings to your work even if you’re a close-up magician or more casual performer. The wisdom here is rich and layered.

Those expecting methods in the manner of Pure Effect will not find that in Notes From a Fellow Traveller. However, Brown does offer up a few tidbits including a dramatically compelling approach to Ring Flight, a clever Watch to Sock effect, and some brief-yet-interesting instruction on how to construct a cool billet gimmick. These are not in-depth methods, but rather cursory examinations with just enough detail provided for astute magicians to put the pieces together.

But the theoretical secrets offered up here are, to me, far more valuable than magic methods would be. This is your chance to gain an embarrassment of riches in performance advice from one of our most accomplished living magicians and mentalists. I feel no reservations about calling Notes From a Fellow Traveller a neoclassic; I believe this will be a seminal treatise on contemporary magic performance and it’s a book you owe it to yourself to have in your collection. It's a gift.

(Sorry, the "general" Notes thread is locked for some reason...)

I borrowed this book from a friend and left it in my car for a few days and it appeared it got hot enough for the pages to separate from the binding on the spine. (Yeesh!) No pages are loose, or anything like that. Attached is a picture of what I mean.

So I ordered him a new copy and it arrived yesterday, and even without ripping off the shrink wrap, I can see that the binding is the same way. So did I just not notice that when I first borrowed the book and leaving it in the car actually didn't do anything (it is winter after all, even in AZ)?

If you bought a paperback version of the book, is your spine binding glued in place?

Click here to view attached image.

Hi Jay. Derren wrote about it just a couple of days ago on a post on Instagram. It's made on purpose, so the book can be open wide and flat without damaging the spine. Seems you just won a new book.

Lele

Thank you so much for the info.

Yay I have a new book! (It's so honking big I didn't have time to finish reading the borrowed copy anyway!)

Maybe I won't tell my wife I didn't *have* to order it after all...

Hi Jay, don't worry, all of us have something not to tell to our wife about magic....especially this week, with Blackpool approaching .
I've read Note from a fellow traveller during my last vacation, slowly and deeply. It's so well written and interesting. Doesn't flow the same during all the pages, but it's worth reading and rereading. The only negative thing is that I've bought the deluxe edition and I was scared to underline and writing notes on the pages, but after 100 pages I've started again the reading and wrote on the book all that I needed. I've loved it.

Good reading

Lele