HOW THIS BOOK CAME TO BE

“I met Derren Brown in London in the summer of 2017.

I had just arrived back in the UK after giving a series of magic lectures around Australia & New Zealand, and no sooner than I’d defeated the jetlag had I received a phone call from a man called Simon.

Simon was the company manager for Vaudeville, Derren’s production company. Simon invited me to meet him and the team at a rehearsal studio in Bermondsey one July morning to discuss the possibility of my working on Derren’s upcoming theatre show UNDERGROUND.

It was an astounding offer. I couldn’t fully believe what I was hearing on the phone. A quick week passed of newness & promise. The morning of the meeting I woke early & stepped into a fantastically exciting day.

I took a tube to London Bridge and impatiently stomped to the theatre space.

In this outwardly unassuming south London studio I met with the three co-writers, directors and creators of what I knew then to be “Derren Brown”.

Andy Nyman, Andrew O’Connor and Derren himself.

The greatest minds in magic; the best mind-reader in the history of theatre.

I joined these three along with the rest of the team for a disarmingly casual chat, and life took on a vibrant hue: magic was new again.

Derren had a striking presence that morning. I was met gently, encouragingly, and welcomed to the room. I fumbled a star-struck “Nice to meet you,” and the rest of the day faded into a warm awe.

UNDERGROUND was set to tour around the UK and Ireland for a few months, Derren explained to me, with a couple-month West End run in London that winter, then a longer national tour the following spring.

There were to be just 5 of us in the touring cohort (including Derren), and everyone except me had worked on the shows for years. I was totally new to theatre and to the calibre of talent in the room. I found it tremendous, fiercely exciting, and reasonably overwhelming to be shown into that world all of a sudden. From that morning on, I was part of it.

I remember being so giddily excited on the way to the studio, trying to comprehend the possibility of it all, and I revisit the memory of my short walk from London Bridge tube station to this day.

I went on to work with Derren on and off for five years, culminating in helping his most recent show SHOWMAN onto its feet with a UK tour, before I decided to focus on THE NEAT REVIEW Publishing Concern full-time, stepping away from touring at the end of 2021.

Shortly after stepping out, Derren approached me about the idea of his new book. He was amidst writing it and would continue over the course of the following year, but he asked if I would help bring it alive. Flattered and once again a little overwhelmed by his trust & affirmation, with pangs of the rehearsal studio days those seven years ago, I naturally said I’d love to, and we began the many conversations that led to this very book.

It is a true honour to have worked with this legend of a man, on both his live shows and now this seminal work of mentalism and showmanship. I’m very proud to have been asked to lend my aesthetic to this work, and to edit & publish Derren’s first book for magicians in twenty years. In every instance spent with him, I’m reminded that he is smarter and kinder and darker and funnier than his already staggering on-stage character portrays. He is a one.

Derren Brown indeed. What a trip.

So here it is: NOTES FROM A FELLOW TRAVELLER.”

— Alexander Hansford