In an emotional moment, Derren Brown dedicated his current show, Showman, to his late father.
The celebrity magician invited four random audience members to the stage and requested them to each bring a treasured object.
Throughout the trick, the mentalist randomly selected things and accurately identified which belonged to which individual, as well as the story behind them.
The items included a pregnancy test, which Derren correctly identified as belonging to a woman called Natalie, and a necklace given to a guy by a friend in New Zealand.
A unique brooch from someone’s grandma was also present.
Derren accurately recognised a Scrabble letter as belonging to a man whose grandmother had recently died, and it was a reference to his love of playing board games with her.
As the magician narrated the narrative, one audience member sobbed as he thought on his loss and affection for his late grandmother.
And that wasn’t the only time Derren referenced his late father, as he did several times throughout the Channel 4 show.
In his final performance, he said that his father died during the peak of the Coronavirus epidemic, and that he felt ‘responsible’ for how it had to happen and that he didn’t get a suitable send-off.
‘It was the weirdest thing because they just suddenly looked like tat, they just looked like stuff you’d find in the back of a junk shop,’ he said while introducing the trick, referring to bits and bobs he found around the house after his dad died.
‘It was like they had no meaning at all, and yet they were so meaningful, they sort of became more and less significant than they had been before. It really struck me that the right sort of object has the power to remind us what is truly important to us.
‘If I could understand what is important about these objects to you four, I would understand you a bit more, we all would. We’d look at you differently, with more empathy.’
Derren then reflected on his relationship with his father.
‘I’ve said that my dad and I didn’t always connect when I was younger and then, of course, he died and that was that. It really struck me, this very clear thought of… oh, well then. That was the relationship. It wasn’t that we didn’t connect, it was just that we connected like that, in a slightly hit-and-miss way, as fathers and sons do, and that was ok. I’d spent a lot of my life thinking it was supposed to be better and different.’
He went on: ‘If you’re gonna lose a dad, losing a dad during a global pandemic means to things. First of all, he has to die on his own. I couldn’t be with him, mum couldn’t be there holding his hand and talking to him, he just had to sort of die, probably wondering where we all were.
‘And secondly, you don’t get to have a funeral. Unless you choose for it to just be the four of you, sat two metres apart with no touching. Which is a shame.
‘Dad always said half-jokingly that he’d have loved a gospel choir and loads of people, a big list of things for a fun funeral and we just couldn’t do any of those things and no funeral means you’ve got no way of finding closure for the guilt you feel for leaving him on his own, or a way of giving him his proper big send-off.
‘So you look for another way if you can… like writing a show.’
‘Twas a really powerful speech, but the ending of the show was even more heart-wrenching as he did, in fact, bring out a gospel choir to belt out That’s Life by Frank Sinatra.
The magician had audience members in parts to fulfil the wishes for his late father’s funeral that they couldn’t have.
As the event came to a conclusion, he flashed a large photo of his late father on the screen behind him, to the delight of the audience.
On TV, a black screen closed out the performance, reading: ‘For Bob Brown, 1939-2020’.
Reacting to the poignant tribute, Twitter members hailed it ‘beautiful’ with one saying: ‘What an absolutely beautiful tribute to his dad. Im crying my eyes out and in full adoration of Derren Brown’.
Another tweeted: ‘This COVID stuff is so sad. Poor Derren Brown, losing his Dad during the pandemic’.
‘Absolutely in pieces by the end of @DerrenBrown’s Showman tonight. As well as the usual magic masterpiece, it was also a beautiful tribute to his dad. Having lost our dad suddenly and unexpectedly, it really resonated and I suspect speaks to lots of people. Unexpected and lovely,’ wrote another.
Derren Brown: Showman is available to stream on All4.
Source My Celebrity Life.