MATTHEW Wright's TV WEEK: Better mind out..Dezza isjust magic

YOUNG Derren Brown is an utterly amazing talent. He first came to my attention a few months back when I was tuned into Channel 4's brekkie show, RI:SE.

The guy is a brilliant mind magician, using memory, intellect and perception to stun his audience.

And he has a beard that makes him look like Satan.

His new 10.40pm slot on Channel 4 on Fridays gives him far greater scope to amaze than a five- minute turn at breakfast.

Unlike RI:SE, his series is prerecorded. The stuff still looks mightily convincing.

I loved one set-up in particular. His victim was a beardy-weirdy just like Dezza. He said he worked on the ghost train at Margate.

"Does this job scare you?" inquired Derren. Not half as much as you do mate, I thought.

"Nah," came his stooge's reply.

Then quick as flash Dezza pounced on the unsuspecting herbert, grabbing his arm, pinning him to the back of a ghostly carriage and barking something along the lines of: "Sometimes we need to face our fears."

Dezza's devilish work completed - mind control seems to only take a moment - the victim's off on a quick lap round the ghost train.

But when the carriage re-emerges there appears to have been a terrible mistake.

At first glance the victim appears to have died.

It's some moments before you take on board the fact that the man has literally been scared to death or, as he so eloquently put it, scared "sh*tless". Ha, ha!

Dezza is a slick, confident performer who is only at times overshadowed by his face fur.

David Blaine: Go back home and learn some decent new stuff.

You've got competition.

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