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Look into my eyes: the ‘mentalist’ Ivor Cole |
Art of the impossible
Next week, illusionist Ivor Cole invites an audience in Hampstead to take part in a mind-bending experiment. Tom Foot reports
FLEET Street’s grandmaster of libel, Ivor Cole, performs at the New End Theatre this month in a night of “baffling mind illusions”.
Cole, from Hampstead Garden Suburb, was legal director of Associated Newspapers – owners of the Evening Standard, the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday – for 30 years.
The longest-standing libel lawyer in British history, he was first “seduced” to the powers of mind control aged seven after seeing ‘The Great Lyle’ perform.
Now a member of the Magic Circle, the trade association for magicians, he admits to having used his powers of persuasion to convince a judge or two.
In a two-day charity-raising run at New End, Cole will invite the audience to take part in an “experiment”. He will transfer passages from books brought by the audience into other people’s minds and, judging by my brief experience, correctly read your mind. He will also swallow double-edged razor blades in a bid to show how the mind can overcome fear.
He describes magic in terms of entertainment – “an effect of the impossible happening in a dramatic way”.
He believes technology – mobile phones, the internet – has created little pockets of magic in everyday life.
He says: “There is a new world of magical wonder. We are light years away from pretty girls pulling rabbits out of hats.”
Since the rise of ‘mentalists’ Derren Brown and Marc Salem – who last year impaled himself on a dagger at the Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn during a botched paper cup stunt – there has never been such an interest in the dark art of persuasion.
Magic, in my opinion, does not exist. So I sprang a request for a trick on the unsuspecting illusionist. Undeterred he ripped my £10 note in half, folded it back together, and – hey presto! – he paid for our cappuccinos with a fresh one from his wallet.
Mind control at the New End Theatre is harmless entertainment – but there is a sinister side to it. With all the powers in the world – why contain yourself to simple card tricks? What if it gets into the wrong hands? Heaven forbid – a libel lawyer for Associated?
The television mentalist Derren Brown, who Cole holds in high regard, was banned from casinos across the country for duping croupiers into thinking he’d won.
Why restrict yourself to cards and not, say, world domination?
“We are all hidden persuaders,” he said. “Even in this restaurant they are trying to persuade us that their food is better than the one next door.”
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