"Psychological illusion, perceptual manipulation and persuasive technique" are the devices Brown claims to use to allow him to seemingly memorise phonebooks, defeat nine chess Grandmasters at once and even insert nails into Robbie Williams.

Whilst a repeat performance of the latter was sadly never on the cards tonight, Brown still turned in a gripping performance - relentlessly eerie and brimming with edgy wit and flair.

E9 was the rather ominous number on my ticket when I arrived. It seemed dangerously close to the front. Would I be drawn onstage and made to bark like a dog at passing cars for a week? Maybe he'd just erase the show from my memory instead.

Mercifully, none of his erratically dispatched Frisbees fell to me. But by the close of the two-hour show I nevertheless remained rather hazy as to what had actually occurred.

I think I saw levitating tables, pendulums, Gorilla suits and Brown cold reading 30 plus random participants in quick succession with jaw-dropping accuracy. I was dazzled and light-headed. And like most people, grasping at a zillion questions filling the air as we shuffled out.

The general consensus seemed to be though, when illusion and theatrics are such sensational, good fun, why bother reasoning?