Lessons in storytelling from Derren Brown

On The Guardian Books Blog, AL Kennedy argues that writers can learn from perfomers like issulionist Derren Brown.

The story [within Brown's stage show] is both an unlooked-for beauty and a lovely misdirection and – along with many other secretive and sneaky elements – it means that, for a while, we can believe in miracles and people who've never existed and a range of exhilarating and puzzling and moving possibilities. As an audience member, this makes me jump up and applaud like a happy sea lion. As a writer, this reminds me that the magical fraternity have rather deftly (and typically) pocketed the term thaumaturgy – the working of wonders – for themselves, when really all the arts should have access to it, including the writers and – for goodness' sake – shouldn't I be trying to learn from those stories, from those illusions, when I'm in the business of making my own? I would say so.