We all love a bit of magic, don't we? Well no. But uber-nerd, David Meade, in BBC2 Northern Ireland's 'The David Meade Project', follows in the post-David Copperfield/David Blaine generation (who could do us all a favour and disappear, geddit?!), of likeable magicians using smarts and humour rather than smarm and slickness to appeal to the audience. A softly spoken Northern Irish man, Meade isn't entirely original; Derren Brown's been there before with a lot of the hypnosis and implanted imagery but Meade gets away with it by being so low key. He is a talented conference speaker as well as a master of psychological manipulation and tv magician.And he doesn't try to tell us any rubbish about this being supernatural or spooky - he is a self-confessed 'mentalist' (!) and plays some great tricks on the mind that are based on trickery, not spookery. That's not to say he doesn't occasionally suceed in scareing the bejaysus out of the viewer; and 'thetvreviewguy' doesn't scare easily (actually he does but won't admit it here). Smarter than Paul Daniels, not as funny as Penn and Teller but ultimately a very engaging personable entertainer, Meade will go far - and why shouldn't he, he has powers...
