Doug Segal (born January 1965) is a British comedy performer best known for his live mindreading acts at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Segal won a Three Weeks Editors award at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2012 and Best Cabaret Act at the Brighton Fringe Festival in 2012.

Career

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Segal has made his name as a regular performer at Fringe Festivals in the UK since 2011. Before this he worked mainly in the corporate market have left the world of advertising to pursue a stage career. His early performance style was very much a "me too" Derren Brown style act but in later years he has developed a style that uses mindreading effects in a light hearted context and combines them with elements of stand up and sketch comedy.[1]

Segal's first fringe festival show I Know What You're Thinking was well received by audiences and critics gaining a number of 4 and 5 star reviews as well as the interest of various notables such as the writer Neil Gaiman.[2] How To Read Minds And Influence People was Segal's 2012 fringe performance for which he won two awards - The Three Weeks Editors Choice Award[3] and The Latest Seven Best Cabaret Act award at the Brighton Fringe.[4] His most recent show I Can Make You a Mentalist premièred at the 2013 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and is a departure from the standard stage mindreader format; with all the effects in the show performed by audience members. Early reviews at the 2013 Edinburgh Fringe were poor in comparison to previous years but the show went on receive numerous 4 and 5 star reviews citing it as 'genre bending' and has been highly praised by reviewers such as Kate Copstick.[5][6][7]

"I Can Make You A Mentalist" was toured in the UK & Switzerland by Mick Perrin Worldwide [8]

In 2015 Segal made his Latitude Festival debut and received a four star review from The Public Reviews website [9]

Television

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In addition to various appearances on BBC One and BBC Three, Dutch and Japanese TV; Segal has appeared twice as a guest on the Richard Herring's interview podcasts. He also appeared on New Year Live.

References

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  1. ^ "Doug Segal: I Can Make You a Mentalist | Comedy Interview | the Skinny".
  2. ^ @neilhimself (13 August 2011). "My favourite bit of tonight (after @doug_segal stopping his heartbeat, amazing a student nurse) was meeting @thepiff's Mr Piffles. #edfringe" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  3. ^ "ED2017 | Editors' Awards | ThreeWeeks Edinburgh".
  4. ^ http://thelatest.co.uk/brighton/2012/05/29/the-latest-festival-awards-2012/ Brighton Fringe 2012 Best Cabaret Cabare
  5. ^ "Kate Copstick's Fringe diary – 18th August | WOW247". Archived from the original on 2 February 2014. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
  6. ^ http://www.fringeguru.com/reviews/edinburgh-2013/doug-segal-i-can-make-you-a-mentalist.htm[permanent dead link]
  7. ^ "Festival Journal - Home". www.festivaljournal.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2 February 2014. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
  8. ^ "I can make you a Mentalist / The Tours / Mick Perrin Worldwide". Archived from the original on 22 July 2015. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
  9. ^ http://www.thepublicreviews.com/latitude-2015-doug-segal/

Sources

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