Derren Brown: part illusionist, part psychologist, all showman.
He is best known for his grand mind-bending stunts and trickery on a series of Channel 4 TV shows.
He has played "Russian roulette" live, convinced law-abiding people to commit armed robbery, successfully predicted the National Lottery and hypnotised a man to try to "kill" Stephen Fry.
He likes to say, "I am often dishonest in my techniques but I'm always honest about my dishonesty."
But as his high-profile acts have been done on TV there is always the feeling that Derren might not be giving viewers the full picture.
So small wonder his live shows attract a stampede of punters; belief is about seeing for yourself, the argument runs. His audiences at Plymouth Pavilions next week will be packed with people who want to be fooled and others who are convinced they will see through the act.
Anybody who has seen him live will know that he seems even more at home on the stage than he does in front of the cameras.
"I enjoy the stage shows more than anything else," he says. "Live on the stage is the best place for what I do. It's unpredictable and the audience knows there is no possibility of judicious editing."
The 41-year-old entertainer has reinvented magic but there is something about him that is quite old fashioned.
He has the air of someone who might have stepped out of the mysterious, misty world of the Victorian illusionist.
That presence has helped him win two Olivier stage awards.
He studied law and German at Bristol University and after graduation did psychological magic shows in cafes and bars with a side line in portraiture.
His success led him to abandon a career in law and become a full-time entertainer.
Key to his success has been illusion about his skills as an illusionist. He has been criticised by some in the business for presenting standard magic and mental trickery as proper psychological manipulation.
Derren has said that overstated his skills early in his career, thinking that his TV fame would be fleeting.
However his talents and knowledge have been featured by scientist Richard Dawkins, a leading debunker of myths.
Derren was interviewed for the evolutionary biologist's two-part TV documentary The Enemies of Reason. The performer explained psychological techniques used by purported psychics and spiritual mediums to manipulate their audiences.
He clearly enjoys playing the media as much as he loves working an audience. That's par for the course for any accomplished entertainer today.
Each new series of TV programmes or shows seems to court fresh controversy. In February he said an upcoming trick would persuade a straight man to be gay.
Derren, who is gay himself, told a national newspaper it would be "interesting, wouldn't it, to take a gay guy and make him straight and a straight guy and make him gay".
He says he is well used to his shows provoking negative or sceptical reactions from some quarters, "anything from 'it's all fake' to 'it's irresponsible and he shouldn't be doing it'.
"I see it as an inevitable kind of tax I pay for doing something that might be very ambitious.
"It's only saddening when I see people wrongly dismissing something that happened for real as fake and feeling insulted rather than letting themselves enjoy it.
"You could go mad trying to please everyone."
But how real is his stage show reality?
"I am an entertainer first and foremost," he said in his book, Tricks of the Mind.
"I happily admit cheating, as it's all part of the game."
Head to the Pavilions, then, to make up your mind – or perhaps have Derren make up your mind for you.
Derren Brown's Infamous show is at The Princess Theatre, Torquay on Monday and Tuesday and Plymouth Pavilions on Thursday, Friday and Saturday next week.