Sign up to the Hull Live newsletter for daily updates and breaking news Sign up here! Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email

A woman has described the moment a drunken lout started shouting out from the audience during an emotional part of Derren Brown's Hull show.

On Friday night, the popular illusionist Derren Brown brought a compilation of his best performances to Hull New Theatre, wowing the audience.

However, a few rowdy people who'd had a few too many set out to ruin the night for everybody, prompting Derren to swiftly have them removed from the auditorium – once they had found their footing.

The theatre was packed and “deathly silent” as Derren began an act involving a member of the public talking about her grandad, Fred, who had passed away.

Which is when the first of the outbursts occurred.

One woman, who did not want to be named, was sitting in the circle in front of a man who was “steaming drunk”.

“This poor woman was brought on stage and it was probably very difficult for her to talk about her dead grandad, and while the auditorium was deathly silent, a man from behind just shouted, ‘Go on Fred!’", she said.

“Derren had made us all feel we were in an intimate circle of friends and you could cut through the air with a knife, and suddenly this man shouting out ruined it all, and we all realised we were surrounded by hundreds of people again.

“Straight away, Derren told him he had to leave, but this guy started going on about how he knew Fred, this woman’s grandad, and then started apologising saying he didn’t mean any harm.

“I imagine the security went to make him leave, but he must have lost his footing because next thing I know there was this thundering noise coming up behind me in the dark, and this man was running towards the barrier because he had tripped over.

“We all held our breath because we didn’t know if he was actually going to stop. I was so embarrassed for everyone there.”

The audience broke into applause after Derren asked the man, who sounded “quite young”, to leave, and cracked a few jokes before moving on with the show.

However, a mere 20 minutes later, more disturbances started as a group of about three men started shouting at the stage.

“It was during a mind-reading act and Derren was trying to draw something, and again it was really quiet”, said the woman.

“There were these three men seated right at the barrier on the upper circle, and suddenly they started shouting as well, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying.

“Derren asked them to leave and was more impatient this time, and when the security got to them they just started effing and jeffing, shouting ‘f*** you, Derren’.

“It was awful.”

It is understood after the group were ejected, someone staged a "dirty protest" outside Hull New Theatre.

The rest of the two-hour show continued without any more shouting or offensive language, but the men “had ruined the night for everyone”.

One of the gang is also thought to have staged a “dirty protest” outside the theatre later on.

The woman said: “We had a few drinks in the bar, as did most people, but these men had taken it too far and were steaming drunk.

“The rest of the show was really fantastic, and it showed how much of a showman Derren is because he was able to get us back into the mindset he wanted in no time.

“But these men ruined the night because everyone was on edge thinking someone else was going to start shouting out.”

In a tweet last night, Derren said: “A fun but strange week in Hull (had to throw out 6 people last night which was exciting, and apparently some of them dirty-protested outside).

“Last show tonight. Love this city.”

The Hull Daily Mail has launched a free app which features all the latest news, sport and what’s on information. You can download it foriPhone and iPad from Apple's App Store, or get the Android version from Google Play.