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Derren Brown: Master Mind-Manipulator

7th April 2004 DERREN BROWN'S MIND CONTROL The Victoria Hall, Hanley
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I'm there, Dude!;)
Derren's expecting me..........;)
 
Am going to see Derren Brown at the Hexagon in Reading this evening....

Will report back tomorrow.
 
Well, as much as I would like to - I can't provide a full report. Derren requests, at the end of the performance that, if we know someone yet to see him, that we do not reveal the finale of his act - as it could effect future perfomances (I suspect this to be showmanship - but as a mark of respect to the enterainment he provided - I will not betray him - well perhaps I would consider dropping a few hints via PM....)

Suffice to say that, regardless of how it is that he performs his act, it is baffling, intriguing and entertaining.

First half is general magic/mind control. Moves rather slowly - generally due to the inordinate amount of time it takes for him to get the necessary people out of their chairs and on to the stage (picked totally randomnly by the throwing of frisbies). But still has that "what the f@ck factor" - and you don't need many in an hour to feel that you have had your money's worth.

Second half is darker and moves onto spiritualism - and allows Derren to show what a fantastic showman he really is. In a sense he does a Randi (I will perform a show with all the trappings of a medium - but yet I am not - how can you trust any medium now?).

Well worth anyones money. Even if he is just dressing up Paul Daniels' style magic as something else - it makes no odds. It is great entertainment - and even as pure trickery - it would be hard to beat.

Lastly, he does a very good job as coming across as a genuinely humble and pleasant person. One of the few occaision where saying "thank you" to the audience actually seems to be heartfelt. Or is that part of the show? How I hate to be so cynical.
 
There is an interesting article in the Garudian Guide today with an interview with him about his flirting with Christianity and how he mat have boobed with the Russian Roulette stunt. Its not online so you'll have to buy it ;)

It says hiw new series is on Channel 4 starting April 23rd and he is touring into May - details:

http://www.derrenbrown.co.uk/tour.asp

Oooooooo he is at the Liverpool Empire in May - have I forgiven him for his crappy stunt? ;)

Emps
 
Watching him now
:eek!!!!:

The BF repeats, 'HE IS THE DEVIL!'
:rofl:
 
DON'T READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN LAST NIGHT'S SHOW!





I quite enjoyed it, though the street tricks were a bit boring and very David-Blaine-esque but I absolutely loved the chess one. I was thinking "Wow, how on earth did he do that?!" and then when he explained that he was actually playing them off against each other it suddenly seemed so obvious! Still, playing one proper game of chess against a professional player (albeit the least experienced) and winning must have been hard, if his chess is "shite" as he claimed... :eek!!!!:

Still, I can't make up my mind about him. The cynical side of me says that it's all set up and he only throws in the odd "mistake" (like getting a 6 instead of a 7 at the end of the chess games) to make it look like it's genuine. Did anyone else think that there was a sort of stand-off of personalities when he did the trick with Stephen Fry? I though there was a distinct charm battle going on there, and Derren certainly didn't look as confident and assertive when talking to Fry... :hmm: anyway, just an observation.

Good show all round though.

escargot said:
The BF repeats, 'HE IS THE DEVIL!'
:rofl:
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My brother call's him "The Hobbit"...
 
I missed last nights show, can someone report on what happened during the chess match?
 
The deal with the chess was this: He had 7 (i think) good chess players (all grandmasters and champions etc) all set up to play games. They were sat in a circle with their backs to each other. It was quite a large circle and there where barriers so they couldn't see each others boards. He went round and played chess with each player, doing one move then of to the next one. At the start he said to camera that his chess was shite, but he told the players that he was fab. He won 3 lost 2 and drew 2. He then asked each player at the end of the game to note down the number of pieces left on the board. He then wrote down a long number which ended up being broken down into the number of pieces left. He had also give one chap an envelope with this number written on before they played.

The way he did so well with the chess was this. Each table was numbered, and he paired, mentally, each but the last table off with another one. So 1 was paired with 4, 2 with 5 and so on. 1 started first and 1 was playing white. They made their move and he remembered it. 1, 2 and three where all playing white so they moved first 4, 5, and 6 where playing black, so he moved first. When he got to table 4 he just did the move that 1 had done, and then repeated the reply to the move when he got to 1 again, and so on. So 1 was playing 4 and all he was doing was remebering the moves. Table 7 was the only one he played for real and this was so that he could seem to have the victory.

How he did the number thing I don't know.
 
Debunking

Ok, the 1 plays 4 thing isn't original, it was suggested by Romark in 1972 that he play simultaneously against Fisher and Spassky and that he would bet $1,000,000 or in that region that he could score 50%.

The last board is my speculation, but following the story of a 1960's episode of "Mission Impossible" would be possible and has already been done in a tournament in Germany. Basically the player (who's useless) is connected by earpiece to someone using a computer. As eveyone is probably aware Kasparov was beaten by a Pentium 1 running Fritz years ago, so a Pentium 4 running the current Fritz should give a good game to any average Grandmaster.

Can anyone identify the players involved?
 
was it just me who found that taxi driver unconvincing?:confused:
 
"Derren always tries to come out to the stage door after he’s packed up to say hello and sign anything."

Guess who lives next door to one of the venues :D :D :D :D

I'm going to go along to get my photo taken I reckon...
 
Emperor said:
...It says hiw new series is on Channel 4 starting April 23rd and he is touring into May - details:

http://www.derrenbrown.co.uk/tour.asp

Oooooooo he is at the Liverpool Empire in May - have I forgiven him for his crappy stunt? ;)

Emps
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Me and my Beloved are going to be there, friends went last year (same show, apparently) and still haven't told us what the finale is.
 
Do you think we're going to get some sort of explanation of what's going on in the telephone boxes, where people answer the phone and fall asleep?
 
I'm with Timble, I found it far more interesting when he explained the psychology behind things rather than just predicting people's behaviour and making them do strange things.
 
*SPOILER*

Just met this lovely chap after his performance and he confirmed it is an "interrupt", he confuses them.

They are already highly suggestible because they chose to answer the phone. He is round the corner on a mobile and says strange things to them.

:rolleyes: :cool:
 
Hooooooooooooooooooooo

He's doing it again, Mother! :eek!!!!:
 
oo-er!

I think Derren is incredible, and I'm loving this new show.

Was it just me or was the bit with the film student actually really, really creepy. Don't get me wrong - very impressive, but even just watching it <shudder>.

His stuff is very impressive, and yes its good when he explains how its done. However, I like the fact that he genuinely seems to care about his 'participants', and laughs with them rather than at them.

Plus he's a natty dresser-always a plus! :D
 
i think the film student was very brave, i would have run from the room howling like a lunatic.
 
The BF would like to meet him, in order to shake the hand of the Antichrist before the world ends. :D
 
The thing with the wallet was just a Somebody Elses Problem field. Highly effective in London.
 
Derrin Brown and Russian Roulette

That experiment with the penalty taker and the goalkeeper was most interesting.

I wonder if that young man Derren Brown has a nut allergy. He could then play Russian roulette with a bag of Revels.
 
The link about the "interupt" doen't seem to work. Can someone explain please
 
liveinabin said:
The thing with the wallet was just a Somebody Elses Problem field. Highly effective in London.
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Less effective up here in Liverpool I'll warrant (mainly because some freidnly chap would have handed it in to lost and found). ;)

Anyway I have to say I'm not so impressed with this series as there is just a little too much tricksy camera work and it introduces such an element of doubt that I can't relax into some stunts but it is still better than 99% of the magic out there ;)

My understanding of an interrupt is that almost all interactions have a set pattern and deviating massively from the pattern throws people and they end up concentrating even more which makes people more receptive to suggestion. In the Garudian's guide a few weeks ago he tells a story about his first main use of an interrupt - to get himself out of a fight. Basically a lad came up to him and offered to beat him up. He replied something like "Yes my aunt's llama also likes jumpers but magic hat pants". People are suddenly cast adrift in the routine of (anti) social interaction and your words are the lifeline back so they start tyring to understand and thats when you slip the suggestion in. Its a bit like a Jedi mind trick but you have to speak a bit of rubbish first.

The film student thing was good. It is possible (thanks to the camera work, etc.) that he was able to work on the film student before he went into the room, etc. but watch what he does at the start. He plays his hands on top of the students hands and then gives him the schpiel about not seeing things, etc. and then he comes back in dressed as the Invisible Man. Now he has been primed by the initial talk and most people (esp. film students) are very familiar with the Invisible Man story and what happens. I suspect it might be trickier for him to have actually disappeared in front of him. The important bit though is at the start and, as described in some of the links I've given, you can do an interrupt physically by doing things like tapping the backs of people's hands when you are shaking hands with them which throws people and makes them concentrate harder so I'd bet he did that with the students hands just before the talk which contained all the main suggestive comments and primed him for when he came in dressed as the Invisible Man.

I am dying to give this a try ;)

Emps
 
Sorry I missed this week's episode - can someone tell me what happened in the invisible man trick?
 
Emperor said:
so I'd bet he did that with the students hands just before the talk which contained all the main suggestive comments and primed him for when he came in dressed as the Invisible Man.
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Nice post. I don't know if you heard it, but he said rather firmly "you cannot see me" after he'd finished talking to the student in a very hypnotically suggestive way.

Also, the wallet was lying on one of those pavements formed by lots of glass squares, and was directly aligned with one. It looked to me like one that had been broken and fallen out, as it presumably would to your average pedestrian walking about not paying attention. If it was just lying on an ordinary pavement slab, this trick might not have worked.
 
Emps, where are you, can't see you M8..............
 
GiantRobot said:
Also, the wallet was lying on one of those pavements formed by lots of glass squares, and was directly aligned with one. It looked to me like one that had been broken and fallen out, as it presumably would to your average pedestrian walking about not paying attention. If it was just lying on an ordinary pavement slab, this trick might not have worked.
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I thought that the wallet tricked worked because of the chalk circle that he drew around the wallet.

This would signify that the wallet in that position had been noted and that someone knew it was there. This could suggest that the wallet had been put there with a specific purpose (other than to test if anyone would pick it up) or even that it was being watched.

This makes it much more unlikely that anyone would pick it up.

I also considered the possiblity that the local environment contained a specific surprising feature - hence anyone walking towards the wallet would not be looking towards the ground. No proof of that - just my thoughts as to how it could be done.

That said, I have no doubt that were I to try the same trick - relying on a combination of all the above suggestions - it would be picked up by some scally within minutes. But, then again, Reading does have a high proportion of scallies.

The Invisible Man was, indeed, very impressive and unnerving for the poor student. I also loved the orchestra playing Ode to Joy at will. Amazing.
 
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