Derren Brown

zuroph

derren brown is not psychic. not in any way. watched his live show the other night "something wicked comes this way". some of the very subtle touches he puts in to REALLY make it look like he's using mind stuff, his attention to detail is incredible.

King Mob

Its a mark of a really good magician when people start accusing you of using real magic I suppose.

nkay1985

King Mob wrote: »

Its a mark of a really good magician when people start accusing you of using real magic I suppose.

I think you've hit the nail on the head here.

His presentation in everything he does is very very impressive.

What a lot of people don't know about Brown is how accomplished a magician he is. Just card and coin stuff that he doesn't do anymore. Ever before he started mentalism he was a run-of-the-mill magician, but a very good one! I think someons already mentioned it but 'The Devil's Picturebook' showcases his talents. Hard to get your hands on but well worth a look if you can.

<snip>Post Edited: Please read the charter<snip>

???

Devil's Picture book's easy to get, it's on his site for sale. Just go to the magicians only area.

ShooterSF

Hey guys, seems as though there are a few magicians in here so bear with me. Im fascinated with derren brown but mainly as I've always loved to study human actions and the reasons behind them. Having just watched his theatre show "Something wicked this way comes" I was wondering if any of you more educated folk could tell me if its likely that the final trick was just subliminal or an old school sleight of hand trick? I think it would be fascinating if true, but like a lot of brown's work (and credit to him) you can never be sure, well atleast not without studying magic.
Oh and dont suppose anyone could tell me how to get into the magicians area on his site I Know I Know... but as the saying goes if you dont ask you wont get.

King Mob

Unfortunately magicians don't necessarily know how another magician does a trick especially if its a signature one like that one. And even if they did know they probably wouldn't tell non-magicians. But chances are my guess is as good as yours.

To get into the magicians section you must solve a series of three riddles encoded in the charter, each more devious than the last :pac:

Popinjay

King Mob wrote: »

To get into the magicians section you must solve a series of three riddles encoded in the charter, each more devious than the last :pac:

And perform the Rite of Ashk-Ente* backwards.

* Did I spell that right? I haven't read any of the books that mention it in a while.

6th

ShooterSF wrote: »

Oh and dont suppose anyone could tell me how to get into the magicians area on his site I Know I Know... but as the saying goes if you dont ask you wont get.

All you really need to do is be a contributor to the main forum here. Stick around for a while and drop me a PM after a bit.

ShooterSF

6th wrote: »

All you really need to do is be a contributor to the main forum here. Stick around for a while and drop me a PM after a bit.

Cool, this place is pretty cool so should be no problem Though the Rite of Ashk-Ente sounds pretty intense

Anyway I'm draggin this off-topic so for someone fascinated with derren browns style of tricks can you guys suggest anyone else to have a look at?

zuroph

my personal belief is that in the final trick, theres a bit of both in play. he says he tells her to choose page 14...but when she chooses it, she is unaware of the number of the page, just the advert he is reading out. theres several bits that are straight sleights, but his acting to make this look like a tough mentalism trick is what sells it. i particularily like where he lets her get the third number of the padlock code wrong, then corrects her.

King Mob

I'm more of a fan of his explanatory stuff he does for tv.
Like http://youtube.com/watch?v=lW2yKlNFFuU
and http://youtube.com/watch?v=2Sq-YUdq1OI

But in off topic mode, I really think we should put clue on how to access the private section in the charter.

jiltloop

eh that magicians area is easy to get into, i got in on the first try after 5mins deliberation. here's a hint... no need to spend so much time searching for the answer when you can get someone else to search for you

King Mob

NOOO! Our secrets are exposed! Surely magic is doomed!:eek:

6th

He's not talking about the private area on this forum.

???

What are you talking about?

6th

??? wrote: »

What are you talking about?

If I answer that then this thread will continue to go off topic ... so I wont. Back on topic.

axer

Has anyone seen "the derren brown lecture" on how he does his thing? Its a bad quality video but does show that it is mainly tricks and bits of confident psychology on weak minded individuals (i.e. those that tend not to question things before believing them).

I think derren does use psychology to an extent but pushes that he does to make it more believeable - people are in someways predictable. I also think illusion, misdirection and showmanship are the main things he uses. Then again he does say all of this at the begining of his shows.

I thought the "the system" show was a good show in that it showed how people can believe they are the one etc easily just because of coincidence and how easy it is to believe something just because we want to.

ShooterSF

Just bought his tricks of the mind book the other day. If nothing else the Memory techniques are genius. Love visualizing weird situations with two objects Though its tough not to picture them all just avin sex.

nkay1985

axer wrote: »

I thought the "the system" show was a good show in that it showed how people can believe they are the one etc easily just because of coincidence and how easy it is to believe something just because we want to.

I was actually a little bit disappointed in 'The System' because I knew what he was doing within a few minutes. That was a scam pulled by a guy in America that I read about in a book called Freakonomics (think it was that one anyway). Using something someone else had done wasn't the best thing he's ever done ya know?

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

ShooterSF

I'd say the give away was when Derren admitted that he'd already read the paper and was therefore able to pick out words as most automatic writing seems to be pretty ambigous and link it to whichever story fitted best. At a guess.

zuroph

nah, it was much simpler than that, but u would have to have derrens contacts to pull it off. i figured it out...i think.

???

Care to post your opinion in the Circle?

zuroph

abracadabra...

ShooterSF

Come on now you have us intrigued, You dont think he has enough pull to get a story printed in the guardian do u?

6th

Read the charter ShooterSF, no reveals allowed on the main forum.

ShooterSF

Well I didnt think it was a reveal as such just his opinion but ok..

MooseJam

This guy is a great artist, flicked through one of his books and he has a couple of portraits in there, one of Richard Dawkins, they're really good he's multitalented so he is

magic Leon

i say Derrens lecture was more confussed after it he didn't really explain much.
Leon.
www.leonandersen.com

Star Lord

I absolutely love Derren Brown's stuff, and although I know that he's a fantastic magician, when I'm watching his shows I usually forget this and get swept along by his showmanship!

Setun

DamoElDiablo wrote: »

I absolutely love Derren Brown's stuff, and although I know that he's a fantastic magician, when I'm watching his shows I usually forget this and get swept along by his showmanship!

Yep, fantastic entertainment to say the least.