Derek Acorah in the Helix

MrMagoo

Myself and 4 mates went to see this 'medium' in the Helix on monday night (oct 3rd). From what I had seen on TV and read here, I was expecting something to this guy. Some ounce of credibility in what he claims to be able to do.

The whole thing was a joke and a waste of money. :mad: I am no expert but even I could see the age old tricks of cold reading and selecting the 'right people' in the audience. When he couldn't match a spirit to a person in the audience, he got a little agreesive saying he would not move on until the person (living, that is) came forward.

He spoke to about 8 people/families throughout the entire show. I am not dogging the performance because I was not one of them. It's just the whole thing stank of fakery, wannabe comedian and as he said himself at the beginning of the night "Del boy"! Trust me, I wanted to believe, but now I really don't!

I would be really interested to hear from anyone who was at this or the tuesday night show (maybe monday was an off day ). Were myself and my friends the only people to leave feeling cheated out of our cash?

On a funny note, he did tell some woman to check her fridge for rosary beads, as the spirits had moved them there while she was at the Helix! And a couple of girls behind us commented how they felt sorry for the poor "unclaimed spirits" ! LOL.

Töpher

I went on Tuesday night with several people, don't think anyone was as impressed as we'd been hoping.

Seemed almost choreographed, everyone he spoke to was a 60 year old woman, who was destined to live till about 100! Apparently!
There was things like talking about someone who got shot twice in the chest, and once in the face, gave his name, and the names of his family and they didn't come forward for about 15 minutes as they "weren't sure" if it was for them! How many people get shot like that down here?
Then when he was talking to an entire Shamrock Rovers team, I knew it was a bad night! lol And he also tried his hands-on healing this woman's back approach, which I found very Praise The Lord preacherish.

The funny bit on Tuesday was when he went on a mad rant about why he quit Most Haunted!

What really sealed it up as quite fake for me was when he was talking to a lady, who seemed to have 2 daughters, and one of them wanted to get pregnant and so he was saying to get her bloke to eat lots of veg. The other daughetr was called Donna (thats all we know, but it makes sense...), and later in the show he talks to the woman beside this lady and tells her to get her fella to eat lots of veg, and everyone laughs cuz this was one of the other ladies daughters. Then he mentions Donna to her, and she's adamant she doesn't know anyone by that name, surely it was her sister?! Mental.

6th

First off i am not going to defend derek coz he put on a very poor show, I have been to see Colin Fry & Tony Stockwell who both seemed to have alot more respect for the spirits and the audience.
Derek tries to come off as the common man hero and fails. I dont doubt for a second that he has a gift but i think his brain jumps ahead as he tries to make connections in the information he is given.

There was things like talking about someone who got shot twice in the chest, and once in the face, gave his name, and the names of his family and they didn't come forward for about 15 minutes as they "weren't sure" if it was for them! How many people get shot like that down here?

he didnt actually give a name for quite a while on this one, he did give the letter "s" but no connection was made on this. The woman who eventually came forward said her cousins husband had been shot but she was unclear of the actually position of the shots. He then gave the name katherine which was the woman in the audiences daughter who was sitting beside her, this could have been the spirit giving some information which was relevant to the woman.

In the end if he came again i wouldnt go see him, but he wouldnt taint my opinion on mediums in general ...... he has a gift but a crap personality and no idea how to be sincere or respectful.

6th

MrMagoo

Einst&#252 wrote: »

And he also tried his hands-on healing this woman's back approach, which I found very Praise The Lord preacherish.

The funny bit on Tuesday was when he went on a mad rant about why he quit Most Haunted!

The monday night show saw something very similiar with a 'healing' to a guy who had back problems. He told him he would be fine in 6-7 days. I agree though, did seem like an attempt to step from medium to healer. He took the guy out of the seat in to the aisle and touched his back up and down. The guys mother in law (I assume) was also healed by Derek without touching her (leg problems). She must have been 70+ and again was told she would live a long long time.

The similarities add to my suspicions that alot of it is scripted. Perhaps he has a gift yes, and I believe some people genuinely do, but he if he does, he sure isn't using it very well.

Out of interest, what was his mad rant about leaving most haunted? I heard he had a big tiff with Yvette. He did tell the monday crowd to watch his new show. Correction - message from Sam that we should watch the new show. Good to know when we pass over that show business still goes on

Töpher

He was saying they don't respect his wishes, specifically he was talikng about Pendle Hill. He advised against something, they did it anyways, when it all goes wrong and people get hurt, its all his fault and he has to sort it. Or something like that. Rather hilariously it was to do with him not being allowed to show a degree of respect to the spirits, or something. Honestly I forget his exact wording, I was quite bored!

AuntSally

:mad: I was also at monday nites gig in the helix...I was an on/off viewer of most haunted along with a couple of friends and we decided to go check this fella out! I was pretty sceptical of him anyway, always have been, but I'm curious about mediums/psychics etc so decided to go and see what the fuss was all about. Lets just say I'd have been better off handing my €25 to charity and at least would have got some value out of it then. This man has no 'gift' and if he thinks he does then he's sorely deluded. He's a charlatan and a conman and it was very sad to see those people in the audience who obviously were attempting to 'contact' dead relatives and hoped that this clown would lead the way. From telling us that the spirits 'queue' up at the helix in wait for him, one spirit who was apparently living in, and I quote, ' a house like southfork in Dallas, on the other side', little old ladies trying to convince themselves that he was talking about their dead relatives and finally by telling the crowd that next year they need to ask their spirits to Q early in order to get through to Derek. He's sick and is conning old ladies out of their cash, surely there's a law against this??!!

robindch

> He's sick and is conning old ladies out of their
> cash, surely there's a law against this??!!

Nope. While I'm sure that there must be many people who'd like to have a word with him for diddling little old ladies out of their pensions, unfortunately, the money's theirs to blow as they want to. Though, if he advertises that he can speak to dead humans, then he can be caught under advertising standards legislation, but it's unlikely that a professional performer would make this basic mistake.

BTW, how many people were there? Sounds like he must have cleaned up, if he was charging 25 euro a head!

In case anybody's interested, the Irish Skeptics run talks from time to time where you can find out how these kind of people do their acts and how cold-reading actually works (it's easy, believe me :-))