Magicians

billyhead wrote: »

Does anyone else feel its all staged and that the likes of hypnotizing etc is being done with actors.

I have watched Barry and Brown and I know how a lot of their tricks are done. And quite often their tricks are just cheap props from a magic shop that they have built a bit of charisma and showmanship around. The one where Barry drives a car blind folded or where Brown has a ring in three boxes and no matter what people do they can not pick which of the three boxes the rings are in - they are all cheap props tricks. I even have the props myself for those ones. They were less than 10 dollars each. The postage cost more than the prop.

When it comes to the more "mind games" tricks there is a lot going on. There are NLP tricks that work. Especially when combined with a cheap prop or some deft slight of hand. Some NLP and mind hacking techniques I have practiced and worked on myself. I even have a "patter" where around 6-7 times out of 10 I can trigger a shop attendant to give me change of a 50 despite me only handing over a 10. (I have tested this - but have always given the money back after before anyone asks).

But these tricks are not always successful. One of the advantages of working in television though is they can try it on 10 or 100 people - and then simply broadcast the one(s) that worked and I suspect both - especially Brown like the scenes where he paid for some things with entirely blank paper that the cashiers take as actual money - rely on this very heavily indeed. It is similar to my 50euro trick - and if I filmed the situations where it worked and deleted the ones where it failed - I would look like I had mad mind powers too.

Brown even made a show that basically admitted this fact indirectly. It was about horse betting where he claimed to have a system that would predict the results of a certain number of horse races in a row. His big reveal at the end of the show was he worked out every possible combination of wins possible and sent them all out to that many different people. In the end due to basic maths he only had to video 8 people to make the show - and he only broadcast the one where it worked.

I think a lot of their tricks are cheap and nasty - but they are both good showmen and turn them into something quite watchable. I love watching them at work - but often not because of the magic which I often see right through and how it is done - but because of how they work themselves while doing even the simplest card push. Especially Brown who builds everything into a wonderful narrative at times.

But as cheap and nasty as they get - I genuinely suspect they do not stoop to the use of stooges or actors. They do outright lie or mislead at times though - like the Russian Roulette act that gave Brown his first jump in fame - it was later revealed the bullets were all blanks and no live rounds were ever important into the area where he was working.

I love Brown more for how smooth and deft his moves are. There is a great scene - on you tube if you want it - where he is demonstrating pick pocketing. He picks everything from some people - even removing their tie. Then he starts giving it all back to them. But as they are replacing it he is still picking it back. He gives one guy his mobile phone back two or three times. Was like ballet to watch. Very practiced and very smooth. Way out of my skill range.