Derren Brown

[natalie_1982]

Did anyone watch the live seaonce (sp?) on Ch4 a while ago? Does anybody know how he tricked the minds of so many people?

[Donkey]

I don't know to much about the live s�ance but Derren Brown is an illusionist, Nothing he does is real. Take the Russian Roulette he done , wasn't even using a live bullet.. The bloke is a fake and should be taken off TV. What ever this live s�ance was im sure it was fake .

[natalie_1982]

It was a fake, I know that. I'm just saying how does he trick your mind like that?

[el duerino]

gets you into a state where you are receptive to auto suggestion

[Oneeyedvic]

Don't see people can call him a fake for being an illusionist - that is what an illusionist does. Donkey - you obviously have no idea what you are talking about - he says at the beginning how he doesn't beleive in seances and how this is a fake. Still, went to see his live show and it was amazing. If you watch his original tv show he reveals a lot of how he does what he does. He did something once on tv where he just sat there and held up cards - something about pick an animal that lives in the jungle - i picked a lion only for him to hold up a card saying you picked a lion, then another card saying lions don't live in the jungle. Record his shows and play them back concentrating on not what he is saying but what he is doing with his hands and the backgrounds. Oopens up a new world.

[ludwig]

I remember the bit at the end when they all sat round a table holding hands and the lights went out and candlesticks etc. started flying around. It was filmed with a night vision camera, but all you saw was the peoples faces looking shocked etc. Presumably if the camera had panned around we would have seen the big strings attached to all the objects which were making them fly around. Some of the other stuff he does is quite impressive, but I think it's all standard 'magic' techniques. The title of his show changed recently from 'derren brown - mind control' to 'derren brown - trick of the mind'. A subtle disclaimer I think.

[Laura-sakura]

Derren Brown is my hero!

[Alej]

he is good but i do think the Russian roulete one was a huge anticlimax and a publicity stunt that turned a lot of people away from him

[secretspirit]

I walked out of Derren Brown's stage show - he's really creepy and slimy in real life.

[Donkey]

oneeyedvic As I said at the beginning of my pervious post ' I don't know much about the s�ance that he did ' So I wouldn't know that he told everyone at the beginning he didn't believe in s�ances and it was a fake.. I did see the Russian Roulette one and I don't remember him telling everyone that it was a fake bullet and there was no way of him being shot .... Hence FAKE !!!. I have had emails where it says think of a number , think of a vegetable etc and 90% of people think of the same answers .. Instead of paying Derren Brown to watch him , why don't you send your money to me and I will send you the emails over !

[nicola_red]

If we knew how Derren performed his illusions it would take all the fun away! But it does have a lot to do with auto-suggestion, as el duerino mentions, and NLP (neuro-linguistic programming). There are loads of good books on NLP which can give you some idea as to how a lot of his 'tricks' work. I'm not sure why Donkey thinks him a 'fake' as Oneeyedvic is right in saying that Derren openly states at the beginning of all his TV shows and live shows that he uses illusion, misdirection and showmanship to achieve everything he does. I've also seen him live and all his illusions are 100% more impressive than those emails Donkey mentions. Nobody has any proof that the bullets he used in Russian Roulette were 'fake' - howevre, it should be borne in mind that if you put a gun containing only blank bullets to your head and pull the trigger, it will still kill you. And it's fascinating that secretspirit found him slimy and creepy in real life as I left the show having fallen completely in love with him! I work in theatre and know he will be touring again in Spring if anyone wants to see him for themselves.

[secretspirit]

The main problems I had with him were the way he kept on and on about his DVDs and was v annoyed with this girl on stage when she didn't go under like he wanted her to. I thought he was sarcastic and extremely arrogant, not at all how he comes across on TV. He did do some clever tricks I admit e.g. remembering people's phone numbers that are in the local directory but who's to say he didn't have a teeny earpiece with someone reading it to him from backstage? There was no mention that a seance would be taking place in the second half and fake or not I don't mess around with that kind of thing so I left.

[el duerino]

you left cos of the seance? i agree it can get scary when the lights go out . . .

[tomd]

Donkey, a blank fired at that range would still have killed him (up to about 2.5 feet at head), he didn't use live for safety of crew. He always drops word though, like with the guy in the supermarket he said "salt and whatever" crisps, and 5 minutes later asked him to pick any product. No prizes for guessing what he came back with. His TV shows are still amazing though, though I haven't seen him live.

[RainbowBrite]

I think a lot of it is the power of suggestion but i watched the seaonce program and the bit where he made viewers pick a face and then said stuff like 'now move to the next colour face on the left' etc etc was blatently obvious that everyone would end up with the same girl at the end because I've seen it before with numbers, its all calculated!! so its no surprise that at the end all of the people on the show were like "oh my god i was thinking of her too!"

[spainlads]

I can't remember fully, but check out Derren's website http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/M/mindco ntrol/video/index.html

[bernardo]

He chose the most gullible people he could find as the participants.