Comments on: Derren Brown – Mind Reader: The Evening of Wonders

By: PE

PE — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 15:58:41 +0000

remember ladies and Gentleman-the true Magic is in your mind-Derren is a consumate card magician/performer/mentalist/bullpooher extraordinaire!

this blog is great fun and yes a lot of the info in it is correct,some of it is absolute rubbish even delusional and some of it is cheekily tongue in cheek suggested by people trying to distract people from the methodology

but whatever Derren has earned a fortune.we have all been to see him and some of us to the different versions of his shows a few times and he is great value for money-i just wish Andy Nyman would get more credit than he does

By: PE

PE — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 15:53:48 +0000

LOL!!

your suggestion is a possible method but not the one used here- i too am well versed in Mentalism

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:41:12 +0000

The vinegar thing is so obviously in the cap – when he was shaking it into the glass last night in Crawley it ran out and so it was even more plain that the real vinegar was trapped in the lid when he unscrewed it.

In terms of the Enigma trick where the person writes down a childhood memory – he puts the slip in one envelope and then reasonably obviously gives them back a different envelope. He then goes over to his box at the back of the stage and throws the pen and the envelope (with the slip contained) into the box. If you watch carefuly, you can then see the backcloth lift up (a bit like a letter box) – as the stage hand reaches into the box from behind to get the envelope. The way that Derred is told what’s on it is also simple – at least one of the two speakers facing upsatge (which we assume are just foldback speakers) actually has a TV screen inside it, onto which the stage hand can type/show the slip. If you watch Derren, he keeps on walking around the person so he can sneakily look at the screen, and the chap on stage has their eyes shut so they wouldn’t know what he was doing. Derren makes certain that when the person leaves the stage he takes the (empty) envelope off of them!

Still not sure about the tinfoil bit, that’s the only section I couldn’t think of a really obvious answer to.

By: John

John — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:32:57 +0000

So, Derren isn’t using NLP or covert hypnosis to insert thoughts on the subconscious to predict thoughts?
thank you

By: Hypno_performer

Hypno_performer — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 02:11:04 +0000

Hi All,
Just comments on the vinegar from an expert. I’m a professional Meantlist and Stage Hypnotist and have been performing for close to 6 years now. I started in stage hypnosis and now perform walkaround and stage mentalism (Derren’ stuff). There is not debate that Derren is excellent – however, the vinegar suggestion is very VERY simple hypnosis. Its a very basic suggestion that I sometimes use in shows, because it is so easy to achieve it goes in the show early and then elads to bigger stuff. It is unlikley that the vinegar is a gimick because of the fact that a vinegar hypnotism act is VERY VERY simple to achieve – If you know your hypnotism, which Derren definatly does !

By: louie

louie — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 05:51:11 +0000

hello pplz
well i think derron brown is shit none of his things he does works on me and he just looks like a hobo !!!!!!!!! :>

By: Les B Wildered

Les B Wildered — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 09:54:04 +0000

OK,

He said he would show “how he did it” NOT “how it was done”.

Either way you say this it is another misdirection. He kept his promise and showed us what he did on the night (how he did it).
He never revealed how the trick was done. A play on words.

I’m with the camera trick.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urMT8h-3qpc

The man is a genius, anyway. He can generate all this interest… the biggest feat of all.
Even his mouse con was part trickery. I’m sure all the number cards were blank under, and he double lifted the 4 to pick up another card below and show the mouse. OR, he pressed down to print the mouse on it, whilst carefully lifting the others not to do this (they were slightly V bent in the footage). He didn’t even predict the order as he seemed to suggest he could.

Clever misdirection on both.

By: mrd

mrd — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 01:11:14 +0000

well I think the fact that noone else is in the room is VERY important.
(he states, the reason is because he doesn’t want anyone else benefitting.. however we all know, the lotto desk closes at 30mins previous to a draw so noone can bet that close to the draw anyway)
.
Would this suggest there are other assistants helping in the room? Or camera trickery? Seems too shaky handleheld to suggest a split screen, but maybe it’s a carefully choreographed routine with a couple of seconds of rest on a tripod for the “switch” just after numbers are announced before the cameraman moves off again? Possible but DIFFICULT I’d say.
.
I hope it isn’t just an expensive technology meaning the balls could be made to show any number possible electronically? Could be though I guess. Shame if it is, but I guess technology is getting better and better all the time that maybe magic will lose it’s “magic”.

By: sam

sam — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 23:22:19 +0000

obviously all of it was a trick, he didn’t expect anyone to believe that he has psychic powers, as he kept on saying.
The fun comes from seeing the unbelievable things, and not being able to explain them, in my opinion, analysing everything that happened and explaining it all takes some of the magic away from the show.

By: Lee

Lee — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 22:28:42 +0000

He didn’t reveal anything about how the real trick was done on the “how did I predict the lottery” show.

It was a false explaination to misdirect people from te fact that it was really just a run-of-the-mill magic trick.

I hate it when he gives false explainations and then accuses the charlatans of deceiving people.

Also at no point did he sow you ‘how to do it yourself’.

It was all a big anti-climax in my opinion and I feel short-changed.

How does everyone else feel about the ‘big reveal’ ?