Derren Brown lately

He talks to the woman with the phone throughout the show. He jokes that he is speaking to a dead relative of her and she's going to give him the phone number. He starts with 0 and 7 and gets a few laughs and then leaves her until the end of the show.

The dice rolls are done by 8 audience members. As I said before I'm pretty sure this is a fair random 8 digit number, using the dice is pretty irreverent really as this number could be anything. Using 8 dice is simply showmanship to make the audience believe its a truely random process.

Then all he needs to produce the phone number (that he and the stooge already know before the show starts) is to get the stooge to come up with a number that when added to the random 8 digit number produces the remaining digits of the ladies phone number.

There is no other way to do it
 
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I don't recall actually.

But when I think about it I can guarantee that the stooge just makes sure the 10 digit number starts with 7.

So that leaves something like 7685678943

He then adds the 0 at the start giving an 11 digit phone number.
 
I saw Infamous live and it wasn't as good as Svengali. Too serious, almost, and relied too heavily on numbers.

I text the girl/number from our show but never got a reply :(.

On topic to the above, you're forgetting that the 'stooge' was chosen by random as well, frisbees/toy monkeys being thrown about and the like. I really don't think he'd used stooges, certainly not that obviously, as it's just not worth it. A simpler and less exciting solution is that someone just reads the number she wrote down...
 
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Russinating said:
I saw Infamous live and it wasn't as good as Svengali. Too serious, almost, and relied too heavily on numbers.

I text the girl/number from our show but never got a reply :(.

On topic to the above, you're forgetting that the 'stooge' was chosen by random as well, frisbees/toy monkeys being thrown about and the like.
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I'm not forgetting that.

But that leaves us again with 2 options.

1. There is no stooges, the chosen guy is random and again the 10 digit and 8 digit numbers just happen to match a specific ladies phone number.

2. The man giving the 10 digit number is a stooge and is chosen by an accurate frisbee shot from Derren, or to further enhance the trick Derren throws the frisbee to one stooge who then throws it to the man stooge who's choosing the number. This can be rehearsed and you can be very accurate with a frisbee.

Which one do you think is the right option? ;)
 
Still not sure if I believe in hypnotism, but I went to a show at uni called "The X Rated Hypnotist" which was rather weird.

It started with the hands together thing, then he got those who couldn't separate their hands to stand up, as they were the most "suggestable" I guess.

A girl I know quite well was one of the people who stood up, and he got her to do stuff I'm pretty certain she wouldn't have done of her own accord. She had to dry hump a chair, give the microphone a blow job, etc etc, all in front of about 200 people. I asked her about it afterwards and she said she was semi-aware of what she was doing, but he made it sound like a really good idea, so her mind wasn't questioning it.

One of the other people that he picked on was a barman at the SU, and the hypnotist got him to stroke random guys crotches and hump their legs - I'm pretty sure he wouldn't do that of his own accord either, as he would know how much **** he'd get for it later. People still take the **** out of him now, and it was nearly 2 years ago :D
 
Ste59w said:
2. The man giving the 10 digit number is a stooge and is chosen by an accurate frisbee shot from Derren, or to further enhance the trick Derren throws the frisbee to one stooge who then throws it to the man stooge who's choosing the number. This can be rehearsed and you can be very accurate with a frisbee.
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I can't remember how that particular person was chosen, but I've seen two shows and it's rare that it's one throw. My girlfriend actually got picked during Svengali and she caught one of four frisbees that were thrown.

Most of the time when he's just selecting one person it gets thrown once, thrown again by the catcher and then thrown again. That in itself would need 3 stooges and would be far too risky; some people jump for them and the like.

Also with the monkey he had that thrown up to the circle and then thrown back down into the stalls again. There's no way that can be precise!

Basically the picking is irrelevant. Whoever's picked he'll already know or find out the number by some quite dull method, like just reading it over their shoulder.
 
So you are suggesting a fair random 8 digit number when added to a fair random 10 digit number, can possibly produce a specific audience member's mobile phone number?

Come on lol.

I know he uses the frisbee/monkey to pick random audience members, but he also mixes in specific accurate shots when needed too. The guy picked for the 10 digit number was near the front and sitting by the aisle ;)

Edit - The picking is most certainly not irreverent. When it doesn't matter of course he makes you well aware just how random the process is, but at times (like in the case of the trick we are talking about) there is no possible way the 10 digit number was a random one. The dull method used is a stooge ;)
 
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Ste59w said:
So you are suggesting a fair random 8 digit number when added to a fair random 10 digit number, can possibly produce a specific audience member's mobile phone number?
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No, because that's not what's happening. You know when someone gets sawn in half they're not actually being sawn in half, right? Derren Brown's best skill is showmanship and misdirection - he says that throughout all his shows - and is also why he wins Olivier awards.

The skill is in masking forged numbers as fair and randomly chosen, but that's not via stooges.

The end of Svengali was better for random numbers coming together as well, if you've seen that?
 
Oh really? I thought he sawed them in half for real! haha come on.

And yes he does mask numbers like you suggested for a lot of his tricks. This specific trick though it is impossible. Explain to me how you think he can get one man in the audience to pick a specific 10 digit number, im all ears.

I've seen everything, but don't recall the specifics. I'll happily explain how any Derren Brown trick is performed if you want me to, it's just not many people like the truth haha
 
I can't remember the trick that well tbh! Just your OP description.

Svengali was the one with all the balloons that came down at the end onto the audience and 8 had a piece of paper inside with a number on it... and some other stuff happened... can't remember now lol.
 
Russinating said:
I can't remember the trick that well tbh! Just your OP description.

Svengali was the one with all the balloons that came down at the end onto the audience and 8 had a piece of paper inside with a number on it... and some other stuff happened... can't remember now lol.
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Well it's on 4od now if you fancy rewatching it.

I'm sure you'll agree with my assessment if you did so. :)

One thing I will say is Derren's greatest trick is getting people to believe he doesn't use stooges or actors. He does have many genuine amazing skills which certainly help give people this impression. I was a believer once as well ;)

But telling a lie about not using stooges is simply misdirection. Misdirecting you from the truth ;)
 
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