Derren Brown - outdone himself this time?

rea123

rea123

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Hi,

Who was the policeman? Anyone know if he was a policeman? Anyone know if what he was carrying was a laser speed camera, or a chunk of plastic with an LED readout designed to display pre-arranged numbers?

Now I am not an expert, and it may be that he employed some other form of trickery, but it never ceases to amaze me that so many people simply believe that what an illusionist says happened actually happened. Does the "No actors or stooges were employed" footnote constitute a binding contract?

Myself, I was glad to be given the warning before the show that it contained "flashing images"; particularly given that the only flashing images I saw were "static" from the "live casino feed".

Bob.
 

Angilion

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dowie said:
true - well I think if anyone actually believed the lottery thing they might be a bit speshul tbh.....

He used to be a hypnotist and I guess does use it sometimes however a lot of what he does is basically regular magic tricks....

I do love how NLP loonies think he's some sort of master NLP practitioner - erm no he's basically a magician - the manipulation/psychology stuff is mostly used as misdirection to cover up his magic tricks...
Click to expand...

He also uses skilled intreview techniques to get people to divulge more information than they think they have, knowledge of the most common responses to various things (hence his website that can "read your mind" with a fairly high degree of accuracy) and keen senses. For example, in one "mind-reading" trick he told a volunteer that they had a dog. He made it look very mysterious and magical, but in fact the volunteer had recently been stroking a dog and he simply smelled dog on their hands.

I watched an old video of him talking with someone and doing more traditional "magic" tricks, with cards and suchlike, which was how he started off (and still does for fun). He said that stage magic is part physical (sleight of hand skills) and part mental (misdirection and showmanship) and that he developed the mental part of it into an act by itself.

Although people can be manipulated, so it's partly real.
 

SexyGreyFox

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rea123 said:
Does the "No actors or stooges were employed" footnote constitute a binding contract?
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Well it should do.
If an illusionist says he uses no actors or stooges then goes on to do so, their career would be over.
Over the years not one stooge has ever come forward and they would do.
How much would DB have to pay them to keep silent?
I know for a fact that if he'd give me a £1000 to be quiet I'd be telling somebody.
 

Bubo

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dmpoole said:
Well it should do.
If an illusionist says he uses no actors or stooges then goes on to do so, their career would be over.
Over the years not one stooge has ever come forward and they would do.
How much would DB have to pay them to keep silent?
I know for a fact that if he'd give me a £1000 to be quiet I'd be telling somebody.
Click to expand...

That guy who gave DB his shoes and socks in that shopping mall, genuine bloke was he? At best he had recognized DB and was taking the ****
 

sunama

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Guest2 said:
Yes, that was asking a different question. I can use the search feature too, theres 49 results...none of which were asking my question
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First off, the thread I posted does discuss the question which you asked in your OP. If you scroll towards the end of the thread.

Secondly, I won't respond in kind to your annoyed tone.

Finally, I shall re-answer your question in the OP: apparently the hypnosis he used on the £5k man is snap hypnosis. As I stated in the thread that I posed up, it is very unlikely that it can successfully be done. To hypnotise someone in less than 5 seconds is pretty unlikely.

Furthermore, to actually find someone with £5k, readily available in their account isn't an easy thing to do. Most people have large chunks of money stored up in non-instant access savings accounts.

Now, to find a person who can be hypnotised in 5 seconds AND has £5k readily available in their account is unlikely.

I also stated in "the other thread", that if a person is so suggestible that they can be hypnotised in less than 5 seconds, that person would probably have serious mental issues and would probably need care. Simply leaving the house and crossing the road would be a serious danger. If that person saw a billboard for instance, suggesting he buy a particular product, he would probably do so, without question. He certainly wouldn't make it into adulthood without it being found out that he has some "issues". And I would also hazard a guess that that person wouldn't have £5k lying around their bank account.

Thats my take on it at least.

The last show in the series had nothing in it that I believed. The whole thing was fake.
 

mollymoo

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His earlier stuff was very good, all about manipulation. It did work but he also stated that it only works on one in ten people and he even shows the people it doesn't work on. His later stuff isn't even a patch on his earlier work which was brilliant. I rate the guy and love watching his live shows :)
 

sunama

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dmpoole said:
I know for a fact that if he'd give me a £1000 to be quiet I'd be telling somebody.
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What if he asked you to sign a document prohibiting you from saying what "actually" went on during the act/show?

And what if you taking part in the show was contingent on you signing the above agreement?
 

sunama

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I liked his earlier stuff, too.

With the exception of that 10 minute lottery prediction program, I felt this series took it a little too far and required the audience to be true believers in DB's almost God-like abilities.
 

mrk

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When he first started on TV it had a sense of reality, now that h'e in the crowd more (so to speak) it's lost the zazz and to me (and I assume other like minded logical folk) it just feels like a load of balls.
 

Deleted member 651465

D

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By far the worst stunt was the spray paint..

He literally says "first one... first".. and "second one.. choose the second can". I spotted it on the night, but re-watching it it's shameful.

I prefer the old shows where he explained more of the stunt, rather than this new style :(
 

mr.sly

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sunama said:
What if he asked you to sign a document prohibiting you from saying what "actually" went on during the act/show?

And what if you taking part in the show was contingent on you signing the above agreement?
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Well you could easily tell a paper anonymously. He travels the country putting on the same show every night and he can't use the same person each time. So anyone of hundreds could have broken the NDA and the paper wouldn't have to reveal who that person was.
 
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