humbug&hokum wrote:I'd agree that Brown owes an awful lot to Corinda; I've seen him do tricks that are pure Corinda with a different presentation and I've also seen him do many tricks that, whilst not directly Corinda, are full of the spirit of '13 Steps'.
However I'm not so sure Brown got mnemonics from Corinda. The Art of Memory and mnemonics goes back to the ancients Greeks. From what I understand about Brown from his books he first started flirting with mnemonics when he was doing A Levels, quite some time before he started exploring mentalism.
Correct, well at least that's what he says.
In fact I believe he mentions about how he started using mnemonics in early school and then learned more about them as time went on and also explains that in Victorian times (if I recall correctly), children learned mnemonic methods in private schools to remember large amounts of important dates, but then it was abolished because it was seen as cheating/somehow anti-Christian.
However when he was in school/college, 13 steps would have been out for a good 15 years or so (correct me if I'm wrong).
It isn't a secret that Derren has read 13 steps. He probably did discover mnemonic techniques before that though, due to his private schooling and precocious nature.