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Just read this on the Radio Times web site while trying to decide whether to watch Trick of the Mind tonight or try to remember to catch it on Thursday:

"Look into his eyes, not around his eyes, but into his eyes. Actually, tonight, we have little choice but to look into his eyes because Derren Brown spends most of the time staring at stuff. He stares at a dentist and makes him forget his own name. Then he stares at a goth so hard she looks as if she's about to cry. It's all very strange, but there's the sense that all the oddness is merely an attempt to distract us from the fact that Brown is running out of ideas. An experiment involving a subliminal cinema ad, for example, feels inconclusive, while the grand finale, held in Vienna, is convoluted and clunky - even if it does allow him to make an excellent joke about Orson Welles."

Or are they right?....

Well, if I remember correctly, in the recent Jo Whiley interview he said he doesn't know what he's going to do until a few weeks before filming. I'm beginning to wonder...

Uh-oh! That sounds bad...I can't watch the show, seeing how I'm in America, but I can order the DVDs and plan to. I've watched bits and pieces of his bits on the internet and loved it. So...If he has no ideas?! What will the world come to?!

I think this series has so far been a bit of a disappointment. There have been some good effects but a lot of them go on far too long and are not as impressive as previous series.

I still think the guy is an quality entertainer and his live show is amazing.

Hopefully things will improve but if they don't....then hey ho....this guy has brought us so much good stuff I will forgive him one poor series. Everyone has "the difficult album" experience.

Also, there comes a point when things have to end, however good they are. Mr Brown is unquestioabley an awsome performer and I'm certainlyt not saying this is the end of his career but perhaps Trick of the Mind should come to a close?

Personaly I don't think Derren's style is suited to a half hour show. I prefer his earlier specials...


In the programme for "Something Wicked This Way Comes", he says he is planning to put together a new tour show every 2 years. He also says that he will be doing some shows for the US.

Enjoy the performances, content-wise there's nothing too original - the stone thing was reminiscent of the thing he did in Series Two with the staring contest, the Yes/No thing was similar to the thing he did way back where he put the money in an envelope and someone had to guess which one it was in...I personally think that pushing it to a fourth series might be stretching it at bit, as much as I admire Derren's performances, I do think he is running a bit low on ideas.

It'd be nice though if he did keep up the specials or reinvent himself further, if that's possible.

He seems to be an odd guy. The effects/experiments he performs are sometimes spectacular, and sometimes I just wonder what effect it was he was aiming for (That confusion is presumably the point...)

The one where he stared at the girl, and she couldn't put down the rock was wierd, as was the one with Robbie Williams and the pins. It wasn't clear to me whether he was trying to present it as a pain management exercise (Robbie looked much too uncomfortable for that), or as an illusion.

The effect with the watch and ferris wheel was rather good though IMO, as was the finding things hidden in the city, and I do find the ones where he convinces people not to go for the envelope with cash in it very interesting.

I only saw the final episode of the heist one (so I probably missed out on all the setup, and background of what was going on), but it was fascinating, but seemed morally very dubious. Of course the controversy is presumably what he's trying for

Steverino wrote:as was the one with Robbie Williams and the pins. It wasn't clear to me whether he was trying to present it as a pain management exercise (Robbie looked much too uncomfortable for that), or as an illusion.

I think there was some symbolism in that, given that it was broadcast on Easter Sunday and the stance that he was in, and the opinion that many seem to have of Robbie Williams being their idol...but I was left unsure as well, there was quite a lot of build up and just as I thought it was going somewhere it stopped. On the idea of pain it's interesting that he didn't feel the pain until he saw the needles, but Derren can stop people from feeling pain as he's done it before, and it's occasionally used in medical operations in place of sedation or whatever, so it can be done...I just didn't really feel any 'magic' to that, just some guy pushing pins through a celebrity's arms.

Rock thing was interesting, though I sometimes wish Derren would explain things a bit more too.

...do any of you feel that maybe we've all been spoiled a little? like if your favourite singer kept producing classic after classic track, after a while you almost get used to how good they are?

Are we expecting too much as we have some inside-knowledge?

Have we forgotten how to enjoy magic as a straight-forward spectator?

I thought the "what's inside the box?" effect was stunning and a little unsettling...i dont want to know how its done, i just want to enjoy it...

I don't want to sit and deconstruct his shows, i just want to be entertained and be amazed..which i am...

..im not saying he can do no wrong, just maybe the bar is so high now - how much further can anyone jump?

That's a great point, abraxus. I am a huge DB fan. I switch my mind off as a magi when I watch him, and try to take it in as a lay. Not having a huge amount of mentalism experience/knowledge, this isn't so hard. From a lay point of view, he is amazing. I reckon a lot of his work has a lot of magi foxed, too! There's been numerous "How would he do that?" type threads on here.

It all boils down to raising people high, just to watch them fall.

I'm sure I've said before, but I'll say it again.. DB can do no wrong for me..

Jon

...that's the thing, to use a fairly poor analogy - when david seaman was england keeper, he kept us in a fair few games, saved some highly important shots...yet a couple of high-profile blunders and wallop! he gets labelled as rubbish...even though over the years he wasn't...

being consistently good at anything (not that i'd know) must take its toll sooner or later, but theres still no need to focus on the negative when there's so much positive to enjoy...

it'd be like going to see Hendrix play 3 nights on the trot and having the audacity to say "meh...he was a bit iffy second night.."

im certainly not saying "love everything he does" - just take a little step back and see its true value, and try and forget any magic-stuff just for half an hour...discover the fun and astonishment you had when you first got interested in it all thats what i say...

well said abraxus...couldn't agree with you more!

J

Ok, in that I don't get to see DB work I will take this from another angle.

THERE'S ONLY SO MUCH WE CAN DO!

Right now Criss Angel, David Blaine, Copperfield and all the rest are having to step back and say, "Hmmmm"

Blaine is sitting in a fish tank... didn't Angel do something very similar a few years ago? Wait a minute! So did Copperfield and Henning before him! OMG! Houdini did it too!

I don't think it's a lack of creativity or even resources but rather, the fact that everyone is trying to not only out do the other, but out do themselves and that creates a rather "sticky whicket" as it were. Too, we have a public that's been so overly saturated by magic and magicians in the past decade that they've grown tired of it all... we've worked so much that we are working ourselves out of a job.

It's nice to know that this is only the natural course of things; the ebb and flow of life, and eventually all these things will suddenly become "new" again. But we have, on the whole, painted ourselves into the proverbial corner. It's not just the big name guys that find themselves facing this dichotomy, its we little peons as well.

Maybe... just maybe, the next big trend in magic will be our ability to create living art? To actually hone our skills in such a manner that is solid, choreographed and spellbinding vs. spectacular, filled with shock & awe, or just plain grotesque? Maybe we will see reprise in the more traditional mode of performing magic as proper ladies & gents as did Channing Pollock, Dante and Blackstone?

Let's face it, a performer that can be well mannered, graceful, elegant and deliberate is in fact, a novelty now days. It could very well become part of the new phase magic will move into, simply becasue (like street magic, bizarre & mentalism was) it's different and hosts a renewed sense of appeal.

Believe it or not, this very concept has been and is being discussed within the production and coordination teams of these shows and with the lesser known "big shows" travelling about; eveyrone wanting to be the first to step into the next big trend.

How ironic, yet commercial, would it be for Derren to suddenly realize that he really can touch minds and that Uri Geller might be real?

We've beat the horse of non-belief to death, so why not hop onto a new pony, the one that invokes superstition and mystery and the essence of the occult as being part of what makes a magician tick? It's what the old timers did... look at the show poster of the 19th & early 20th century and tell me how many demons & devils you spot... where's the disclaimers? They're certainly not to be found in thier scripts!

What will open the new frontier? What will break us from this hole we've dug?

These are the questions everyone is considering that actually works in this trade. We're just seeing evedence of it via the one's we focus upon most however, for it is they that feel this pressure the greatest.