talkmagic.co.uk

i've been watching a lot of his stuff lately -- and also reading up on mentalism. It seems to me that the biggest trick he's doing is convincing everyone that each of his "games" relies on psychological trickery rather than simple gimmicks and clever forces, etc...

The more I watch-- the more I've decided he's just a magician with a new themed kind of patter.

I like it though. It's clever-- because in this day and age no one believes in magic anymore.

But everyone believes in tricks... especially tricks of the mind (no pun intended).

I was also left cold with the whole 'put a guy to sleep and leave him stranded in Marakesh' bit. I was waiting for a clever punchline, but all I got was the closing credits for the show.

That just left us with two mentalism routines. The League of Gentlemen one was good, but the NY phone read routine was a little too David Blaine-ish in presentation for my liking.

And the 'candid' footage of his victims discussing the effect afterwards got right up my nose, reminding me of those annoying adverts for new movies, where they stop people on the way out of the cinema to collect 'unprepared' quotes.

All in all I'm feeling a bit let down. Something Wicked was classy, ingenious and riveting. Last night's Trick or treat was neither nowt nor summit.

You guys are so lucky.

I had set TorT to record on Sky+ on Tuesday, so when I got down to some 'me time' at 11pm last night ready to watch it, I was gutted to find it had 'clashed' and not recorded!

A quick dibble in the programme guide revealed Mrs Seige had decided to record American Idol whilst watching some other drivell, which had cancelled my recording.

Fortunately (or not, judging by the comments) the show is repeated at 2.45am on Tuesday on channel E4.

krazy ace wrote:how can people falll asleeep and be transferred without them knowing to somewhere else in the world?

Because the person wasn't conscious during the trip! When you wake up from such a deep trance you typically don't remember what happened during that time. He would remember sitting down to have his photo taken and then waking up, perhaps thinking that he'd nodded off in the booth.

EDIT: To use a similar example, consider that you are going on a coach journey from London down to Devon, for example. You get on the coach in London and you're tired, you fall asleep. You wake up a few hours later and there you are, in Devon.

Were you aware of the journey? No, you were asleep throughout it. Were you aware of the time having passed? Not really. But there you are - you have been moved without you knowing it. Of course soon after waking up you put it into context - you're on a coach and you know you were travelling down from London to Devon, therefore you were asleep and that is when the journey happened.

Now consider this: the guy had no intention of going to sleep when he went into the photobooth. He had no idea that he was going on a journey. He cannot place it in context because there is no context to put it into in his mind.

Of course he was in a trance state, not a regular sleep, but you get the idea.

I wasn't that impressed by it either. The thing is, it was quite a simple trick (unlike next week's, which looks very interesting) and we've seen Derren do such things before and in a more novel way - such as the video game stunt and in the last series when he made the sun disappear for someone.

I liked the general structure - one main stunt with one or two mind-reading bits in between, but feel that something a bit more elaborate and/or different would have been a better way to kick off the series.

SpineyNorman wrote:The fact that, in a sense, he's telling a story I mean. And doesn't it make you thirsty for more?
To me, that's the real magic of Mr Browns performances.

The problem is that it wasn't much of a story - guy meets Derren at night, guy walks into photobooth, guy is transported 1500 miles unbeknownst to him, guy wakes up.

It was the lack of payoff that really made it seem quite underwhelming - there was no big reaction just a slight confusion before he walked off.

An interview with the bewildered student would have been a good finish, knowing what he was thinking etc.
Next weeks human ventriloquist puppet looks weird to say the least.

anyone else notice the ambigram?

Cardza wrote:


I wasn't that impressed by it either. The thing is, it was quite a simple trick (unlike next week's, which looks very interesting) and we've seen Derren do such things before and in a more novel way - such as the video game stunt and in the last series when he made the sun disappear for someone.

The problem is that it wasn't much of a story - guy meets Derren at night, guy walks into photobooth, guy is transported 1500 miles unbeknownst to him, guy wakes up.

It was the lack of payoff that really made it seem quite underwhelming - there was no big reaction just a slight confusion before he walked off.

Even as Derren's No.1 fan, I have to say that I agree with you. I was, to be honest, expecting a more interesting ending(like previously reported somewhere: Derren coming face to face with him in the market). The lack of this made the whole thing seem somewhat trivial. But, in the same breath, we should acknowledge that yet another series of Trick of The Mind would probably be slightly boring and so it's good that he's doing something new.

I personally believe that he was pressured into putting that show first in the series as the content had already been reported on the net and in some papers after 'The Mirror'(evil Rupert Murdoch) followed him to Morocco. Perhaps it's just me but I very much doubt that he and Nyman won't have been aware of the dull ending to that stunt, and would have normally put another episode, which they deemed to be better, first. This is, of course, just speculation.

Does anyone else notice a slight relation to the SAW trilogy by the way or is it just me?

As for the general debate about Derren's work, a lot of what he does is simply conjouring and trickery skills ingeniously presented, but after all he does admit to this in the very first line of the show(well, used to anyway). We should remember that Andy Nyman and Derren are both very experienced magicians and therefore this is likely to influence their work drastically, as (we know of course), it certainly does.
We should, however, respect him at least for his clever presentational skills and for not using clever editing and camera tricks *cough* Blaine *cough*

As for stooges: no.

Kobra wrote:anyone else notice the ambigram?

I thought about that but thought I'd better not say anything. Sad, I know.
Methinks there might be several more 'Tricks' in store.

SpineyNorman wrote:OMG!? 100% of people think its all a set up! And the remaining "everyone else on the forums minus one" haven't voted. What could it all mean?

Well, to be fair, the poll options are less than comprehensive.

Tomo wrote:

SpineyNorman wrote:OMG!? 100% of people think its all a set up! And the remaining "everyone else on the forums minus one" haven't voted. What could it all mean?

Well, to be fair, the poll options are less than comprehensive.

Yes, an answer of 'An incredibly clever magician with an ingenious outlook on interesting presentation and modernised variations of old effects which he brilliantly brings back to life and disguises them as 'Mind Reading'. would have been useful, for me anyway.

Yes it would seem that as you yourself can't find a solution to the trickery, that you've put options that can only lead to one answer...

The human puppet they have lined up for next week looks interestingly twisted. He seems to be freaking out somewhat on the trailer. Can't think why...

On the whole the program was a bit lack-lustre the best thing was with the league of gentleman and nice to see seige’s blind eye force in action but the rest I wasn’t impressed with and to see Andy Nyman’s name attached I would expected better from both. Maybe Brown isn’t that new any more and he is struggling for ideas on his shows.

As for the its all set-up debate . I don’t think it was set-up a lot of Mentalisim is done with mechanical methods rather then psychology / suggestion. All though I don’t want to get in to a Simon Singh debate here

The problem is that it wasn't much of a story - guy meets Derren at night, guy walks into photobooth, guy is transported 1500 miles unbeknownst to him, guy wakes up.

That's just the series of events... I mean, for sure that's part of the story but I guess I just saw it differently. Think about that guy and what he experienced and also consider the shows ending. His version of events would seem more like a fairytale than anyone elses. I think the lack of interview creates a stronger divide between "the guy" and everyone else on the planet by not interfering with the event as soon as it kicks off. In a way, the guy was like a lab rat... Thats entertainment! Or do I just have a sinister side?

Anyway, thats what appealed to me... a much broader "story" than the series of events coupled with an ending which was an anti climax as things go. Seems like I'm in a minority but the result is that I can't wait for next weeks show!

i saw ian Rowland preform similar feats of mentalism such as the one where derren brown does some "mind reading" over the phone.

Ian got someone to think of a question and he mangage to know what it was. when i asked him he said it was all just a trick.