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Did anyone catch the programme Derrin Brown:Mind Control that was on after the over hyped and quite frankly complete b*****k's David Blaine:Frozen In Time? Even though mentalism effects aren't really my thing (unless you count the thumb writer) this guy proved like most magic its presentation that counts and it was a joy to watch.
If you were lucky enough to see what did you think?

Yeh I thought that his technique was brilliant but it must have been hypnotism that he used surely. And I agree, David Blaine's special was not what I had expected at all.

Cheers, David

I saw it also! It was great to watch.Did you notice when he made that prisoners hand go up,to make it go back down you could actually hear him say "and back down."
Did anybody also notice the one with the boxer when it went wrong. The bit with the fears was a bit creepy though!!!!!
Sam

Does anyone know how the effect with the boxers worked? My guess is that the girl wore metal shoes and, under the ring, was a electromagnet which could be turned on and off at will.

Needless to say, by reason of the fact that all the boxers were in gym kit, none of them would be wearing any metal to be affected by the magnet.

[Anonymously Posted by: 'DanielBarnett']

No No its all mind control, he made the guys not be able to carry her by keeping on telling them,
YOU CANT PICK HER UP, it stuck in their mind so they couldnt pick her up. The last guy was just to stupid to listen to derren!

[Anonymously Posted by: 'djamin']

Who knows how he did it my first suspicion was that before each boxer tried to pick her up he would look them in the eye and TOUCH(OR PRESS)on their neck. Isn't this a pressure point?

I am astonished at all this unbelief. Everybody knows he did it usuing the Force!
force

What grabbed me was the 'tell' demonstration with the three poker players in a casino. That's got to be one of the cleanest card tricks (was it a trick?) i've ever seen. Is this a demo of genuine people reading skills (recognising psychological 'tells' or 'giveaways') or is it some diabolical trick? Is it explained in Derren's book? Whatever, I thought it was brilliant. The game of bluff and double bluff with the money and three envelopes was superb too. Didn't look like fakery. Looks like mind control. BRILLIANT.

[Anonymously Posted by: 'Paul Shepley']

Derren Brown uses NLP, cold reading, suggestion and subliminal messages to do his effects. I know all of his effects seen on television. I will trade any of his effects for the trick performed by David Blaine on frozen in time when he the first letter of a thought of person appeared in the spectators book in flames. Email me at: streetmagicman_jeremy@hotmail.com

It is in his book "Pure Effect" along with other techniques like the ones mentioned such as NLP(Neuro-linguistic Programming). However the trick in question was designed so that people would assume that he was "reading" them, when he did something far more subtle/devious. It isn't my place to reveal it here but I might try to get into the Magician's section at a later date.
What impressed me more was the poker demonstration called "Greek Poker" which can be found in one of Darwin Ortiz's books. A great trick.

[Anonymously Posted by: 'Neil Cook']

Since I'm in the UK, I've not seen the special - but the 'boxers unable to lift a girl' trick sounds very like a classic act performed by a number of women over the years.

For reference see the site...

http://www.nardis.com/~twchan/mag.html

Replace my "Since I'm in the UK" with "Since I'm a dimwitted geek without any time to watch TV"

Watch Derren's next TV special on New Year's Day on Channel 4.

It's better than the previous ones...

<FONT SIZE="-2">...not that I'm biased cos I helped with the making of this one...</FONT>

Also, he was on Richard and Judy recently (they were amazed) and David Blaine cited Derren as one of his favourite magicians of the moment (the other being Guy Hollingsworth) when he was interviewed on the Jonathon Ross show.

I am very interested in Derren Brown-who in my opinion has been a big influence on my work for the past year.
Most of his effects, are NLP(i feel) but presentation play a big part in it as well.
FOr any wannabe Derren Browns, learn about his presentation, by books like "The 13 Steps to Mentalism" and learn a bit about NLP. You will be surprised at your success rate

Adam (I am new by the way)

[Anonymously Posted by: 'Adam Szasz']

I'm a Derran Fan as well, I think that he's completely original and certainly has a telent!!! I was thinking about getting his book(s), are they worth it? What's in them? How many pennies will i need to gather? Where can I buy them from at a good price?

Cheers, and Welcome Adam!!!