talkmagic.co.uk

Don't worry. None shall be revealed, here by me, But please take the time to read through anyway.

The Derren Brown Dvd, Inside Your Mind is now available in which clips from the three specials and the t.v series are clumped together for your repeated viewing pleasure.

The phrase i am interested in is within the dvd commentary and comes right at the end. Do you remember the effect with the harp-playing bear and the subliminal suggestion from the ad agency guys' journey? When explaining it, Derren says why he exposed the secrets of the journey saying the method was just as interesting as the effect. He says, quoting another magician,(will post up later)...

...Magicians are guarding an empty safe.

He explains that the only reason magians keep their secrets secret, is because they are boring secrets and no-one would be interested with the simple ideas that make a wonderfully performed effect.

I'm sure we all knew this before, but now there is a quote for it and i do like interesting magic qoutes. More to come...

P.s The only other effect, i can think of, where the method is more interesting than the effect is the Lift Off/Trap Door trick by Penn and Teller. Do you know any more?

Thanks,
Edward.

I think all the vanishishing planes, empire state buildings, mountains etc fall into this bracket.
They bore me to tears but the explanations are quite interesting as they are very technical, costly and very detailed on the whole.

Don't get me started on the guarding of secrets or I'll just go and upset everyone, lol.
Though I do love a good debate, hmmmm

BaB

any stage magic that needs a back-drop .

then there the arrow through girl to target wonderfully complicated.

vanishing the daganumj girl pipers?? just silly.

Moxt of our secrets are pretty boring really aren't they? People would be interested in complicated card sleights because a lot of them seem to be as impossible to do as the effects they achieve but mostly they aren't. One thing I particularly like is another Derren Brown one, when doing the invisible deal effect from The Devil's Picture Book you can quite truthfully tell people that you achieve it by reading what they do because that is exactly what you do do. If you told them something else or nothing at all you would spoil the effect because they wouldn't believe you or they would think that there was trickery involved (God Forbid). So in this case the effect is improved by telling how it is done, even if they don't believe you. Of course you don't go into specifics but just let them know that you are reading their body language, and for those that know the effect it seems less like reading than looking at a picture book it is that simple.

Oops, I seem to have gone onto another of those 'you really should get the Derren Brown video' rants again and since they have been extensively covered elswhere I will sign of and go and get another beer in warm up for the stunt I am going to attempt on Wednesday, ie having plenty to drink but remaining upright and hangover free.

Nick

Now thats a trick!
Been practicing the begger for decades, I am sure I'll pull it off soon.