talkmagic.co.uk

alexb123 wrote:Am I allowed to ask that question?

Just sit back and enjoy the show. It won't increase your enjoyment to know how it's done.

I agree....it is a wonderful closer and it was well executed. Just enjoy the mystery that he created.

I've left it a few days before posting because I couldn't understand why I didn't enjoy this show as much as I enjoyed 'Something wicked....'.

I saw the Tuesday night show in Northampton and would love to hear from anyone else who saw the same show for their own thoughts.

The show itself was well presented and certainly had great content and variety but there were several points where things obviously (and not just obvious to the initiated) didn't go according to plan.

In '20 Questions' Derren got the objects of two of the guys the wrong way around and then had to send the last guy back to his seat without letting him participate*

When the volunteer had to guess the three cards that were picked out by members of the audience she got the first two but was struggling with the third, derren had to pick up the pack of cards again and force her to pick one (he must have been cussing her under his breath).

The bit where he got a volunteer to phone a friend felt very uncomfortable for me. Now I realise that the chances of the 'phone friend' getting the number written on the board leaves quite a high possibility of failure (and lets face it, the 'out' was fantastic) but I just felt that it could have maybe been changed in some way, although I couldn't say how - Grrrr, I'm getting confused - Maybe it was because 'phone friend' got nowhere near the answer Derren had written on the board. I assume in some of the other shows they got closer and this would have felt a whole lot better.

The £500/£5000 reveal was a little clumsy (my father in law pointed out that he must have had to release a catch or something).

Finally, the Q&A section: On the one hand I really loved seeing Derren doing such classic mentalism. I got an adrenaline rush when, on the very first Q&A there was an audible gasp from several members of the audience. My only gripe however (and this quite contrary considering what I've been banging on about), is that it was too perfect. He didn't have any near misses, he didn't really even coax the answers out of the subjects as we've all come to love (and expect) from him. No, he just rattled correct answer after correct answer out which, even according to my parents and wife, seemed like he knew the answers before hand and must somehow be able to read the cards inside the envelopes!! Now maybe he was just a little pi**ed at having not had the best of nights, who knows.

Despite the above comments, I did enjoy the show and Derren did get himself out of those pickles very smoothly.

It goes to show though, even someone as practised as DB can still have a bad night and have things go wrong. You've just got to keep a cool head and have 'outs' in place for when things don't go according to plan.

*At the big reveal at the end Derren did go some way to correcting this mistake by including the guys thought of item (which I thought was a clever recovery).

Strep wrote:

*At the big reveal at the end Derren did go some way to correcting this mistake by including the guys thought of item (which I thought was a clever recovery).

Or a rehearsed "recovery" lol

Yes; saw the show in Bristol last night and I suspected then that the audience member was sent back to her seat specifically so he could do that reveal at the end of the show. Reading in this thread that the same thing happened elsewhere comfirmed this.

Strep, re the phone segment, the person on the other end of the phone was never supposed to get the numbers on the board. Did you miss the reveal of the serial number on the note???

Yes I got the reveal on the note, which whilst being sublime, isn't as pure as if the guy had got the number without any direct communication with Derren. The £10 note was actually Derrens 'out' in that instance (oh to have an out that strong huh?).

If the number was hit (and although I cannot remember the number exactly it did have commonly chosen numbers in it - I think it was somthing like 783) we'd all have been utterly gobsmacked and even more in awe of him.

But it wasn't an 'out'. It was the intended effect, in the same way as sending the spec back to their seat and revealing their word on the sealed scroll.

Charles Calthrop wrote:But it wasn't an 'out'. It was the intended effect, in the same way as sending the spec back to their seat and revealing their word on the sealed scroll.

I believe the intended effect was for the guy on the other end of the phone to get the number Derren had written on the whiteboard. The chances of him doing so, despite Derren using the most commonly chosen numbers (7,3 etc) were so small as to warrant an 'out' that was extremely strong.

Interesting to find out that he sent someone back on the night you went too. I can't imagine why he would do that intentionally. Whilst it marginally improved the finale I think it had a negative effect on the 20 questions routine. After all, what in essence he was saying was that he could read all of their body language (minds or whatever geist you care to use) except this one guy. How strange? He didn't even offer the audience a reason why he was sending the guy back.

Charles Calthrop wrote:But it wasn't an 'out'. It was the intended effect, in the same way as sending the spec back to their seat and revealing their word on the sealed scroll.

I agree with Charles on this. IMO the effect was the number on the Bill. The out (if you can even call it that) was the phone guy getting the number in two hits.

I do know that this actually happened at least once in the tour.

Strep wrote:Interesting to find out that he sent someone back on the night you went too. I can't imagine why he would do that intentionally. Whilst it marginally improved the finale I think it had a negative effect on the 20 questions routine. After all, what in essence he was saying was that he could read all of their body language (minds or whatever geist you care to use) except this one guy. How strange? He didn't even offer the audience a reason why he was sending the guy back.

Again - I disagree with this assessmenty. The guy sent back was PURELY so that we were suckered into something not quite working actually being even stronger than it would have been if it had apparently worked. There are several reasons behind the thinking here, and if you have seen Derrens previous shows you will know it is a popular thing he likes to do.

a) By something apparently not working - we believe even more so that he is doing it for real.
b) It ended up an EVEN stronger effect.

Pure Genius,

I am strrting to think that this who thread should be moved to another area though...

Well, the tour finished last night and we're not discussing methods...

Strep wrote:I can't imagine why he would do that intentionally. Whilst it marginally improved the finale I think it had a negative effect on the 20 questions routine.

You're missing the fact that their word was on the scroll. Therefore he knew what word they wrote down. Logically he determined the word at the same time, using the same method as all the other words. So it follows the spec was sent back purely to produce the strong effect at the end of the show. You're not giving him enough credit for being clever.

he also used sending the person back as misdirection to enable the gorilla to pinch the banana.

Given that everyone who saw the show (myself inculded) seems to have seen him send back one guy for 20 questions and heard the guy on the phone get the numbers wrong the first couple of times, I strongly doubt that what we saw were "outs", but rather deliberate mistakes to make the kicker of each effect even stronger.

Frankly I thought the show was incredible.

greedoniz wrote:I am probably way behind the times but Derren is doing a british tour in 2007 although I'm a bit miffed as he is not doing any near London

I feel a bit of outrage pouring into my brain!!

Hey it may have only taken a few months but obviously Derren heard my cries though the ether and has bowed to my talkmagic pleas:

From his website:

The 2007 show will tour again in the first quarter of 2008 - different cities and venues. It is also our intention to do a London, West End season. Details will be posted shortly.

The power of TalkMagic is ABSOLUTE!!