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I was surprised not to find any thread started on last night's programme.

I enjoyed it but suspected the ending partway through.

By the way, Max Maven was listed in the credits

The main photo force was pure Maven, and there were touches of his work in the dark room Seance at the end of the show.
I suspect the spirit cabinet was the work of Paul Kiev,who may af also had something to do with the sitters suddenly convulsing as if being shocked.

I fell asleep halfway through. I saw the spirit cabinet and the automatic handwriting... can anyone give a brief synopsis for the rest of the show?

The spirit cabinet I saw performed on The Best Magic Tricks in the Universe...Ever last week on Channel Five (is that on again tonight?).

yes, it is on again tonight. The method used last night is in no way the same method used by the willards.
I have a notion as to what happened, and if i am right, it's not surprising the guy looked shocked. I would too!Carefull study of the cabinet before the curtain dropped hinted at something very clever.

This was a cool show! The "join in at home" didnt work for me though. Did anyone else try joining in at home? Let me know.

The show was, for me, brilliant.

To be honest there wasn't anything "new" there from previous DB shows but the way it was all put together was pure genius.

DB's showmanship and dramatic finese shone through again and for me it was a joy to watch. If nothing else it is a brilliant study piece in the way strong magic can be put together. I'm not saying that we sould all copy him in his style but we should definatly glean pearls from the him in so many respects.

My parents and myself tried the Ouija board bit, since both my dad and I knew the principle involved we didn't expect all that much to happen, but despite my mum's insistance that she wasn't doing anything the glass spelled jan before we gave up 'cos we got behind the program.

That's the lovely thing about that principle (am I allowed to name it here?), it works even when you know all about it. In his lecture Luke Jermay even suggested using it with a pendulum to help find your keys when you forget where you left them.

Is that the kind of thing that Luke Jermay focuses on in his material? From everything that I've read about his stuff people say it is amazing but very situation specific and bold. But if that's the kind of techniques he uses I'd be up for having a go.

Whilst typing this I've come up with some interesting questions but they don't fit in here so I'll post elsewhere. Watch this space!

Suggestion psychology of the kind Luke Jermay specialises in is a useful and very open subject that applies to every form of magic, in fact you're using it at a basic level every time you employ misdirection.

Even if you're not interested in mentalism (I'm not interested in being a 'pure' mentalist, but love the people-study aspects) Luke's material is worth researching for the psychological study of manipulating your audience and setting up the atmosphere for something weird and magical to take place.

Dragging this back on-topic, Derren Brown is one of the best at this; he's at his best (on TV) in hour-long specials such as the one being discussed here, where he can focus on how he cumulatively builds the mood and reactions of his audience and subjects.

Have you read Absolute Magic? DB explains how to build on the mood and atmosphere in that. That book is full of brilliant information! All we can do is put it into practise! Infact I think i might read it again.

the simplest way to make people feel cold is to tell them " its getting cold".
I find it works every time. And if you are standing under a air con vent at the time, it's even better!!! ( personal experience taught me that!)

Quicksand,

Did you happen to go to lukes lecture at the leeds day?

I got to go so wondered if u were there too

Yes I did, a fantastic lecture it was too! I spoke with him briefly afterwards but didn't get a chance to do so at too much length because we both had things to go to.

remember when he did the card trick at the end and the boy helped and it went wrong, well that was me!