talkmagic.co.uk

madvillainy wrote:Derren Brown is nearly 40. He claims he got into the casino thing fresh out of university, which would mean he was knocking over casinos no later than 1999 when he got picked up for TV. If he did it at all, he probably stopped (out of necessity) in the mid-90s. Casino technology has changed a lot since then and card counters are usually ejected before they can make any serious money. Their information is then passed around - because the casinos look after eachother, I've seen it happen - and before you know it you're banned from more or less every legitimate casino in the UK. If you think there's any serious chance of a punter taking the casino for a ride, take a look at the marble staircase, the gold handrail, and all the people who are paid to work there.

- He could be lying. He's very good at lying and cares more about making interesting television than telling the gospel truth all the time. Which is fair enough, but you musn't take what he says at face value.

I'm pretty sure DB is lying through his teeth on this one. We all know he was making a living doing walkaround magic at restaurants and such before he switched to mentalism, and that was before he got onto TV and made a big name for himself. So that doesn't leave him any time in his lifespan, really, to be a casino cheat.

People love to hear about card counters and experts beating the casinos at their own game. It makes a great story. And, as we know, entertainment is everything in this game.

M'thinks people here don't really know much about Derren Brown, what he says and what he does.

As Robbie says, Derren was indeed probably lying through his teeth when he said he was "banned from every casino in the country". This is probable because he said this just before a "card counting" trick, and I don't know about you guys but I lie a lot just before I start a trick!

Derren has also never claimed he uses NLP: to quote from his book: "I now have a lot of NLPers analysing my TV work in their own terms, as well as people who say that I myself unfairly claim to be using NLP whenever I perform (the truth is I have neever mentioned it)"

Other than that, all I can do is echo what others are saying. Derren Brown uses nothing more than magic and the books recommended will give a massive help in learning these magic techniques. Although if you want to keep things purely psychological I can recommend nothing better than psychology texts (as mentioned once more by the ever wise Robbie) or perhaps our very own Tomo's Naked Mentalism, whose techniques are closer to psychology than magic (ie. there's no sleight of hand or gimmicks involved)

kolm wrote:the ever wise Robbie

Hah! Can I quote you to my husband? He doesn't quite trust me to cross the road on my own.

Well, you would keep practicing the classic force while crossing the road wouldn't you?