by Robbie » Jun 11th, '10, 13:37
Saw Enigma again last night and was amazed at the number of differences in a year's time.
The "white handbag" was one, but he clearly stated to the girl "just stay by the stairs for a moment while we put a mike on you", so there was nothing mysterious about it. I think the chalk scratching was audible before (maybe not so loud?), so the miking up might have been just a plausibility device, but it worked well.
The seeing-through-foil routine was streamlined to just two feats, the die and the watch. There were previously cards as well. It plays much better this way, since a card was already used anyway in the introduction, and the routine is plenty long enough with two items.
The biggest change was in the finale, which has an entirely different dressing. Looking at it objectively, in terms of the working, it's definitely slicker and smoother in its new style. It avoids the slight nastiness of making one chap stand aside like a lemon throughout the long routine, and also gets around any possibility of "public acclaim" not providing the right answer.
On the other hand, I did miss the "Berglasian Personality Profiles" and all the psychological trimmings. Especially given Derren's persona, the claim "it's impossible for a human to make a truly random decision" is better when he can go on to baffle us all with psycho-verbiage.
(I think all of the above is vague enough that it can't count as giving away any secrets. If the mods disagree, please alter.)
It was a shame that the man himself couldn't spend more than a few minutes at the stage door before being whisked away. I'm not entirely sure whether he really did have to rush off somewhere, or whether this was a polite way to duck the more swivel-eyed fans, who seemed to be out in force last night. I was standing next to a couple of them. They scared me, and they weren't even aimed at me.
"Magic teaches us how to lie without guilt." --Eugene Burger
"Hi, Robbie!" "May your mischief be spread." --Derren Brown
CF4L