The moment you are sceptical about those kinds of things, people think you are a joyless debunker, but the reality is, I love a lot of those things in the same way they do.
I would love to get up on stage and do the same things, but there are other things that are important, like honesty, and not exploiting people, so there are just ways of doing that, so you frame it so it is clearly entertainment. One thing I have found, that works really well, is to present it as a recreation of something that used to be done by charlatans, and I am not going to explain how it is done, but I just want to do it and entertain you with it, but you know in the back of your mind that you are not supposed to believe it is real.
The line lies differently on stage than it does on television, as on stage there is a whole theatrical licence to the whole thing. People are just passively accepting what you tell them, so if you are on TV there is that greater responsibility to be true. I give myself more of a licence on stage I think. It is a personal thing. I think you can be sceptical, and still do things that are in a joyful way, and ultimately you are on stage entertaining. If you let your philosophy get too much in the way of that, then you are failing as an entertainer.
I find, having watched your live shows and TV shows, I wonder about people you then meet outside of those situations. Because you are that honest about it, whether they are then almost trying to adjust themselves. People are perhaps second-guessing….
Yeah it does happen. I still had that weird sense of an anti-climax at meeting your hero, and I was just some guy in a queue, and sort of, since then — and it was a while before I got known — I have taken that very seriously, that thing of meeting people and their expectations, and I think I really try and be very open and very nice to people when I meet them.
I just want to make sure that, when they meet me, or if it means something to meet me, then it is a nice experience. It is very nice. All of that has been done, generally speaking. I seem to come across people who have already decided they kind of like me, or find me interesting, and that is a really amazing kind of world to then walk around in.
You then end up being able to almost choose your friends out of people who would genuinely be happy to be your friend, which is a very unexpected, really kind of nice, and by far the most touching and loveliest aspect of being known. It balances out ultimately, I suppose. People do sort of react like they know you, and it is a nice feeling, and occasionally, there have been a couple of times on this tour, I have had letters from young magicians or kids that maybe are lacking in some kind of confidence, and for some reason me doing my stuff has meant something to them or changed the way they see the world, and the way they felt.
It is very little to do with me, it is just what they are taking from it. I want to ask about the transition from working on the big live shows to working on the television series. You have people to choose from at random…. I think it feels fairly natural. It is just a different thing. So you sort of find different things and different flavours for each thing, and you pick people with particular jobs, which becomes the flavour of that piece.
There are times with the audience where I do pick people out, and I have to pick people who will respond best to what I am going to do. The whole point of the show is a big audience participation thing.
It keeps it very fresh every night as well. It keeps it alive, which is important. It happened the night I came to see Svengali. Without giving too much away, what is it you look for? Is there an instant something you spot? How do you make those quick judgements? Yeah, it depends a bit on what I am doing, and what the particular thing is. So I will always know that I am going to send one or two back, because I just have to get up one or two more than I need. So I can say that person and that person and that person are good, and the other people just have to go back, because the whole thing works better as a three-stage thing.
Most of the stuff I do can be broken down into three phases; there is just something intrinsically more dramatic about a three-stage thing. There is not time to really kind of process it or put your finger on it, but I just know that they are going to be difficult. I would rather somebody goes back thinking they have outfoxed me rather than just thinking that they are superfluous, or that I think they are going to be a bit of a pain!
He seemed to be laser-focused on her while his chat went on automatically, but what did he see? In the third trick, he got Anthony to put a bag over his head and think of a famous figure. Of course, by the time Derren Brown was painting it — upside down — and presenting his portrait to the masses, his hard work was long done.
He had obviously known it was going to be Elvis Presley all along, the portrait work was mere flower-arranging, but but that made it no less impressive. However, just as computer hackers continue to break down whatever firewalls scientists come up with, so the magicians have sneaked off again to play with what we hold most dear, our perceptions of our own minds and the borders we take for granted around our inner thoughts.
It becomes a conspiracy between you and him. Do you think you know how Derren Brown does his 'mind-reading' tricks? Firstly, it completely takes over the mind of someone from the audience, to the extent that they go into a kind of trance whereby they can copy everything the doll is doing, without even looking at it.
In the show that I watched live it began by asking a lady from audience to come up on the stage. The lady had recently lost her mother and amazingly the Svengalli Doll knew the initials and then the full name of the deceased mother.
It was a really incredible sight to see, and the whole time my scepticism was kicking in, meaning that I didn't let Derren out of my sight. For those that believe Derren had a remote control in his hand and was instructing the doll - you would be wrong.
Derren told us that the Svengali doll was over years old and was created by a man that had lost his son at a very young age. He then developed the doll as a replica of his son. It then became an obsession and it is believed that he actually created a doll that is able to think for itself, and see things that we aren't capable of seeing, doing or knowing. Apparently Derren Brown had been aware of the story of the doll for quite some time but it had been missing for a number of years and nobody knew of it's whereabouts.
It then appeared at an auction and Derren Brown snapped it up and fixed up the doll to it's original working condition. When the doll has guessed the initials of the lady's lost loved one, the boy who is being controlled by the doll is sitting facing another direction and is handed a chalkboard and some chalk.
Unconsciously he writes the initials that the doll is pointing towards. Derren Brown doesn't say anything that could influence the boys decision and this is what makes the trick super amazing.
Normally Derren Brown uses suggestion to get his audience to do, say or write what it is that he wants from them, but in this case Derren Brown just stands back and watches it all happen. After a couple of minutes the boy is brought back into the real world again and was simply speechless. He didn't know why he wrote the initials he did and he didn't really know what was going on.
Derren then asked him if he would mind him poking a needle through the upper side of his hand whilst in a trance and under the spell of svengali once again. The boy agrees and Derren continues by removing the hand from the doll and bringing it over to the boy.
He then tells the boy that his hand is just like the dolls hand; wooden and with no sense of feeling. Within seconds the boy has lost feeling in his hand and is happy for Derren to stick a needle right through the top. Derren does exactly that and the boy feels no pain whatsoever, and pushes it right through before removing the needle only for there to be no trace of blood.
The Svengali doll trick is a complete mystery. If you have any ideas of how he might have done it then please feel free to comment at the bottom of the page.
As well as the Svengali doll there was lots of other entertainment on show Derren Brown asked the audience to think of an embarressing moment that they would not want anyone to know about. He then randomly selects people from the audience to stand up and rushes a microphone over to them. As they stand there with their faces enlarged on the screen at the front of the stage, they are probably praying that Derren Brown doesn't disclose their most inner secrets - But as you have probably guessed, he does exactly that.
There was only lady who had poo'd in her shower and another woman who had stolen money from the church as a child to buy herself some sweets from the sweet shop. To be honest it was actually quite an uncomfortable feeling for the audience, whereby you felt that he could pick on you and there was nothing you could do about it. The show ends with a big bang whereby a series of balloons are shot out into the audience and then the birthday girl has to select three people to come on stage.
At this stage it is similar to other tricks that has performed before, and a series of numbers and events leads to a mind baffling finale. Do you think you know how Derren used the Svengali doll? Is it really magical and mind controlling or is it all a stunt with made up history and story telling designed to create an enigmatic atmosphere.
You decide, and share your view with us at the bottom of the page. If you listen closely to the speech he gives. He is using tonnnns of words starting with "D" ending with "S" Also starting with "S" Not only that but even words he chooses in his act have phonetic sounding to the "D" sound and "S" sound.
Last thing he says "Svengali will you Do that for uS now. I went to see Svengali in Newcastle. At the start of the Svengali trick itself, he does a full audience participation thing whereby he suggests to everyone, through various repeated images and sensations, that their hand and arm is like the wooden doll. It worked on me, but not my wife. My hand was rigid, and moved as the doll's did. My muscles were so locked that it almost hurt and did so until he said that we were free.
He walked around the audience and selected a guy to do the more gruesome stuff on. If it'd been me, or any other member of the affected audience, I reckon they would have been exactly the same. It really was proof for me that hypnosis works and could work to the degree needed to be able to do the pin prodding etc. The idea of revealing another magician's trick makes me feel gross. Especially as Derren has helped me countless times. I suggest you look into John Nevil Maskelyne. J N Maskelyne used to perform this years ago though not for the tricks Derren does the automaton works the same way as JN's.
Secondly there wouldn't be blood if you use a thin needle like that, just suggest that there should be to make an audience feel there should be. I won't give you anymore information.
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