Derren Brown: C/D, but most of all how?

It's a strange mixture - some parts it is easy to see how he achieves whet he does while some things I couldn't work out at all. When he had a group of people at the end of the programme and he was claiming to be able to contact their dead relatives, he started out with something really unspecific like "I see a tall man with a beard" and waited for a glimmer of recognition from someone in his audience, then having got that he focussed in on her and gave a suggestion, rather than asked a question and got the woman to fill in the gaps. He very cleverly avoided trying to name the deceased person closest to the woman in question but gave a choice of names who this person knew - "I see a man, possibly Charlie...or Thomas" said Derren and let the woman say "yes, Charlie".

There was also a part where he claimed to be an alien abductee who had gained the power to describe people's medical history from the aliens. He correctly diagnosed a throat problem a woman had suffered in her youth - she'd had an operation on her thyroid - presumably gaining this info from the fact she spoke in an unusually husky voice.

every now and then DB comes up with an absolute doozy of a performance, he has something of a gift for stage managing spooky experiences. so seance = grebt, but the russian roulette was noncesense. i've been pondering writing something about it for Proven By Science - because of the way he exposes the limits/credibility of our subjective experiences/psychology.

He then walked over broken glass, very slowly and deliberately squashing his bare feet onto the glass. And then lay down face first on it and got a guy from the audience to walk over his body.

He claims the lack of oxygen in his blood prevents him scarring or bleeding when he does this. It was very impressive in any case.

He did sort of explain his "mind control" stuff, he basically described himself as like a salesman, he just makes people make the choices he wants them to make, it's still amazing when he does tricks whereby he has to do this loads of times in a row.

burn him!

the staring contest in particular was freaky.

the video game come-to-life was disturbing. (he hypnotised someone who was playing a video game about killing zombies, whisked him off to a disused building full of actors in zombie makeup, put a gun in his hands and woke him up. the guy freaked.)

On TV:
DB: "Think of something you got as a present!"
Actress (forget her name now) "Hmm..."

Dawn(watching at home with me) : "The horse she got when she was 14?"

DB: "Is it a horse? When you were 14? or thereabouts?"
Actress: "Wow! That's amazing"

Dawn:"wow! How did he do that?"
Me: "Umm, the same way you just did?"

http://www.freakytrigger.co.uk/see/2005_05_01_dys_archive.html#111507733805381055

PS - I just mis-typed "zombie" as "zomboe". I'm thinking of a scarey oboe.

http://www.uknova.com

Derren is much better looking though.

I think he's amassing his own private army in a bunker somewhere, ready to do his evil bidding.

absolutely loved his horse racing one from friday night, possibly my favourite one yet. i kinda twigged how he did it halfway through but was still amazed by it. thing that's puzzling me is how did he choose the correct horse at the end? did he bet on each and every horse and just use sleight of hand at the last minute to put the winning ticket in that woman's hand?

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/article1066171.ece

neuro linguistic programming? morelike neuro linguistic proGAYing, amirite?

"...admiring female fans."

the most interesting thing about that story is the frankly awesomely weird window title:

"Derren Brown | Sexuality | Gay | The Sun | HomePage | Showbiz | TV"

you wot?

the caption for the pic "Ginger beer ... Derren has a 'perfect' partner"

ginger beer... queer. surely that's a bit out of order?! (even for the sun)

This is just one of his crazy mind-control techniques in action. If his "admiring female fans" think he is uninterested, they will want him even more.

ginger beer... queer. surely that's a bit out of order?! (even for the sun)

-- NI, Tuesday, 22 April 2008 00:57 (8 hours ago) Bookmark Link

Come on, the headline is "I'm A Mind-BENDER"

Didn't he come out last year in the Indy? I can't be bothered to trawl through their crap website looking for it, for I'm pretty sure he did.

Aha!

Second Coming

For anyone confused as to why Derren would seem to be 'coming out' again, and this time to the tabloids: the article in the Sun yesterday was something of a stitch-up. Derren had answered a couple of questions from a Sun journalist within a half-hour interview about the TV series, that were concerned with why he discreetly mentioned all that man-on-man business in the Independent a few months ago. Derren politely answered that it was a necessary evil: not really anyone's business, but if you don't do it then it becomes perceived as a secret. The Sun then printed this as if Derren had chosen to come out there and then to them, complete with 'Exclusive' across the top of the article. As if. Other papers then picked up on this, and suddenly it was new news.

So, yes, for those who thought it was a bit odd and tacky, it was.

From his website - which is full of subliminal bits and bobs and things and I am in fear that he has maybe hypnotised me now but anyway...

Now I understand why Whitehouse split up, William Bennett is obviously looking to a new career as the new macho he's-all-man-ladies face of NLP

that was some next level fucked up exploitative cuntitude - also the sheer credulity of people never ceases to amaze. my mouth was agape for pretty much the whole show.

re: the bronnikov method btw

The best bit of last night was when they're blindfolded and trying to guess what is in an open box (out of a choice of three things), except they actually peek for a split second anyway. The interview at the end was ridiculous!

The bit with the cerebral palsy kid was the worst. Telling him, and his parents, that his debilitating incurable condition is all in his mind and the only reason he won't be able to walk again is laziness. That's beyond cruel.

And yeah the interview, not doing the box trick because it wasn't science, I don't think he understands what science is. It's not test tubes and white coats and expensive gadgets, it's a simple methodology - hypothesis, prediction, experiment, observation, confirmation/denial. E.g.

Hypothesis: Bronnikov is full of shit
Prediction: He won't be able to tell what's in the box
Experiment: Show him a box
Observation: He won't say what's in it
Confirmation: He is indeed full of shit. Yay science!

magic- how does it work?

"These people are lying to you! btw did you know I can predict the lotto numbers?"

"these people are lying to you, and because i'm a celebrity they're letting me show you how", tbh.

Not sure how much of a celebrity he is in communist Russia tbh

spells cast YOU etc etc

in communist russia, lotto numbers predict you

I don't know why anyone would have such a downer on this. Just looking into it now, looks amazing.

HEALTH BENEFITS OF THE METHOD

1st Stage is an algorithm of 18 techniques, derived from 144 energetic Tibetan techniques. The 1st stage conveys an alternative holistic non-invasive means by which the energetic structures that govern the human body realign. It is the realignment and harmonization of the energetic structures of the human body that accelerates and optimizes the person’s restorative and regenerative system.

According to Dr. Ming Pang and his non-medical hospital in China Paul Dong’s book:“China’s Super Psychics” By early 1979 the Chinese researchers had discovered that Chi Gong is a catalyst for EHF (exceptional human function), and also found many people who had developed psychic powers through practicing Chi Gong.

Chi Gong has been successful in the holistic spontaneous restoration of health in 95% of cases. Spontaneous remission in the areas of deafness, blindness, disease, cancer, etc. to name a few.

144 energetic Tibatan techniques! Super psychics! 95% of cases! Fuck science.

You would have thought the Tibetans could have used some of these super powers to overcome their oppressors. Perhaps that would go against the chi or something?

dudes know how this ends, playing the long game

Ahh, inscrutable.

kinda love inscrutable, long-game tactics tbh

christian meek have faith that they shall inherit the earth and all that, but those tibetan dudes, they're biding old school imo

I don't think I understood a single sentence that any of those Bronnikov guys said, well not in relation to the other things they were saying anyway. The lols are on me; I thought this might be some kind of method to get people with damage to their visual cortext to be able to attend more to visual information thus making it more useful. But no it was guys in a room full of blue chairs correctly guessing that a chair was blue.

The craziest thing was that the younger guy at the start was saying that with blind ppl they don't have energy coming thru their eyes or something, so they need to get it from their balls to compensate. Then at the end the boss guy was saying they don't deal with people who aren't 100% healthy.

*cortex

so this plane thing here sounds kinda boring. I think I'll half watch anyway.

Yeah, I've lost most of the goodwill I have towards Derren Brown, and this premise sounds shit.

This guy needs to be shown how to dress properly, more than anything.

He dresses, and styles his facial hair, like a magician.

ya this is rubbish.

anyone still watching this? I stopped for a while, just turned over, this is just stupid and shit.

Yes it is, stupid, shit and unconvincing.

switched to five, law & order is on

Still, it is almost 8/9/10 11:12

Except that was this morning, Derren, you non-24-hour-clock-using wank.

24-hour-clock eh, well la-di-da Miss Frenchman.

I had it on till the end, but I can't say I was really watching. The self-helpiness of it made it feel like Derren Brown's How To Look Good Naked, except that sounds amazing rather than incredibly boring and stupid.

You're such a hero, I'm so proud of you BLEURGH

had no idea about this, only just watched the trailer, but his 'yo i fuck yo head up with hypnotism' things are always the weakest imo. if that's what it was.

That's what it was. or bad acting.

new show on now

Sky+d because I was too into a synth pop marathon. Is it worth watching? I have been put off in recent years by the lottery / plane shit. This is live in a theatre, is it not?

it was not so good. some of his shows have had me scratching my head, this one made me think 'they're all paid actors'

maybe it wwas just my mood, i dunno

live theatre show, yes, and yeah that's prob his best type of show

I caught five minutes of pub-hypnotist level "make a woman drink vinegar" crap and switched it off.

it was not so good. some of his shows have had me scratching my head, this one made me think 'they're all paid actors'

pretty sure it wasn't paid actors. not so sure there wasn't copious use of backstage spy cameras and the like. the vinegar drinking was (probably) a simple trick, barely 'hypnosis' at all.

otoh finale was (mostly) trivial to figure out, but still brilliantly presented and wonderfully inventive. making one trick seem like three or four is a neat finesse.

i'm pretty sure it wasn't paid actors, but i've seen him do too many shows where the reaction is 'there's no way he can do that' and this one was just not up to that standard.

y'know, the bit with the curtains. that were rubbish, that. rubbish.

that were rubbish, that. rubbish.

haha my inner voice is being slowly taken over by noel g's too

Yeah maybe I got a little bit carried away in my praise of derren's getting Mcfly to sing "goose and moose and apple juice".

Not been able to get that song out of my head.

not been able to tell it from any other mcfly tune tbh

well it was another mcfly tune, obviously. (d'ya see what i did there)

no

treasure your ignorance.

every day, man, every day

That last episode was rubbish weren't it?

were rubbish

last episode = game show? rubbish. one before = killing stephen fry - really rubbish.

did find myself questioning how fake the game show one was. bloke getting run over - admittedly fake. bloke being an innocent unknowing punter - probably fake. whole audience being in on it from the beginning ... ?

The one where he was basically Beadles About with audience anticipation i.e. "Do you want Michael to A: Have a nice cup of tea and a sit down? Or B: Have him caught wanking to internet porn by his girlfriend who came in to tell him he was about to lose his job?"

The great reveal is supposed to be that people are naturally evil, but all it really revealed is how much trust people put into TV shows because "what could possibly go wrong?" (in this case Michael is accidentally on purpose run over by a car).