I'd considered that possibility but rejected it for one reason: that the stupid "shoulder tap" routine would not have been compatible with anything besides a "BMX" bike. There's no way you could do it with a person who genuinely wanted, say, a leather jacket; you couldn't build a conversation out of all those syllables. So we're left with the idea that Brown invented this routine and then asked hundreds of people to choose a gift and blew them all off until he happened to find someone that wanted a "BMX bike". I find it tough to swallow. Far easier simply to script it.
Again, you've got it backwards.
I'm not a stage magician, so I'm rather fuzzy on the details of how this might be pulled off, but here's my take on it:
At some indeterminate time before this trick is pulled off, one of DB's "people" somehow determines, through some method of social engineering, what Simon Pegg's handwriting looks like. Maybe they're sent out to pose as a fan and obtain an autograph, asking that it be addressed to a name with some of the same letters as the words "Leather Jacket," like "Heather Lee Jackson" or something. This part might have been done days, weeks or months in advance. Then, a handwriting specialist is hired to write the words "Leather Jacket" on a piece of paper, forged in Simon Pegg's handwriting. The paper is folded up and placed inside a little manila envelope.
Simon Pegg is presented with an identical piece of paper and envelope, maybe even a pen, along with explicit instructions to write what he wants for his birthday, to fold the paper, put it inside the envelope and autograph it along with the date and time.
See where I'm going with this?
At some point prior to the filming, Simon Pegg's pockets are picked. This might be done under the pretext of the wardrobe department fitting him with a specially-tailored outfit for his celebrity appearance on DB's show. I'm sure a movie star would not be suspicious in the least about such a detail for a high-profile TV appearance.
Anyway, while he's being measured for his outfit, his dressing room is searched, the sealed envelope is discovered in his wallet in his pants. It is recovered, opened, and the ringer is then dated by the handwriting specialist with the same date and time, then replaced in his wallet just as the original had been. This part would have to be done very quickly.
DB is then informed of the gift that Simon Pegg is expecting. A production assistant is sent out to buy a BMX bike, and DB sits down and composes a little monologue involving words associated with bikes to "examine" afterward, in his fake, pseudoscientific "explanation" of how the trick was done.
The number of levels to this trick is nothing short of astounding. It's all about the little details!
One question: how did DB know to get a
red BMX bike?
Maybe there was some form of follow-up to the social-engineering portion. I don't know. Simon might have even told them outright what it was he wanted.
Just so everybody knows, this is all pure speculation, so it should not be in violation of any of the JREF Forums rules as I understand them.
Pick another show in which similar pranks are pulled on people - say, "Just For Laughs". People are genuinely surprised, shocked, or convinced to go along with silly things seriously; but at the end of the prank the "accomplices" all come out and point to the hidden camera and everyone has a "gotcha" laugh. Heck, when a stage magician stuffs a lady in a basket and skewers her with a dozen swords, the trick isn't over until the lady is brought out of the basket and the audience can see she's just fine, and that although they may not know how it was done, obviously it was a trick.
That kind of "reveal" is conspicuously absent from Brown's shows. The way it should go is, after letting our BMX fan sit there and mentally stumble about mystified for a while about why he doesn't remember wanting or writing down a leather jacket, Brown would come out and say "look - we're pulling your leg. You really did write 'BMX bike' and we just switched the envelope as part of the trick; don't think this 'psychological' baloney I just rattled on about actually works in real life." But that doesn't happen in his shows; for all we can tell, Brown lets them wander out of his studio absolutely convinced that he used some genuine psychological mojo on them.
But this is a
magic show, not a candid-camera prank show like
Punk'd.
It's a magic show, so they have to keep that air of mystique. Most magicians rely on some form of ideological misdirection as well as the mechanical slight-of-hand. Not everybody can be Penn & Teller, you know. Within the context of the show, it's all "magic," the supernatural, mysterious unknown, the inexplicable, etc. Derren Brown just chooses to couch his tricks in this pop-psychology woo instead of supernatural or ESP woo. It's merely an "update" of the old traditions; that's the only difference. Because it's a magic show intended as entertainment, I'm not too bummed out that he does that.
