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Forthcoming UK TV - Derren Brown Seance

digital goldfish

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Monday 31st May, Channel 4, 2235, Derren Brown will be doing a live 'Seance'. He is on record as saying he does not belive in psychic phenomenon or contacting the dead, but is instead interested to conduct a Victorian style seance in order to see the public's reaction.. Could be quite interesting; most people won't realise he is a skeptic, and i suspect will get drawn in to it..
 
I've just been to see his live show and he holds a seance during this.

I won't spoil it for everyone but it is very impressive.

A brilliant performer, who is quite clear that he is not a psychic and has no special powers. He performs his illusions ('illusions' isn't really a big enough word for what he does) by sheer skill and dedication.

Interestingly, during his show he launched a 'Penn and Teller - esque' attack on Spiritualism, referencing the Fox sisters debacle.

UK viewers, watch this.
 
Yes, Derren is a top performer - and a decent bloke!

However the public should realise he is a skeptic because he prefaces each TV show by saying that he uses showmanship, suggestion, misdirection, hypnotism, trickery etc, but not actors or stooges.

I took a keen professional interest in his recent TV chess stunt, which was perfectly fair. None of the participants were asked to do anything to help him - instead he used a clever studio layout, misdirection and hard work to achieve his illusion.
 
glee said:
Yes, Derren is a top performer - and a decent bloke!

However the public should realise he is a skeptic because he prefaces each TV show by saying that he uses showmanship, suggestion, misdirection, hypnotism, trickery etc, but not actors or stooges.

I took a keen professional interest in his recent TV chess stunt, which was perfectly fair. None of the participants were asked to do anything to help him - instead he used a clever studio layout, misdirection and hard work to achieve his illusion.
Click to expand...


Might you elaborate?
 
digital goldfish said:
Monday 31st May, Channel 4, 2235
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Now you see, I just read that as the year 2235! "A long time to wait", I thought, "But it'll be impressive, since Derren himself will be dead then!".

I can't wait to see this; Derren Browne is superb. On his show last Friday, using a voodoo doll and the power of suggestion, he managed to shut a new-ager up for long enough to tell her that she really ought not to be so gullible. Marvellous!

Irish
 
Re: Re: Forthcoming UK TV - Derren Brown Seance

Irish Murdoch said:


On his show last Friday, using a voodoo doll and the power of suggestion, he managed to shut a new-ager up for long enough to tell her that she really ought not to be so gullible. Marvellous!

Irish
Click to expand...

Tell us more!

David
 
glee said:
I took a keen professional interest in his recent TV chess stunt, which was perfectly fair. None of the participants were asked to do anything to help him - instead he used a clever studio layout, misdirection and hard work to achieve his illusion.
Click to expand...

Derren is frequently superb. I didn't see the chess stunt, though, but from what I heard about it it was the traditional "beat at least half the players" trick - although getting away with it is the tricky part...!
 
i thought the russian roulette thingy was good , it was ripped apart by the press though , but i thought the build up to the actual firing of the gun was great , if the bullets were real or not made very little difference .
 
That woo woo now realises how your own beliefs and experiences can trick you.

But I'll bet she still goes to Reiki.
 
"You can't argue out rationally that which was not argued in rationally"

Can't remember the source right now, but very true.
 
Derren played 9 players simultaneously (4 grandmasters, 4 masters and a club player).
He announced he would win overall, and threw in a prediction as well.

He used 'mirror' chess to draw 4-4 with the masters. (This is where the players face outwards in a circle, and Derren simply copies the moves made by each player onto the board opposite. So the players are really playing each other, and Derren is guaranteed to score exactly 50%.)
The ninth board was a fine win by Derren, but I am certain he is only a beginner (he himself described his chess as ◊◊◊◊), so I think he was fed his moves by either a strong player in the studio, or even a computer.

Derren also 'predicted' the number of pieces on the board at the end of each game. This was undoubtedly an envelope switch.

Derren was well-organised, hardworking (he had to accurately repeat about 500 chess moves) and polite.
 
IMHO, the reason he revealed how the trick was done was to make everyone think he was able to beat a very good player AND memorise 8 other moves at the same time.
 
The voodoo doll clip was just excellent. What bothers me, though, is that the lady totally missed the lesson and decided to focus on how unbelievable it was that her ring was still on her finger. I'm thinking that she's still doing the Reiki and other nonsense.
 
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