Derren Brown - new series.

[John Jackson]

Bugger. >:(

I recorded it last night only to find that the DVD had recorded the wrong channel. I have no idea how that could have happened. :-[

Apparently, he did the old Forer presentation by giving several people a 'reading' which amazed them with its accuracy, but of course they all got the exactly same reading.

It's a classic and it illustrates subjective validation beautifully.

I think the show is repeated on E4 at 10.30PM on Thursday - for those with dodgy DVD recorders. ;D

[And Introducing... A Leg]

The Forer bit was great: three groups of six in London, California and Barcelona, but always exactly the same reading. (Though I assume the Barcelona one was in Spanish or Catalan).

Played a brilliant trick on Matt Lucus, too. :o

[John Jackson]

Well I did get to see it in the end.

Yes that was a good trick with Matt Lucas - must see if I can reproduce it.

The Forer routine was really good. I don't know whether Derren would describe himself as A Skeptic but a lot of his work really does show people how easily they can be fooled.

He sometimes gets criticised for not being completely honest with his audience (no stooges are involved etc.) but he's a magician: someone who deceives people for entertainment. I don't know why people get so uptight about things like that. ???

I really liked the Cold Reading Clown too ;D Very spooky. :scared:

It's on again tonight. O0

[tkingdoll]

The Forer routine was really good. I don't know whether Derren would describe himself as A Skeptic but a lot of his work really does show people how easily they can be fooled.



He most certainly does, loudly and proudly (most recently on a Radio 5 interview with Simon Mayo).

He and Stephen Fry are the best celebrity skeptics IMO, we should try and get them to endorse this site!

[John Jackson]

He and Stephen Fry are the best celebrity skeptics IMO, we should try and get them to endorse this site!


It has crossed my mind that once we expand a bit more that we could do some interviews etc. with such people (if they're interested).

I admire both Derren Brown and Stephen Fry.

[JayUK]

I met Derren Brown in May after his live magic show here in Plymouth (which was mind blowing BTW go see it next time if you didn't catch it this year). I mentioned I was a supporter of Randi's and said It'd be good if they did something together. But of course anyone who saw the Messiah show would know that he already did a sterling job at showing how easy it is to get people to see dollor signs instead of stop signs.

Cheers

Jamie

[tkingdoll]

I met Derren Brown in May after his live magic show here in Plymouth (which was mind blowing BTW go see it next time if you didn't catch it this year). I mentioned I was a supporter of Randi's and said It'd be good if they did something together. But of course anyone who saw the Messiah show would know that he already did a sterling job at showing how easy it is to get people to see dollor signs instead of stop signs.

Cheers

Jamie


May I ask how he appeared to respond to that? When he was interviewed on Simon Mayo's show, I got the impresion that he brushed aside the Randi mention, and I was wondering what their relationship is. I could just ask Randi I suppose, but I'd be interested to know what your impression was.

[JayUK]

May I ask how he appeared to respond to that?

He came across like he approved of Randi's work. During his show he did a little bit of psychic bashing. He said there were no plans to work with Randi because he is too busy, which is fair enough. He did mention he was a fan of Penn and Teller Bullshit.

[John Jackson]

I saw Derren's show in May 2005.

His stage show is much more like standard mentalism than his TV show is but it was an excellent show. O0

I'm a (very) amateur magician and mentalist so I was trying to spot what he was doing and how he was doing it. I got some of it, but by no means all.

[tkingdoll]

We saw him at the Bham Hippodrome last year, hubby got called up on stage but couldn't be used because he wasn't suggestible enough, presumably.

He was still very excited about it though! (Hubby, not Mr Brown).