Derren Brown's Amazing Live Show
I went to see Derren's absolutely amazing live show last night and at Dag's request I'll tell you all about it. Before I start though I'd best say not to read this if you are going to see one of other shows on his current tour in the UK as this will definately be a spoiler! In case your not sure who he is, check this out Also, sorry for the length of this post and I know I'm not a particularly good writer but I can't put across his brilliance without explaining each step of his tricks! Hope you enjoy!
He started off by selecting a member of the audience by having a stuffed toy monkey thrown amongst the crowd and after three throws a lady near the back caught it (Which I think was a good fair random selection and it was the way all of the participants were chosen). She then was asked to guess the animal drawn on the back of a large card on stage which she correctly guessed a giraffe. She was then given a combination briefcase and we were told that it was important for the finale to the show and she went back to her seat.
He then did a trick with the psychic test cards (those cards with square, circle, star, cross and wave symbols) where he got a another lady to correctly put her deck of the psychic cards in the same order as his.
Another trick was when five people were selected and they were all given a ball. Four of them had white balls and one had a black one and it was concealed from Derren and the audience who had which ball. Derren then asked them each one question: what was their mother's maiden name, and everyone with a white ball had to lie and the person with the black ball had to tell the truth. He whittled it down to two ladies and then correctly guessed who was telling the truth!
The next trick started with him putting a envelope on a holder at the front of the stage and then telling us to make sure we all knew our seat row and number. He then showed a quick video which he said contained some subliminal messages and that four people would feel compelled to come up on stage. After the rather strange flickering 30 second video, around a dozen people went towards the stage but he only used the first four. He then gave each of them a number and got them to choose from five different coloured envelopes and to sit in any one of four seats on the stage. He then got another person to read out what was in the envelope that he put in the holder at the start of the trick. The envelope said that the four people would consist of one male and three females (which was wrong - it was the other way round but this wasn't a mistake as we found out later). It also said correctly which coloured envelope they wouldn't choose, which order they would sit in the chairs! Then each person read out their seat number as Derren wrote it down and then each person opened the coloured envelope which contained their exact seat number (apart from one bloke which was two seats away)!
The show then took a turn more towards the macabre with him saying that Channel 4 won't let him do the next trick on TV for insurance reasons - and I can see why. He laid out a large tarpaulin sheet and spread out lots of broken glass in a large line. He then got a bloke from the audience who was faily tall and medium build. He then asked for someone who was medically trained and got a lady who was a physiotherapist and both of them verified that is was real broken glass on the sheet. He then put a plastic bag over his head, holding it tight whilst getting the medically trained lady to tap his pulse on the microphone. Nearly at the point of passing out, his pulse went very faint and fast at which point he took the bag off looking very disorientated. He then took his shoes and socks off and walked over the broken glass stamping his feet down and spinning on his feet. He then laid on the glass, stomach down with his head turned so his cheek was on the glass. Then with the help of a stage hand, the bloke then stood on top of him with one foot on his back and one foot on his head. He then brushed off the shards of glass and went back to the medical lady who tapped out his pulse again and after a few seconds it returned back to normal. He managed all this without even cutting himself and without any apparent pain.
Next came the big finale in which he first got the lady with the briefcase back on stage and got her to correctly guess the combination lock. She then opened the case which contained another case which they got back to later. Derren then threw out about ten copies of different national newspapers printed on the day of the show, reading the newspaper name as he threw them into the audience - one of which my friend nearly caught. He then got one person who caught a paper to choose a number between 1 and 10. He choose 3 and the lady on stage said she was happy with that choice. He then went to the third person to catch a paper, which was the Daily Mail, and got them stand up. The lady on stage then chose page 13 and this was removed from the Daily Mail and then passed to someone else in the audience. They then tore the page up into small pieces and brought the pile of tearings on stage. The lady then was asked to choose a number, she chose 7 and Derren counted off the first 7 pieces off of the pile of tearings. She then picked up the eighth piece and was asked to choose one large word from the tearing. She chose the word 'Fascinated' which Derren double checked that this was a completely free choice and calculated that there was appoximately 1.6 million words in all of the papers that were thrown out. They then opened the second case and unravelled a large banner which revealed the word 'Fascinated'!!!!!
He then revealed how it was all done with the help of some video footage which was filmed just off-stage during the show. It showed some of the things that Derren said throughout the show, which at the time I thought I had just misheard him or it was just a slight slip of the tongue, but he was really constantly suggesting page 13, the Mail (esp in the supposed incorrect prediction earlier) and about 'tearing around fascinated' as a child!!
I was absolutely amazed at how easily he could affect the choices that were made and he said that it would've worked on almost everyone. I am still completely bewildered despite me and my friends discussing it throughout almost all of the one and a half hour drive home but all I can do is bow down to his brilliance!!!
He started off by selecting a member of the audience by having a stuffed toy monkey thrown amongst the crowd and after three throws a lady near the back caught it (Which I think was a good fair random selection and it was the way all of the participants were chosen). She then was asked to guess the animal drawn on the back of a large card on stage which she correctly guessed a giraffe. She was then given a combination briefcase and we were told that it was important for the finale to the show and she went back to her seat.
He then did a trick with the psychic test cards (those cards with square, circle, star, cross and wave symbols) where he got a another lady to correctly put her deck of the psychic cards in the same order as his.
Another trick was when five people were selected and they were all given a ball. Four of them had white balls and one had a black one and it was concealed from Derren and the audience who had which ball. Derren then asked them each one question: what was their mother's maiden name, and everyone with a white ball had to lie and the person with the black ball had to tell the truth. He whittled it down to two ladies and then correctly guessed who was telling the truth!
The next trick started with him putting a envelope on a holder at the front of the stage and then telling us to make sure we all knew our seat row and number. He then showed a quick video which he said contained some subliminal messages and that four people would feel compelled to come up on stage. After the rather strange flickering 30 second video, around a dozen people went towards the stage but he only used the first four. He then gave each of them a number and got them to choose from five different coloured envelopes and to sit in any one of four seats on the stage. He then got another person to read out what was in the envelope that he put in the holder at the start of the trick. The envelope said that the four people would consist of one male and three females (which was wrong - it was the other way round but this wasn't a mistake as we found out later). It also said correctly which coloured envelope they wouldn't choose, which order they would sit in the chairs! Then each person read out their seat number as Derren wrote it down and then each person opened the coloured envelope which contained their exact seat number (apart from one bloke which was two seats away)!
The show then took a turn more towards the macabre with him saying that Channel 4 won't let him do the next trick on TV for insurance reasons - and I can see why. He laid out a large tarpaulin sheet and spread out lots of broken glass in a large line. He then got a bloke from the audience who was faily tall and medium build. He then asked for someone who was medically trained and got a lady who was a physiotherapist and both of them verified that is was real broken glass on the sheet. He then put a plastic bag over his head, holding it tight whilst getting the medically trained lady to tap his pulse on the microphone. Nearly at the point of passing out, his pulse went very faint and fast at which point he took the bag off looking very disorientated. He then took his shoes and socks off and walked over the broken glass stamping his feet down and spinning on his feet. He then laid on the glass, stomach down with his head turned so his cheek was on the glass. Then with the help of a stage hand, the bloke then stood on top of him with one foot on his back and one foot on his head. He then brushed off the shards of glass and went back to the medical lady who tapped out his pulse again and after a few seconds it returned back to normal. He managed all this without even cutting himself and without any apparent pain.
Next came the big finale in which he first got the lady with the briefcase back on stage and got her to correctly guess the combination lock. She then opened the case which contained another case which they got back to later. Derren then threw out about ten copies of different national newspapers printed on the day of the show, reading the newspaper name as he threw them into the audience - one of which my friend nearly caught. He then got one person who caught a paper to choose a number between 1 and 10. He choose 3 and the lady on stage said she was happy with that choice. He then went to the third person to catch a paper, which was the Daily Mail, and got them stand up. The lady on stage then chose page 13 and this was removed from the Daily Mail and then passed to someone else in the audience. They then tore the page up into small pieces and brought the pile of tearings on stage. The lady then was asked to choose a number, she chose 7 and Derren counted off the first 7 pieces off of the pile of tearings. She then picked up the eighth piece and was asked to choose one large word from the tearing. She chose the word 'Fascinated' which Derren double checked that this was a completely free choice and calculated that there was appoximately 1.6 million words in all of the papers that were thrown out. They then opened the second case and unravelled a large banner which revealed the word 'Fascinated'!!!!!
He then revealed how it was all done with the help of some video footage which was filmed just off-stage during the show. It showed some of the things that Derren said throughout the show, which at the time I thought I had just misheard him or it was just a slight slip of the tongue, but he was really constantly suggesting page 13, the Mail (esp in the supposed incorrect prediction earlier) and about 'tearing around fascinated' as a child!!
I was absolutely amazed at how easily he could affect the choices that were made and he said that it would've worked on almost everyone. I am still completely bewildered despite me and my friends discussing it throughout almost all of the one and a half hour drive home but all I can do is bow down to his brilliance!!!
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