Interesting-Turn9046 t1_j99pcma wrote on February 20, 2023 at 9:09 AM

Reply to comment by draxenato in Which people in the TV world (real or fictional) would you classify as a genius? by unitedfan6191

How? He is just a good illusionist who created an even better patter and brand. All of his TV shows are staged as well

draxenato t1_j99xzk2 wrote on February 20, 2023 at 11:12 AM

That's the thing, they're *not* staged. I worked in broadcast television in the UK a while back, and I know people who've worked on his shows, they're not staged.

I myself was an audience member pulled up on stage during one of his tours. I've seen him at work literally inches away from me.

Many years ago I found a video "while sailing the salty seas of the internet". It was a semi-private video (ie not intended for retail) made by the Magic Circle. It was a 3 hour lecture by Derren Brown to the Magic Circle where he demonstrated all his then current material, looked to have been filmed in the early 2000s. He explained everything to a room full of his peers and experts, who were just a few feet away from him, there was no chance of deception and that was the point of the lecture. He used to give similar explanations to his audience in his earlier stage shows, he's open about what he does and how he does it.

He's just very very smart with an incredibly disciplined memory.

Interesting-Turn9046 t1_j9a5d70 wrote on February 20, 2023 at 12:41 PM

>I myself was an audience member pulled up on stage during one of his tours. I've seen him at work literally inches away from me.

I never said his stage shows were staged, they are all legit 'magic'. I said his TV shows were staged. The ones where he makes someone believe they are in a zombie apocalypse, like, come on... I've also spoken to people involved in making those shows who corroborated that the people on it were aspiring actors. They never actually said it was staged, but they sent links to the actors pages online.

Derren Brown is basically just a normal illusionist / magician who made an incredibly powerful brand / patter. He will do a normal force to get you to pick a card but then convinces the audience that the reason you picked the card is that he set up a street food vendor outside your apartment building 3 months ago called 'the 3 of clubs' or something and has actually personally served you 12 times hypnotising you each time without you knowing. It is all nonsense, he is just using slight of hand, forces, props etc. like every stage magician for the past 100 years. He has just managed to convince the layman that he is doing it all through things like 'the power of suggestion' etc. which to his credit is a fucking great brand to build and has made him a lot of money. But it is all nonsense, the whole 'power of suggestion' shtick only works if you are manipulating people for months or years, it doesn't work over an afternoon.

Let's put it this way, there is a 0% chance that Derren will ever get a stage trick wrong. That is because it is all traditional magic, he knows he can't get it wrong because he is using props and or slight of hand to make sure he always gets it right. The man would never risk a trick going wrong because the person in the audience sneezed when they walked past the giraffe statue in the lobby and didn't see it ruining his psychological re programming. If that happens a handful of times, his career is over and having read up on the psychology he attributes to his tricks, there is no way he is actually doing it that way, it is FAR to risky for him