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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Aibu to think that anyone who believes is derren brown is daft?

411 replies

TENDTOprocrastinate · 26/10/2012 21:50

I have no belief in derren browns psychic ability. his usual hypnosis shows are blatantly all set up with actors/actresses. I have had many an argument about this in the past with dh. His current 'apocalypse' show- if it were real- would be a Jeremy beadle gone (far) too far. However, this apocalypse show is mildly entertaining. At least he is admiting that there are actors involved- though clearly guy who is supposed to be hypnotised is an actor too. (Dh thinks otherwise)

OP posts:
KelperRose · 27/10/2012 20:14

i think it may well be an exercise in 'don't believe everything you read/see online too be true'

You tube is the new opiate of the masses......if you can quote a you tube video it's obviously evidence of the truth...I know someone upthread said they remember this advert , and remembering it sponsoring Friends.

Well I don't ...

I also agree Steve Bronsan is an actor and is probably not even his real name

I do think there will a wist and will watch again next week.

I have faith this will end up being 'well I never saw that coming' outcome as usually happens with Derren Browns shows

HeinousHecate · 27/10/2012 20:22

Grin princess.

noble - humpty face me all you like Grin nothing will ever convince me that a man can simply know, through the power of his mind, how much someone has in their purse. Or pick someone at random out of hundreds and hundreds of people and without knowing them or anything about them, get them up on a stage and read their mind. Or choose a token at random and come into contact with someone in the audience who has that token and know stuff about them? Or blindfold someone and draw something and they, while blindfolded - tell him what it is?

It is trickery. It's great trickery. That's how it works. But what is more likely? That he can do this amazing stuff, or that he works with others to make people believe he can do this amazing stuff?

VivaLeBeaver · 27/10/2012 20:32

Ok, my thoughts on the money in the purse trick.

Iirc, he asks a lot of questions, what job they have, do they have children, are they married, how did they travel to work, what time will they be home, etc.

I think he has done lots of research on how much money certain groups of people have in their purse on certain days of the week and has a rough guess. I also think he probably gets quite a few wrong which are cut out the tv programme.

I've got a copy of the thirteen steps to mentalism books which is the book which started him off doing what he does.

HeinousHecate · 27/10/2012 20:37

That makes a lot of sense.

Whatever it is, it sure as hell isn't seeing into the purse Grin

I'm easily impressed. I grew up being gobsmacked by paul daniels and the lovely debbie mcgee. Grin but I can't help racking (wracking? racking?) my brains trying to think of all the ways things that seem impossible could actually be done.

HeinousHecate · 27/10/2012 20:37

magically seeing.

It could well be physically seeing Grin

VivaLeBeaver · 27/10/2012 20:43

The other possibility is that he has previously done the trick where he stops someone and asks for directions and then says give me your wallet/watch, etc and they hand it over and walk off without seeming to realise what he's done.

Then he gives them the wallet back. This bit is cut out/not filmed. He's had chance to look inside.

Then he does the count your money trick.

Some stuff I have clicked how he does it. When he gets someone to draw a picture and he guesses the picture - he talks 19 to the dozen, firing loads of apparently random waffle just before they start drawing. But there's normally a word slightly emphasised in the middle of it all which subconsciously sticks in their mind, they then draw it. It's often not a picture of the word they draw but something linked to that word. So for instance he emphasises twigs, they draw a tree, he guesses tree.

SneakyNuts · 27/10/2012 20:45

Having met and worked with him, I can tell you now, he is an incredibly clever man. Lovely bloke too and very upfront about what he does.

KelperRose · 27/10/2012 20:48

Personally I think it's good healthy fun, illusion and magic have entertained people for hundreds of years

We all love a mystery and a bit of 'how the hell did you do that'

Derren Brown has never said anyhing other than 'I'm tricking you'

I think he is skilled in NLP and may just have a wee touch of supernatural magic about him?

That other guy the American one who buries homself in ice and undergound ...id not so appealing or believable

I quite like the idea of things mystifying me ....it's almost like santa was reborn and magi does exist

SirBoobAlot · 27/10/2012 20:50

He irritates the shit out of me.

VivaLeBeaver · 27/10/2012 20:50

He does come across as lovely on Facebook.

KelperRose · 27/10/2012 20:53

sneakynuts given you know him what is your take on this lastest programme?

BestIsWest · 27/10/2012 20:55

I have seen him live and I can honestly say I did not spot the gorilla.

gallivantsaregood · 27/10/2012 21:02

I would so LOVE to be Derren Browned!! What a clever clever man!! Love him

snapespeare · 27/10/2012 21:03

I was so absolutely thrilled at the 'arm in the air' thing in Svengali. It was lovely to be a part of something and believe- I say that as a staunch atheist! :)

morethanpotatoprints · 27/10/2012 21:10

YABU if you are saying he is a charlatan, because he has no powers. He makes a point on all his recorded stage shows to state he is a showman and "his act is pure entertainment". YANBU to not like him as its your opinion and taste.
I think he's the most honest of the lot and I like his act, buts thats me

noblegiraffe · 27/10/2012 21:14

Of course he doesn't simply guess what's in their wallet from knowledge gleaned from focus groups or whatever. It's a trick. He has shown in earlier series that he's an amazing pickpocket, it's probably all misdirection and a quick look.

Re reading minds, crap knows how he does it but he has been doing those sorts of tricks for so long and with so many different people including celebrities that it is insane to believe that they are all stooges and not one has gone to the press. Of course he's a magician and skilled at sleight of hand too, so I wouldn't believe that there's no trickery going on, (he says himself that misdirection forms a large part of his act) but it seems when some other street magician does it everyone says 'great trick' but when Derren does it people scream 'fake'.

SneakyNuts · 27/10/2012 21:14

Kelper- So far I think it's brilliant! The young actress wasn't so good but I suppose he can't be blamed for that.
Whatever anyone thinks of him, they can't deny he makes fantastic, entertaining programmes that get people talking.

And no he's not paying me to say this Grin

snapespeare · 27/10/2012 21:25

He doesn't have to pay you sneaky.... He just made you say it! ;-)

I always maintain that Derren would be the absolute best sex of your life, at least you'd think it was, he'd just sit in an armchair in the corner, in a velvet smoking jacket and fire through the times crossword in 5 minutes flat. :)

givemushypeasachance · 27/10/2012 21:29

On the money-in-wallet trick theories - I certainly don't remember being pickpocketed (though of course if I did that would ruin it!) and he wasn't doing any other tricks with people in the run up to filming each person.

My theory is it's the same sort of thing that he does when he tells people what number they're thinking of or what name they're thinking of - he asks them to repeat the word/number in their mind and then they give off subconscious clues that allows him to tell what the initial letter is or he says a few numbers and you can't help but react a little when he gets close to the one you're thinking of. So I knew how much money I had, which meant he just needed to get that number from my brain rather than impossibly seeing into my wallet.

There are logical explanations for everything I'm sure - and some are just almost too obvious for you to consider. Eg. he did a trick in one live show where people wrote down secrets on little cards and put them in a fishbowl on stage. He never obviously went near them but some of the secrets were "revealed" later and it was quite clear he'd just had someone fish a few cards out using tricksy means and read them backstage!

BeardofZeus · 27/10/2012 21:33

I've only read the first page of this; half the people on here clearly don't understand Derren Brown or what he does. He is an incredibly talented man. I haven't seen Apocalypse unfortunately but if you have watched even a fraction of what he does in the past you'd know how fantastic he is at what he does.

Furthermore, hypnotism is as real as you believe it to be, it completely depends on how suggestible you are. When people are referring to how ridiculous it is when he walks up to people and says "sleep" you'll probably find they've been hypnotised beforehand.

caci · 27/10/2012 21:42

I haven't seen apocalypse but i will certainly do now, I like Darren Brown for his cleverness and for disproving magic/ psychic world. So far people who were "traumatised" in his shows were actually people who applied to take part in his shows so they can't complain. I don't like seeing people suffer so we'll see how this one goes.

KelperRose · 27/10/2012 21:44

I do think he is actually quite sexy

KelperRose · 27/10/2012 21:46

I do think there will be a 'BIG REVEAL' next friday.......if there's not I'll eat my hat

noblegiraffe · 27/10/2012 21:46

mushy peas I'm sure in an earlier series Derren took someone's watch and tie off them without them noticing so taking a look in your wallet would probably have been a piece of piss Wink

Most people don't know exactly how much cash they are carrying so it's improbable that he could 'read' it from you.

givemushypeasachance · 27/10/2012 22:09

I had £20 exactly and no change, had been to a cash point earlier in the day (before I'd even come across the filming so that can't have been a setup with spies watching as he wouldn't have known I'd see them and choose to hang around and watch). With other people who had weird amounts of change he was getting it right spot on - except for with one person he got it very far off with, that got used in the show as an example of his fallibility though I think he quite often deliberately does things wrong to create tension or humour... I can't remember now if he asked people to count their money beforehand or not. The episodes are all still on 4OD - might have to go and have a rewatch!