I remember seeing the first ever Derren Brown: Mind Control special back in 2001 and being totally taken in by his explanations about what he was doing. And I think that it was the believability of his act that made Derren Brown so famous. The magic, as he put it, played to people’s intelligence and was attempting, rather than to hide the secrets to instead just make them believable and interesting. Given that we British are a generally cynical bunch, this brand of pseudoscientific magic was a breath of fresh air after a period of magic being thought of as cheesy.
The first three specials were must-see TV: compelling, interesting and addictive. A cult following was inevitable.
As a magician and somebody who knew what was going on 90% of the time, I was always interested to hear what other people had to say about Derren Brown. I would always listen in to conversations in the queue outside the theatre before a live show and it was as clear as day: the psychological aspect of the show was what made it so popular. People believed.
This credibility was first put under threat after a one off special called The Heist, which was in my opinion neither entertaining nor exciting. It also seemed to stretch the premise of what Derren claims he does, to something quite unrealistic.
Then a couple of weeks ago there was the lottery stunt. The stunt itself was good and had it been left well alone, I think it would have been fine. People knew it must be a trick. They would think that, and it would end there. But proposing to explain how he did it? Could he possibly tell the mundane truth? Not our Derren. The explanation, as usual, would be some seemingly complex method fusing magic, suggestion, psychology, misdirection and showmanship…oh, and “deep maths” (whatever that is).
The problem this time was that the explanation was not believable.And how could it be? Even a gullible ameoba knows there’s no way to predict the lottery results. That is why almost all mentalists – and all other notable ones – have decided not to attempt this stunt. Karl Fulves opens his book “Self Working Mental Magic” with a discussion about how mental magic is the only genre of magic where there still remains a question as to whether or not it is real. And the reason for the proverbial question mark still being there is due to the property of the feats attempting being unlikely but possible, as opposed to standard magic, the point of which is to completely defy the physical laws of the world.
For example, it may be possible to tell which of a bunch of small items belongs to a particular person, if the performer was well practised in picking up signals and reading people. It may be possible to tell if somebody is telling the truth or lying and it may be possible to influence somebody into making a particular choice. These things are all possible, if the environment and circumstances are carefully controlled. And genuinely, they really are possible, just quite difficult and not guaranteed. On the other hand, to make the Statue of Liberty disappear off it’s podium is completely impossible. It could not possibly be done. And in it’s own genre of magic – grand illusion – that is quite the point.
We do sell a similar thing at MagicMegaStore.co.uk, though. The trick is called “How To Make The Statue of Liberty Disappear”. It includes a DVD fully explaining how to do it, along with the gimmick you’ll need to make it all possible – 100 sticks of dynamite! (For any slow readers, that last paragraph is a joke. There is no such product. We do not deal in dynamite.)
But to predict the lottery results is completely impossible because a machine chooses the numbers. It is not possible to either predict what numbers it will choose, nor to influence it into choosing any particular numbers. And therefore, it falls completely outside of the premise that Derren Brown has worked under since his rise to fame. So, not surprisingly, nobody believes it.
And I’m hearing it everywhere, “At last, now people know that Derren Brown is a fake”, which seems to me kind of sad, because a lot of what he does is not fake. But if the source loses credibility on one point, the rest of his back catalogue must come under scrutiny as well. And in the minds of people who don’t know any better, it will then be immediately discounted as fake.
Has Derren committed some degree of professional suicide? Only time will tell. I’ll be keeping a close eye on his next tour sales and the viewing figures on the rest of the series. The next episode, which I’m curiously looking forward to, titled How To Control The Nation, will see Derren attempting to control us in our homes while we watch him on TV. I’ll tell you what I think, after I’ve seen it.
Until next time,
Ciao!
