Seen Derren several times live and as a sceptic the shows blew my mind. He is very open about the fact he is not a magician, he is just extremely good at manipulation and mind tricks. I would highly recommend watching a full show!
@@InaudibleWhisper I think the point is that he is open that none of this involves supernatural techniques, with his "magic" being stuff that we all could learn if we put our mind to it.
Well no that's not true at all, he's very open about the fact that he's not psychic etc but he is a magician as well as other things. "this show fuses magic, suggestion, psychology, misdirection and showmanship.. I achieve all my results thru a varied mixture of these techniques"
Derren begins selecting his victims by holding mass auditions and selecting the people most susceptible to suggestion. He does use actors, but never as the person being duped, just as part of a scenario. He once got 4 perfectly law abiding citizens to perform an armed robbery. Did you notice how he quite often touches people on their left shoulder while talking to them? He uses this as a mechanism to reinforce his suggestions. The great thing about Derren is that he educates us on the ways that we're subconsciously manipulated by media, advertising etc. He once filled a shopping mall with visual tricks used by advertisers that would make people more generous, rather than seek personal gratification. He then posed as a homeless guy begging by the entrance. One person gave him £100, another took off their shoes to give to him. His lesson was 'beware of advertising, it's a powerful force'. The assassination stunt was to disprove the CIA's (and other intelligence services) claims that no one can be hypnotised to kill. He proved that they could beyond any doubt. Derren is a fantastic illusionist, his stage shows are pretty epic and mind blowing. But most of all he's an educator that constantly proves that we're all being manipulated, sometimes by some very dark forces with sinister agendas.
You really need to watch the whole episodes, Derren explains a lot more of his process. EDIT: The tricks he does can seem cruel at times, but I think they teach an important lesson about how easily our minds can be manipulated. It something we all need to be more aware of. EDIT 2: I saw him live in a small theatre years ago, it was excellent, very eerie and I remember feeling like I had forgotten the whole show as soon as I left the theatre. Saw it on TV months later and remembered.
Exactly, what some people don't understand is that the screening process for this is a big one. They really need to find the right person who will be psychologically malleable enough to actually have these 'tricks' work on them. It's almost genius on Derren and his team's part to be able to find certain people and actually play out these incredible social experiments. I think some of the ones from the early to mid 2000s wouldn't be allowed today though lol.
black cab drivers are a special breed of cab drivers... they have to know every road and how to get there for all of london, they have to basically go through board certification to be a black cab driver. which is why the cab driver forgetting the london eye was such a big thing
You can be sure that David Blaine did NOT catch a bullet in his mouth. It is a very famous ILLUSION also performed by Penn & Teller for example. It is well worth your time to check out either Derren Brown's TV shows or his stage shows.
One of Derren's first shows, he went to a dog track with a member of the public, and after they had bet on a dog whoch had lost, managed to convince the counter clerk that the ticket was a winner, and get paid out as such...
I'm lucky enough to have known two people who got up close with Derren - one was a crew member on his show "Trick of the Mind", and one was chosen as a participant in a live show. They both assure me it's 100% genuine. The latter described the experience as "inexplicable brain-fog and irresistable convincement". The guy transported to Marrakesh is one of my favourite tricks. All I can say is, it would be almost impossible now, the way security is. But that was another time. I strongly recommend watching as many of his TV shows as you can find, especially Trick of the Mind, and the specials.
Black cab drivers study for between 3-5 years before they get their license, as they have to know every street in London and every possible route and pass an exam called "The knowledge", so it makes what Derren Brown did to the taxi driver even more impressive. I saw him live and the show almost melts your mind.
The best thing about Derren brown is not only is he a magician, but he is always debunking false things such as the paranormal or mediums etc. He doesn’t give away his secrets but he always expresses that he has no ‘special powers’ it’s all power of suggestion with his work. His shows are great but I think the best ones are when he goes and proves faith healers and mediums that they’re idiots and conning people out of money.
He famously does reveal his secrets after almost every show he will either explain some of his biggest tricks or have a follow up show that is a BTS of how he prepares his tricks.
@@TheJamsplat Yeah but what I mean is he doesn’t say to the full extent of how he does things. Like he’ll explain about things being like suggestive thought or the methods he uses. But obviously the skills he has to perfect those methods have taken him years to perfect and master.
If you have ever seen the TV show The Mentalist, the main character is actually based on Derren Brown (some of the tricks are based on things Derren has done as well). The creator of the show is British and loved Derrens TV shows.
I was part of a mass audience hypnosis at one of Derren's live shows. I was a skeptic and figured it would be good for a laugh. Followed his instructions and next thing I knew, I couldn't move a muscle. I was completely frozen on the spot until he told me I could move again. It was such a surreal experience and would love to see him live again.
Derren is a marvellous showman. He never uses stooges or camera tricks in his show (other than the extras of course) He has travelled to USA for some of his shows...like turning an audience of atheists into religious believers.
He never uses stooges, or camera tricks _when he declares that in the show_ , something notably absent in his lottery prediction which was a camera trick!
I've saw a Derren Brown show live once at the theatre. A lot of his act depends on suggestibility. He doesn't always say what you think he's saying. That's how he gets to fool the audience. It's very weird how people hear what they expect to hear, but also very entertaining!
If I remember correctly, Derren constantly emphasised the word “one” to the hypnotised subject, as in “you’re the right one”, and “make sure you choose the right one” or similar, to prompt him subliminally to load the bullet in chamber one, which, luckily, he did. But it’s only noticeable when watching replays, it wasn’t when seeing it live! Scary, as the power of suggestion doesn’t always work!
He does deliberately do an audition process before that and he picks the most susceptible person out of the 5 or so people that he started the show with.
One of my friends went to see him a few years ago in Plymouth, with her husband and another couple. The wife of the other couple was 'chosen' as one of his victims and my friend was amazed (I can't remember what happened) but she said that her friend definitely wasn't a plant in the audience. I went to see another stage hypnotist many years ago and ended up on stage as part of the act... I can't remember much about the evening, just what I was told after it and I had apparently been in floods of tears on stage, as I was told someone had kidnapped my kitten (I didn't have a kitten) and then laughing hysterically as I thought a man in the front row had secretly told me a joke - that night I also gave up smoking! The hypnotist told me that whenever I had a cigarrette after that night I would taste and smell burning plastic, when I lit a cigarrette - it worked and I had no clue why!
The game show one where he shows how people follow the herd when making decisions is my favorite You ought to watch that one Also the great Art robbery is great too
I've seen a couple of his live shows. Very impressive ,and what these clips don't show is that the shows are very entertaining and funny too. He's a showman. Clearly there are tricks involved - he's not Merlin! But the mind stuff is impressive. There was clip on his TV show when he paid Hawkers (Times Square?) with blank paper notes and they accepted it. Even gave change. I think the victims just get nonplussed by his apparent sincerity and doubt themselves and go with it. He is good at cold reading - and reveals that on screen to debunk psychics. In his live shows he choses volunteers from crowd by such methods as throwing a frisbee into the crowd. So they can't be plants.
Derren is definitely very real I've been to his shows many times and live its even better I think precisely because it's live and there is very little space for any TV style manipulation. On one occasion he hypnotized ME in the way that I was aware of everything what was going on but couldn't sit down I was stuck standing up in the theatre and had my arm up for half of the show. Some of his theatre shows are on UA-cam I believe very fascinating watch you should check him out.
My daughter was on his show in 2013 about breaking habits, her's was smoking. She only restarted this year! She is a media consultant who had to audition for the show with all the others.
There is a whole bunch of videos on UA-cam of Derren's talents. I'd agree with others that his stage shows are exceptionally impressive as it is in front of a live audience. Also, the thing with Derren, he *always* clearly says he is not a magician. He will explain "mind control" tricks, just not in detail, which means (in my eyes) that he doesn't use stooges
Darren is the guy who hypnotises Watson in ‘Anderson’s Version of how Sherlock survived The Reichenbach Fall’ in ‘Sherlock’ (the Benedict Cumberbatch version). One American YT reactor said “what is he, a wizard?” Well…yeah. He did one TV show called ‘The Heist’ where he ‘persuaded’ several different people, to individually hold up and rob a security van. It was hellishly tense and all the victims had to be ‘de-programmed’ afterwards. Interestingly, one guy who refused to follow Derren’s instructions early on (stealing candy from a convenience store - which was all previously set up but the participants didn’t know) was dropped from the show immediately. So anyone who knows their own mind and standards cannot be manipulated, clearly). There is a show called ‘Messiah’ filmed in the USA where amongst other things he claims to be a TV evangelist, making people collapse without even touching them, approaching them from behind. Which kind of blows the lid off the whole TV Evangelist thing! He also claims to be a psychic medium, holding seances, which he is at pains to state “if this makes you feel uncomfortable, imagine how it makes me feel, because, it’s just a trick….” He is also impressive live - see if you can find the ‘Gorilla’ stunt. I was there and still can’t work out how he did that!
Oh you have to check out more of, Derren. Full episodes might be an issue. But even in your own time, check out his show, The Assassin. It is scarier than you think.
The best thing he does is tell everyone ( audience ) that what he does is not magic/supernatural or anything non human, it is all suggestion/misdirection and planning. It is something we all do at some level ( singing a song and another person hears it and sings the same song -- it is just low level manipulation ). Derren does the same thing but takes it to level 101. Have to say the What Mojo collections are not a good representation of what he does. It is well worth watching a full show, it is an experience rather than just a show -- quite brilliant.
I went to see one of his shows and it was amazing. He was able to tell the person beside me what they studied in college and what they do for work. All the while sitting miles back in the crowd. Impressive.
Derren has stated on many occasions that he uses misdirection. I would argue his most infamous performance (Russian Roulette) was the best example of this. He knew exactly which chamber contained the round and so he could make a big performance about being scared despite being in complete safety. The man is a truly fantastic showman and a very good mentalist. I believe his best performances are concentrated more upon the psychological aspects and the very best of these was when he created a false Christian preacher. He wasn't attacking religion when he did this, instead he attacked people who abuse religion in order to gain status and money. I loved him for that because he revealed many of the tricks used by those who don't really believe in god but know how easy it is to make money from those who do.
Derren is awesome, he never claims to do magic, it's all logic and psychology tricks. He usually tells you at the end how he did it - and then finishes with one last thing that baffles you. The chess one, for example, all he did was play the move from the previous game so the grand masters were actually playing each other. Definitely worth watching his shows in your spare time The Simon Pegg one, you see him tap his arm and you can hear cue words. Pegg picks a red bike, in your video you can see all of the red in the room and the spinning wheel like tape deck etc. It's all very cool
When I saw him live he was clear that there were no camera tricks and that it is all psychological suggestions. The live shows have him sometimes asking for volunteers but he often turns some down and picks the ones he thinks are going to be suitable. It all seems to be very elaborate psychological manipulation that takes months to set up. Good stuff!
I used to work in a theatre in Bristol, Derren's hometown. Derren used to a lot of his early shows with us, and we also worked a lot with with an actor/magician who helps invent and develop tricks for Derren and also more recently David Blane. We used to have late night staff & friends poker nights - it never ended well!
He's a master of reading body language, eyes, even the slightest micro movements of face, blinks, everything. Obsessively studied such things for 20 years after being bullied at School as a self defense mechanism way of dealing with people...before he became famous.
"A BM, or X-box" Simon: "BMX bike" The more you watch Derren, the more you think you'll pick up on subtle clues like that. The problem is he'll do that again and again and you'll still be clueless.
Go to one of his live shows. He randomly selects participants, often by throwing [without looking] something into the audience, which he then asks whoever catches it to also throw it behind them and so on. If you get picked, you'll know it isn't fixed.
Darren Brown is amazing! He often explains exactly how he does some of his "tricks", but a great deal of what he does, is psychological manipulation, the type of things that are used in sales, advertising and con artistry... but Brown has a remarkable understanding of these "tricks". Please, watch a full episode of one of his early series... Trick of the Mind, or perhaps one of his live shows, which are not just stunningly awesome, they're also very, very funny.
I saw one of his live shows in September. Some of the more light-hearted moments saw him make audience members forget their names and also make them forget the number 7 existed. They were counting their fingers and freaking out because they kept counting 11 🤣
Some of his great clips are where he shows exactly how he does some of his tricks. Like the one against all of the chess players. He basically does the exact move to the next person that the current master did against him. By doing this in a big circle, it REALLY ends up being each chess master playing against the chess master to his left.. I hope this makes sense, Darren explains it at the end of that episode.
One of the points you made was how can he make someone shoot some body?, he as explained in the past that anyone who does nt want to be hypnotised , won t respond to the suggestions he may make, so its picking the right person who is susceptible to hypnotism, keep doing what your doing guys....
Have watched Darren brown in action. He is incredible in how he manages to persuade people to perceive an alternative reality. Never seen anyone else like him. He has always stated that he is trying to show people how easily they can be manipulated. He is the best in the world at what he does with his experiments. The bullet experiment was legitimate and loaded. It was a truly intense experience. Never seen anyone else quite like him On a side note, he is a really nice person
I never miss a show, if I can help it. He selects the most susceptible members of the audience, but he's never met them before, and he never uses plants. Apparently. He is so good and so labyrinthine, you never know what he's up to, but he never humiliates people, as other illusionists do, and every person who appears in his programs has given permission. But it's a bloody good show.
the chess one is relatively easy to know how he does it, he just matches the moves from one chess master to the next table so they are essentially playing each other not Darren.
Derren Brown is 100% legit. He explains how he does all of his tricks on his shows and repeatedly states that what he does has a logical explanation. He has spoken out against so called psychics, faith healers etc as charlatans and fraudsters on numerous occasions and made shows showing exactly how they do it. He once did a show on evangelical preachers in America and he did a session with a group of people of mixed faiths and no faiths and “instantly converted” them, causing them all to deeply question their beliefs in a matter of moments. Thank god he isn’t malicious
Round about the time of Roulette, I was already a fan of his work. He sometimes does demonstrations that will work for some at home. I was watching with friends and said, after he had explained some of the suggestions he'd made without being noticed, "I'd trust him with my life." Meaning, he's clearly got some decent morals that he can resist utterly abusing his skills. My friend said, "Why? How can you have blind faith in someone that can manipulate how you think, feel, behave..." And that actually made me feel quite odd. It still does actually. He could be positively heinous and convince the world he's a saint!
The chess trick was relatively easy - he pairs games he played black with games he played white - when white moved he copied the move then when black moved on the other he copied that move so both games were identical. His greatest trick was a program called miracles for sale where he trained a guy in the tricks of the faith healers. Curing people with one leg longer than the other - a blind man and a deaf man - and he got them to do it in major USA faith healing meetings in front of thousands
The most impressive magician/illusionist I've ever seen, is a young guy who goes by the name of Dynamo. He has performed street tricks all over the world. One that comes to mind first was in a restaurant with butterfly themed wallpaper, at the same moment, all the butterflies come to life and fill the room.
He hypnotised volunteers, and then woke them up in their own real life trick of treat! Obviously he pre selects those Mose easily susceptible to hypnotism and mysticism.
Derren Brown is the UKs version of Harry Houdini. He's the best in the World because he is not a Magician, but an expert on psychological, emotional , and perceptual illusionist who has studied everything to do with how the brain and mind work.
Derren is brilliant he does do shows he tours a lot not just in the UK but all around the world 🌎 My brother was on the show with the gun your invited too meet him in a big room you all take your seat before he comes in the room and then he starts to go around the room to choose someone to be live on his show my brother got down to the last 10 and then Derren told them what his illusion was he told them if they wanted to be chosen to stand next to him my brother didn’t stand next to him because he said it was just too dangerous so he pulled out but he said the things he’d done through the day was brilliant he said it was an amazing experience he’ll never forget Love 💕 from Denise in Yorkshire England 🏴👏👏👏👏👍🥰👋.
Derren is very good. I've been watching his stuff since he first aired on TV and have been to all of his stage shows (apart from his most recent one, which was cancelled due to global stuff going on! And rebooked for next year) and his various talks etc. I've seen many of his live shows multiple times. He doesn't use stooges, but obviously thinks aren't always as they seem, as he says (or used to say) at the start of his TV shows, he uses magic, misdirection and showmanship. There are some things which are just tricks, other things which are just hypnosis/psychology, etc, and some things which are a fusion of things. I applied for the Russian Roulette special back in 2004. He came on TV to say he was looking for someone to shoot him. I thought 'I can do that' and so applied. I got through the first round of being shortlisted, but obviously didn't make it to being the person who eventually loaded the gun. I have applied for a couple more of his TV specials. The furthest I've gotten in the auditions is with The Assassin special, where I got to the stage of having to attend an event to shortlist people further. I didn't know at the time what he wanted volunteers for, you never usually know what you are applying for, just that you are applying for something and going through various stages of being shortlisted, and even if you get told you have been unsuccessful, doesn't always mean you haven't been successful. There are many times the successful person is told they were unsuccessful and then over the coming months Derren is collaborating with the person's family or friends, setting up cameras in their home and streets or work etc to do whatever it is they will be a part of. Being a hypnotherapy trainer I could recognise what he was doing with us all and the types of traits he was looking for in the person/people he would end up choosing. He narrowed down the group I was in to just a handful of people and likely had a few more groups he narrowed down and then those handfuls of people were narrowed down further to the person on the programme. So it isn't like he is just picking someone off of the street and 20 minutes later having them assassinate Stephen Fry, but rather choosing from thousands of people who apply, to test hundreds of people, to get a selection of dozens of people, to pick one of those people who is most responsive to what specifically he needed them to be like for the show. At his stage shows, I have turned up hours early in the past and seen some bits he does before the show even starts, that unless you were there hours early (which some others are) you wouldn't necessarily realise he had done some of those normal 'magic' bits. I've not noticed him do that in his later shows, but his first couple of live shows he did. But what he does in his shows has changed a little over the years, with fewer tricks where he can appear more impressive by meeting some people beforehand. The commentary on his early DVD's is great. I really hope you react to some full episodes of his TV series and perhaps his stage shows. The Marrakesh trick, he just hypnotised the person as they got into the photobooth at a train station and then kept them hypnotised as they were taken from the train station, to the airport, on the plane and placed in a replica photobooth in Marrakesh. He does similar on a series he made in the US (where he tried to see if he could get a US audience - clips from the series were used in a UK series he made a year later). He is sat on a hill and tells a person the sun will disappear if he draws a circle with a stick in the mud and rubs it out 3x. The lad does this. On the 3rd time, Derren does a rapid hypnotic induction on the person, lays the person down, returns after the sun has set, sits the person up, brings him out of hypnosis and to the lad, it is as if he has just rubbed out the circle for a third time and the sun had disappeared, he doesn't realise he actually lay hypnotised for hours until the sun had set. In my early days I used to record myself doing a lot of similar hypnotic stuff with my best friend (who unfortunately passed away last year). We would do things like putting needles through his hand, making him see spoons bending before his eyes (like the scene in the Matrix with the child - Derren did this in one of his TV shows, having people see spoons or forks bend before their eyes, while everyone else could see it wasn't bending at all), or removing a brick from his mind so that terror sets in (another thing Derren did in one of his first TV programmes) and hypnotic seance's (this is one of the first things I did here on UA-cam back in 2007 when I set up my UA-cam channel) and sitting next to people, hypnotising them using breathing and then walking away (Derren ended up taking this to another level, hypnotising someone using his breathing and body language and then he went over to them and suggested they walked into a shop and stole a TV - which they did). There are very few reactions to Derren Brown stuff on UA-cam. He has done things like convincing people to do armed robbery, convincing people to murder, convincing people they have the confidence to land a plane, convincing people there has been a zombie apocalypse, convincing people they have murdered someone they haven't murdered, convincing people to protect others they wouldn't normally step up and protect, and so much more...
There are some things Derren does which work surprisingly well on a lot of people. He did a trick where he had a lot of people in a shopping mall suddenly put their right arm up in the air. I was telling my grandparents about it and my Nan didn't believe it would work on her. I said similar to what Derren has said to suggest to those in the shopping mall and right on cue Nan's right arm shot up in the air, she noticed it and pulled it down with her other hand. In staff meetings I used to have competitions with a colleague to see who could hypnotise the most people in the meeting. We would use our breathing to have as many people in the room sitting hypnotised, eyes closed and silent. This is a skill I would practice on buses or other public transport and in cafe's etc. In work I used to induce toothache in those who didn't believe they could respond to this stuff (in a similar way to Derren inducing toothache on his show), with my logic being that for someone skeptic who believed they couldn't respond, this would make a good convincer because they wouldn't be likely to 'play along' and develop toothache. In work I also used to make managers I disliked forget things (like Derren making the taxi driver forget where the London Eye is and almost be blind to it even when they can see it, similar to another trick he did of making people on the London Underground forget what stop they were getting off at) and do other things influencing staff. A lot of the psychological stuff works well on a large proportion of people. It doesn't work easily on everyone, but it works enough that you can expect it is likely to work when you go to do it.
As a fan and a subscriber, I would love to see the reactions to full episodes of Derren Brown's best moments. I know that long videos and full episodes are not the point of this channel, but it would be fantastic to see you react to the full process that he describes in each episode. Derren Brown is some of the best of British TV of the 21st century. I'm also aware that most of his episodes are aggressively copyrighted so this may be impossible, but it would be so fun to watch intelligent and perceptive Americans reacting to this British icon. I have been to two of his live shows, nothing is staged: he vets the audience for suggestability before the show begins, but this is not a deceptive thing, he is very open about the fact that some people are simply more vulnerable to his techniques than others. P.S. Derren Brown is probably going to become a British national treasure. He is largely adored here.
I've seen his stage show and its a combination of oral/visual/aural manipulation and magic tricks but melded together in such a way that makes you think he's reading your mind.
Seen Derren Brown Live before and watched all his specials and tv shows. He is 100% legit and does not use actors or stooges (for the target person}) he is just highly gifted at mis-direction and understands how the human mind works better than anyone I can think of. Btw there are a number of American reactors who I have recommended Derren to but you're the only ones that actually have checked his stuff out. You should check his full shows out, Personal favourites are The Heist, The System and Russian Roulette.
His stage shows are available for free on youtube [I'm pretty sure it's an official channel as well]. It would be really interesting to see your reactions to one of the shows, even if it's just highlights without sound or video [for copyright reasons].
"You can have anything you want, like A 'B,M' (touches Peggs' arm on the letters A, B and M). Then he moves hand away then says "or an X-(touches arm again) Box". Put those arm touches together and what do you get? A BMX! He puts those letters or words into your thoughts. Derren is also banned from a lot of Las Vegas casinos, as his 'card counting' is superb.
The Simon Pegg one wasn't done by suggestion. He switched Simon's note at some point from "BMX" (which is what he really wrote) to "leather jacket". This is a classic magic trick. The whole bit about implanting BMX into his head was invented as a clever way to explain it. Misdirection!
I've seen Derren live several times and he's amazing! He's very good at misdirection and manipulating you into something. I remember the start of one show there were people playing table tennis or something on the stage and then a video or something came on and nobody noticed one of the people swapped out for a person in a gorilla suit for 10 seconds or so. He told us it happened and everyone doubted it but he wad video - facing out into the audience to show it was us - of it happening. I also ended up participating in another show in a minor way. People had been asked to write a number on a sheet of paper when they arrived and they were collected for basically the big finale - and kept on the stage where they could be seen. I don't remember exactly how it worked as it was about 11 years ago (I think?) but it ended up with some members of the audience (including me) getting a "random" bit of paper. We had to read the numbers out and they were the numbers he'd predicted we'd guess. I think my number was 9 which was ok. It only dawned on me after that I'd been manipulated into saying 9 and not 6 by a line being under it. I'd hazard a guess that most people wouldn't think of doing that and yet me sheet had it. I'd highly recommend watching his shows - or seeing him live if you ever get the chance! His things are often not the most ethical but he does it to make a point and with a lot of his tricks he goes on to explain how he does it (by manipulating people's thinking of probability of something happening and the like). It's absolutely fascinating.
Derren is very real. I remember watching one of his shows with my mother, and when we were watching it I told her there was something wrong at a particular part. They showed it again at the end and he'd added an incongruous word in the middle of a sentence at that point.
I had a girlfriend who was a dj for a club on a seaside resort. The club often had magicians and hypnotists. She told me that certain hypnotist always picked out the same few people from the crowd. They were all plants. So to were the magicians audience members. Now I'm not saying all magicians and hypnotists use 'plants'. But let's say that some definitely do... :)
I thought the trick you did at the start was great by the way., I've no idea how you vanished and then reappeared like that! Well done! And, as many others have said, you really need to react to a full episode from 1 of Derren's shows (there are some on UA-cam I think) as you can't really appreciate what he does from a "top10" EDIT: Darren has his own UA-cam channel, so you should react to some of the videos he's done on YT! He has the full episode of "The Heist" on there, which I highly recommend, as well as his live show "The Gathering". They're both an hour long, so maybe too long to react to (unless you edit it I guess) but I reckon you should just watch them in your own time. His Faith Healer documentary is amazing too if you see it on his channel - Derren loves exposing frauds.
Yes but just because he can do it with the power of suggestion doesn’t make all those people frauds. It shows how powerful the human mind is to literally manipulate matter, something that science is only beginning to understand. And in a sense, hypnosis IS mind over matter, perhaps in more of a literal sense than we give it credit for, because it’s dressed up as a “trick”. The process of one person eliciting healing in another is probably not that far removed from the kind of mental manipulation that people like Derren can do. And his ability is an extremely rare talent, which means he intuitively understands something about the way the mind and reality interrelate - and reality is arguably subjective and only a perception of the mind anyway, being different for each of us.
His 'tricks' seem cruel but most of the time he does them to highlight just how possible it is to manipulate people and uses that knowledge to hopefully take some of the really evil manipulaters down. Derren always makes sure all the subjects are safe and have proper aftercare so they are not left psychologically damaged. Many of his subjects signed up for his show, for example his series called Trick or Treat, the subject picks an envelope at random knowing it could contain either trick or treat. They know this yet still sign up for it. A trick is a scary or crazy hypnosis trick. A treat would be a hypnosis with a very life changing positive outcome, like curing a phobia or giving them confidence, or just a really memorable, happy experience. His tricks are also planned a long time in advance, even a year or more. So a subject could sign up to be in his show but they are then sent home knowing the manipulation could begin anytime over the next year and they might not even realise it has begun. It's very subtle suggestion over a long period of time. It's how sleeper agents are brainwashed into doing awful things. It's scary but I like that Derren Brown has brought these techniques into the public awareness, using harmless entertainment to highlight a very worrying ability.
This guy is amazing. Watch some of his live shows or some of the "Tricks and Treats" from his series. The 30,000ft episode is a tearjerker of goodwill.
Went to see him live. He selects audience participants for "hypnosis" by letting the audience bounce a beach ball around while he looks away then shouts stop. There was one audience member he looked them dead in the eyes for a few seconds and then said "nope, it doesn't work on you, Next!", so there is clearly some people more or less susceptible to what ever he does. He explained every single trick he did that night, some of which took months of prep in the local area - including setting up subliminal messages in local newspaper advertising.
London taxi drivers (or “black cabbies”) have to pass a test called “The Knowledge” proving they have memorised every single street in London, which is far from easy when you see what they look like on a map! London is not built on a grid system like modern cities and the roads go out from the centre according to the original Roman layout. Then there are winding and hidden streets and lanes all over the place. It has been shown with neural imaging that the hippocampus portion of the brains of London taxi drivers is significantly larger than it is in the rest of us due to the learning required to commit this complex information to memory.
Like many illusionists, Derren is banned from playing in casinos. He chose not to go to the USA, but did an off-Broadway show just before the pandemic. Top grades from all the critics.
My 3 favourite Derren Brown experiments are Derren Brown: The Experiments (2011) episode 2 - Remote Control Derren Brown: Apocalypse (2012) part 1&2 Derren Brown: Trick of the Mind (2004) season 2, episode 4 - waking dead game
In case anyone wants to check them out, here are the UA-cam links Derren Brown: The Experiments (2011) episode 2 - Remote Control ua-cam.com/video/ReUHhStG70k/v-deo.html Derren Brown: Apocalypse (2012) part 1&2 Part 1 ua-cam.com/video/o_CUrMJOxqs/v-deo.html Part 2 ua-cam.com/video/Lgvk1pj_Eto/v-deo.html Derren Brown: Trick of the Mind (2004) season 2, episode 4 - waking dead game ua-cam.com/video/dPZqX3iox-Q/v-deo.html
Thorpe Park is a theme park in England and they worked with Derron Brown to help create a ride. It's called Derron Brown's Ghost Train. It's an interactive ghost train with VR headsets. It's pretty messed up
Of course the thing about hypnotism is that the subject has to be fully willing to be hypnotised in the first place: so it would be impossible to hypnotise someone to shoot someone if they didnt really want to do it . His tricks are not fake, but there is an awful lot of preparation involved, in some of his tricks he would 'interview' hundreds and hundreds of people in order to find the most easily suggestible candidate.
Thew chess one he was remembering the moves they made then playing that move against the play across from them in the circle , they were all sat in a circle and he essentially made them play each other
The largest power he is is that he's famous. It means that if people are asked to show up to audition for a special, he can pick the one that's most likely to succumb to and follow his suggestions. Can anybody be made to kill a kitten? Probably not. But if you can choose from 5000 people and pick the most susceptible one, yeah you can. Not to say what he does isn't amazing, because it is, but the pre-selection which he is totally open about is the largest advantage he has.
The way Derren won against the great chess players was to "just" use his memory, see their moves, then use those moves against other boards. So like, board 1 really played against board 5, 2 against 6 etc. and not against Derren.
Have a read about NLP and other tricks. Things like repeating keywords or slapping table to break concentration.. You can watch the fulll shows and he explains some of it.
Derren is an honest illusionist. He does not believe in psychics/mediums etc. In fact, he actively works to demonstrate how they manipulate people and disprove their claims. He always makes it clear that what he is doing is not magic or psychic etc, he is just using misdirection and showmanship. He never uses stooges or actors.
Seen Derren several times live and as a sceptic the shows blew my mind. He is very open about the fact he is not a magician, he is just extremely good at manipulation and mind tricks. I would highly recommend watching a full show!
He is definitely also a magician and uses traditional tricks as part of his act, him downplaying that is part of the manipulation.
@@InaudibleWhisper I think the point is that he is open that none of this involves supernatural techniques, with his "magic" being stuff that we all could learn if we put our mind to it.
Totally agree. Seen him several times and he was incredible every time.
Well no that's not true at all, he's very open about the fact that he's not psychic etc but he is a magician as well as other things. "this show fuses magic, suggestion, psychology, misdirection and showmanship.. I achieve all my results thru a varied mixture of these techniques"
@@NThorpyUK The point is he is often quite explicit that he has no magical powers and uses the term in that basis... sleight of hand, diversion etc.
Derren begins selecting his victims by holding mass auditions and selecting the people most susceptible to suggestion. He does use actors, but never as the person being duped, just as part of a scenario. He once got 4 perfectly law abiding citizens to perform an armed robbery.
Did you notice how he quite often touches people on their left shoulder while talking to them? He uses this as a mechanism to reinforce his suggestions.
The great thing about Derren is that he educates us on the ways that we're subconsciously manipulated by media, advertising etc.
He once filled a shopping mall with visual tricks used by advertisers that would make people more generous, rather than seek personal gratification. He then posed as a homeless guy begging by the entrance. One person gave him £100, another took off their shoes to give to him. His lesson was 'beware of advertising, it's a powerful force'.
The assassination stunt was to disprove the CIA's (and other intelligence services) claims that no one can be hypnotised to kill. He proved that they could beyond any doubt.
Derren is a fantastic illusionist, his stage shows are pretty epic and mind blowing. But most of all he's an educator that constantly proves that we're all being manipulated, sometimes by some very dark forces with sinister agendas.
Guys this Top 10 list doesn't give a fair impression of how good Derren Brown is. You'd be better off watching one of his filmed theatre performances.
You really need to watch the whole episodes, Derren explains a lot more of his process.
EDIT: The tricks he does can seem cruel at times, but I think they teach an important lesson about how easily our minds can be manipulated. It something we all need to be more aware of.
EDIT 2: I saw him live in a small theatre years ago, it was excellent, very eerie and I remember feeling like I had forgotten the whole show as soon as I left the theatre. Saw it on TV months later and remembered.
Exactly, what some people don't understand is that the screening process for this is a big one. They really need to find the right person who will be psychologically malleable enough to actually have these 'tricks' work on them. It's almost genius on Derren and his team's part to be able to find certain people and actually play out these incredible social experiments. I think some of the ones from the early to mid 2000s wouldn't be allowed today though lol.
@@michael_177 It’s a shame, I used to love his shows. This has put me in the mood to watch them all again 😁
The lessons aren't always just about manipulation, but are the catalyst to someone being a better person.
@@zoeadams2635 absolutely, good point
Don't always believe Darren's explanation, as the explanation is also there to throw you off the sent.
black cab drivers are a special breed of cab drivers... they have to know every road and how to get there for all of london, they have to basically go through board certification to be a black cab driver. which is why the cab driver forgetting the london eye was such a big thing
You can be sure that David Blaine did NOT catch a bullet in his mouth. It is a very famous ILLUSION also performed by Penn & Teller for example. It is well worth your time to check out either Derren Brown's TV shows or his stage shows.
Yeah, you'd have to be pretty naive to actually believe you could catch a bullet like that. lmao Even if his teeth were made of diamonds...
It's way older than Penn and Teller. People were doing it back during the days of muzzle loading guns
@@nobudgetcomments2742 It certainly is. I only used P & T as a current example.
One of Derren's first shows, he went to a dog track with a member of the public, and after they had bet on a dog whoch had lost, managed to convince the counter clerk that the ticket was a winner, and get paid out as such...
Oh yeah, that was great. "I'm off to collect my losings now," lol.
I'm lucky enough to have known two people who got up close with Derren - one was a crew member on his show "Trick of the Mind", and one was chosen as a participant in a live show. They both assure me it's 100% genuine. The latter described the experience as "inexplicable brain-fog and irresistable convincement". The guy transported to Marrakesh is one of my favourite tricks. All I can say is, it would be almost impossible now, the way security is. But that was another time. I strongly recommend watching as many of his TV shows as you can find, especially Trick of the Mind, and the specials.
Black cab drivers study for between 3-5 years before they get their license, as they have to know every street in London and every possible route and pass an exam called "The knowledge", so it makes what Derren Brown did to the taxi driver even more impressive. I saw him live and the show almost melts your mind.
The best thing about Derren brown is not only is he a magician, but he is always debunking false things such as the paranormal or mediums etc. He doesn’t give away his secrets but he always expresses that he has no ‘special powers’ it’s all power of suggestion with his work. His shows are great but I think the best ones are when he goes and proves faith healers and mediums that they’re idiots and conning people out of money.
He famously does reveal his secrets after almost every show he will either explain some of his biggest tricks or have a follow up show that is a BTS of how he prepares his tricks.
@@TheJamsplat Yeah but what I mean is he doesn’t say to the full extent of how he does things. Like he’ll explain about things being like suggestive thought or the methods he uses. But obviously the skills he has to perfect those methods have taken him years to perfect and master.
If you have ever seen the TV show The Mentalist, the main character is actually based on Derren Brown (some of the tricks are based on things Derren has done as well).
The creator of the show is British and loved Derrens TV shows.
I was part of a mass audience hypnosis at one of Derren's live shows. I was a skeptic and figured it would be good for a laugh. Followed his instructions and next thing I knew, I couldn't move a muscle. I was completely frozen on the spot until he told me I could move again. It was such a surreal experience and would love to see him live again.
he asked the audience at home once to take part so me and my husband did, i fucking fainted and he threw up, it was so weird
Derren is a marvellous showman. He never uses stooges or camera tricks in his show (other than the extras of course)
He has travelled to USA for some of his shows...like turning an audience of atheists into religious believers.
He never uses stooges, or camera tricks _when he declares that in the show_ , something notably absent in his lottery prediction which was a camera trick!
Actually of the too of my head Svengali live show stuck to my mind quite a lot as one of the best. But they are all amazing.
I've saw a Derren Brown show live once at the theatre. A lot of his act depends on suggestibility. He doesn't always say what you think he's saying. That's how he gets to fool the audience. It's very weird how people hear what they expect to hear, but also very entertaining!
If I remember correctly, Derren constantly emphasised the word “one” to the hypnotised subject, as in “you’re the right one”, and “make sure you choose the right one” or similar, to prompt him subliminally to load the bullet in chamber one, which, luckily, he did. But it’s only noticeable when watching replays, it wasn’t when seeing it live! Scary, as the power of suggestion doesn’t always work!
He does deliberately do an audition process before that and he picks the most susceptible person out of the 5 or so people that he started the show with.
One of my friends went to see him a few years ago in Plymouth, with her husband and another couple. The wife of the other couple was 'chosen' as one of his victims and my friend was amazed (I can't remember what happened) but she said that her friend definitely wasn't a plant in the audience. I went to see another stage hypnotist many years ago and ended up on stage as part of the act... I can't remember much about the evening, just what I was told after it and I had apparently been in floods of tears on stage, as I was told someone had kidnapped my kitten (I didn't have a kitten) and then laughing hysterically as I thought a man in the front row had secretly told me a joke - that night I also gave up smoking! The hypnotist told me that whenever I had a cigarrette after that night I would taste and smell burning plastic, when I lit a cigarrette - it worked and I had no clue why!
That’s amazing!
Great reaction. Wifey is not boring. Her honest, open and happy demeanour are at least 50% of the reason I watch.
The game show one where he shows how people follow the herd when making decisions is my favorite You ought to watch that one Also the great Art robbery is great too
I've seen a couple of his live shows. Very impressive ,and what these clips don't show is that the shows are very entertaining and funny too. He's a showman. Clearly there are tricks involved - he's not Merlin! But the mind stuff is impressive. There was clip on his TV show when he paid Hawkers (Times Square?) with blank paper notes and they accepted it. Even gave change. I think the victims just get nonplussed by his apparent sincerity and doubt themselves and go with it. He is good at cold reading - and reveals that on screen to debunk psychics. In his live shows he choses volunteers from crowd by such methods as throwing a frisbee into the crowd. So they can't be plants.
Derren is definitely very real I've been to his shows many times and live its even better I think precisely because it's live and there is very little space for any TV style manipulation. On one occasion he hypnotized ME in the way that I was aware of everything what was going on but couldn't sit down I was stuck standing up in the theatre and had my arm up for half of the show. Some of his theatre shows are on UA-cam I believe very fascinating watch you should check him out.
I've seen him hypnotise people live and my wife is a hypnotherapist. His hypnotism of people is genuine, believe me.
I'd love to see your reaction to more Derren Brown!
Thank you! Will look into more.
My daughter was on his show in 2013 about breaking habits, her's was smoking. She only restarted this year! She is a media consultant who had to audition for the show with all the others.
There is a whole bunch of videos on UA-cam of Derren's talents.
I'd agree with others that his stage shows are exceptionally impressive as it is in front of a live audience.
Also, the thing with Derren, he *always* clearly says he is not a magician. He will explain "mind control" tricks, just not in detail, which means (in my eyes) that he doesn't use stooges
Darren is the guy who hypnotises Watson in ‘Anderson’s Version of how Sherlock survived The Reichenbach Fall’ in ‘Sherlock’ (the Benedict Cumberbatch version). One American YT reactor said “what is he, a wizard?” Well…yeah. He did one TV show called ‘The Heist’ where he ‘persuaded’ several different people, to individually hold up and rob a security van. It was hellishly tense and all the victims had to be ‘de-programmed’ afterwards. Interestingly, one guy who refused to follow Derren’s instructions early on (stealing candy from a convenience store - which was all previously set up but the participants didn’t know) was dropped from the show immediately. So anyone who knows their own mind and standards cannot be manipulated, clearly). There is a show called ‘Messiah’ filmed in the USA where amongst other things he claims to be a TV evangelist, making people collapse without even touching them, approaching them from behind. Which kind of blows the lid off the whole TV Evangelist thing! He also claims to be a psychic medium, holding seances, which he is at pains to state “if this makes you feel uncomfortable, imagine how it makes me feel, because, it’s just a trick….” He is also impressive live - see if you can find the ‘Gorilla’ stunt. I was there and still can’t work out how he did that!
Oh you have to check out more of, Derren. Full episodes might be an issue. But even in your own time, check out his show, The Assassin. It is scarier than you think.
A lot of Derren Browns shows are on UA-cam, they're all great. These clips don't do what he does justice.
Derren Brown is legit amazing. I saw him live years ago, still probably the best live show i've ever seen. His book 'Trick of the Mind' is very good
The best thing he does is tell everyone ( audience ) that what he does is not magic/supernatural or anything non human, it is all suggestion/misdirection and planning. It is something we all do at some level ( singing a song and another person hears it and sings the same song -- it is just low level manipulation ). Derren does the same thing but takes it to level 101.
Have to say the What Mojo collections are not a good representation of what he does. It is well worth watching a full show, it is an experience rather than just a show -- quite brilliant.
I went to see one of his shows and it was amazing. He was able to tell the person beside me what they studied in college and what they do for work. All the while sitting miles back in the crowd. Impressive.
Derren has stated on many occasions that he uses misdirection. I would argue his most infamous performance (Russian Roulette) was the best example of this. He knew exactly which chamber contained the round and so he could make a big performance about being scared despite being in complete safety.
The man is a truly fantastic showman and a very good mentalist. I believe his best performances are concentrated more upon the psychological aspects and the very best of these was when he created a false Christian preacher. He wasn't attacking religion when he did this, instead he attacked people who abuse religion in order to gain status and money. I loved him for that because he revealed many of the tricks used by those who don't really believe in god but know how easy it is to make money from those who do.
I've seen him live a few times, seeing him next year too. He's completely genuine, very clever guy.
If you like card tricks, you should check out Derren playing a card trick on Stephen Fry. It's very clever.
Derren is awesome, he never claims to do magic, it's all logic and psychology tricks. He usually tells you at the end how he did it - and then finishes with one last thing that baffles you. The chess one, for example, all he did was play the move from the previous game so the grand masters were actually playing each other. Definitely worth watching his shows in your spare time
The Simon Pegg one, you see him tap his arm and you can hear cue words. Pegg picks a red bike, in your video you can see all of the red in the room and the spinning wheel like tape deck etc. It's all very cool
When I saw him live he was clear that there were no camera tricks and that it is all psychological suggestions. The live shows have him sometimes asking for volunteers but he often turns some down and picks the ones he thinks are going to be suitable. It all seems to be very elaborate psychological manipulation that takes months to set up. Good stuff!
I used to work in a theatre in Bristol, Derren's hometown. Derren used to a lot of his early shows with us, and we also worked a lot with with an actor/magician who helps invent and develop tricks for Derren and also more recently David Blane. We used to have late night staff & friends poker nights - it never ended well!
I saw his live performance once. It was really gripping. I'm going to see him again in April. Can't wait!
So he still tours? Nice!
He's a master of reading body language, eyes, even the slightest micro movements of face, blinks, everything. Obsessively studied such things for 20 years after being bullied at School as a self defense mechanism way of dealing with people...before he became famous.
Hero at 30,000 Feet was an amazing special
He uses psychology, magic, hypnotism, mind manipulation.
It's all 100% real.
There are tons of great mentalists.. but Derren Brown is in a class of his own, alone.
"A BM, or X-box"
Simon: "BMX bike"
The more you watch Derren, the more you think you'll pick up on subtle clues like that. The problem is he'll do that again and again and you'll still be clueless.
Go to one of his live shows. He randomly selects participants, often by throwing [without looking] something into the audience, which he then asks whoever catches it to also throw it behind them and so on. If you get picked, you'll know it isn't fixed.
Darren Brown is amazing! He often explains exactly how he does some of his "tricks", but a great deal of what he does, is psychological manipulation, the type of things that are used in sales, advertising and con artistry... but Brown has a remarkable understanding of these "tricks". Please, watch a full episode of one of his early series... Trick of the Mind, or perhaps one of his live shows, which are not just stunningly awesome, they're also very, very funny.
I saw one of his live shows in September. Some of the more light-hearted moments saw him make audience members forget their names and also make them forget the number 7 existed. They were counting their fingers and freaking out because they kept counting 11 🤣
Some of his great clips are where he shows exactly how he does some of his tricks. Like the one against all of the chess players. He basically does the exact move to the next person that the current master did against him. By doing this in a big circle, it REALLY ends up being each chess master playing against the chess master to his left.. I hope this makes sense, Darren explains it at the end of that episode.
One of the points you made was how can he make someone shoot some body?, he as explained in the past that anyone who does nt want to be hypnotised , won t respond to the suggestions he may make, so its picking the right person who is susceptible to hypnotism, keep doing what your doing guys....
He has a channel with some clips - react to some clips. He's done many stage performances and I went to one years back and he is phenomenal
Have watched Darren brown in action. He is incredible in how he manages to persuade people to perceive an alternative reality. Never seen anyone else like him. He has always stated that he is trying to show people how easily they can be manipulated. He is the best in the world at what he does with his experiments.
The bullet experiment was legitimate and loaded. It was a truly intense experience. Never seen anyone else quite like him
On a side note, he is a really nice person
I've been to 5 of his stage shows and have been spellbound by all of them
I never miss a show, if I can help it. He selects the most susceptible members of the audience, but he's never met them before, and he never uses plants. Apparently. He is so good and so labyrinthine, you never know what he's up to, but he never humiliates people, as other illusionists do, and every person who appears in his programs has given permission. But it's a bloody good show.
Derren Brown is so good! Highly recommend watching the full episodes that you can find on UA-cam
the chess one is relatively easy to know how he does it, he just matches the moves from one chess master to the next table so they are essentially playing each other not Darren.
I remember the zombie game one. The moment when the bloke 'wakes' at the end and thinks the game was brilliant was fascinating.
Derren Brown is 100% legit. He explains how he does all of his tricks on his shows and repeatedly states that what he does has a logical explanation. He has spoken out against so called psychics, faith healers etc as charlatans and fraudsters on numerous occasions and made shows showing exactly how they do it. He once did a show on evangelical preachers in America and he did a session with a group of people of mixed faiths and no faiths and “instantly converted” them, causing them all to deeply question their beliefs in a matter of moments. Thank god he isn’t malicious
Round about the time of Roulette, I was already a fan of his work. He sometimes does demonstrations that will work for some at home. I was watching with friends and said, after he had explained some of the suggestions he'd made without being noticed, "I'd trust him with my life." Meaning, he's clearly got some decent morals that he can resist utterly abusing his skills. My friend said, "Why? How can you have blind faith in someone that can manipulate how you think, feel, behave..." And that actually made me feel quite odd. It still does actually. He could be positively heinous and convince the world he's a saint!
The chess trick was relatively easy - he pairs games he played black with games he played white - when white moved he copied the move then when black moved on the other he copied that move so both games were identical. His greatest trick was a program called miracles for sale where he trained a guy in the tricks of the faith healers. Curing people with one leg longer than the other - a blind man and a deaf man - and he got them to do it in major USA faith healing meetings in front of thousands
The most impressive magician/illusionist I've ever seen, is a young guy who goes by the name of Dynamo. He has performed street tricks all over the world. One that comes to mind first was in a restaurant with butterfly themed wallpaper, at the same moment, all the butterflies come to life and fill the room.
He hypnotised volunteers, and then woke them up in their own real life trick of treat! Obviously he pre selects those Mose easily susceptible to hypnotism and mysticism.
Derren Brown is the UKs version of Harry Houdini. He's the best in the World because he is not a Magician, but an expert on psychological, emotional , and perceptual illusionist who has studied everything to do with how the brain and mind work.
Derren is brilliant he does do shows he tours a lot not just in the UK but all around the world 🌎 My brother was on the show with the gun your invited too meet him in a big room you all take your seat before he comes in the room and then he starts to go around the room to choose someone to be live on his show my brother got down to the last 10 and then Derren told them what his illusion was he told them if they wanted to be chosen to stand next to him my brother didn’t stand next to him because he said it was just too dangerous so he pulled out but he said the things he’d done through the day was brilliant he said it was an amazing experience he’ll never forget Love 💕 from Denise in Yorkshire England 🏴👏👏👏👏👍🥰👋.
Derren is astounding. Well worth watching his stuff..! We just need to thank our lucky stars that he's not evil..!!!
Derren is very good. I've been watching his stuff since he first aired on TV and have been to all of his stage shows (apart from his most recent one, which was cancelled due to global stuff going on! And rebooked for next year) and his various talks etc. I've seen many of his live shows multiple times. He doesn't use stooges, but obviously thinks aren't always as they seem, as he says (or used to say) at the start of his TV shows, he uses magic, misdirection and showmanship. There are some things which are just tricks, other things which are just hypnosis/psychology, etc, and some things which are a fusion of things.
I applied for the Russian Roulette special back in 2004. He came on TV to say he was looking for someone to shoot him. I thought 'I can do that' and so applied. I got through the first round of being shortlisted, but obviously didn't make it to being the person who eventually loaded the gun. I have applied for a couple more of his TV specials. The furthest I've gotten in the auditions is with The Assassin special, where I got to the stage of having to attend an event to shortlist people further. I didn't know at the time what he wanted volunteers for, you never usually know what you are applying for, just that you are applying for something and going through various stages of being shortlisted, and even if you get told you have been unsuccessful, doesn't always mean you haven't been successful. There are many times the successful person is told they were unsuccessful and then over the coming months Derren is collaborating with the person's family or friends, setting up cameras in their home and streets or work etc to do whatever it is they will be a part of. Being a hypnotherapy trainer I could recognise what he was doing with us all and the types of traits he was looking for in the person/people he would end up choosing. He narrowed down the group I was in to just a handful of people and likely had a few more groups he narrowed down and then those handfuls of people were narrowed down further to the person on the programme.
So it isn't like he is just picking someone off of the street and 20 minutes later having them assassinate Stephen Fry, but rather choosing from thousands of people who apply, to test hundreds of people, to get a selection of dozens of people, to pick one of those people who is most responsive to what specifically he needed them to be like for the show.
At his stage shows, I have turned up hours early in the past and seen some bits he does before the show even starts, that unless you were there hours early (which some others are) you wouldn't necessarily realise he had done some of those normal 'magic' bits. I've not noticed him do that in his later shows, but his first couple of live shows he did. But what he does in his shows has changed a little over the years, with fewer tricks where he can appear more impressive by meeting some people beforehand.
The commentary on his early DVD's is great. I really hope you react to some full episodes of his TV series and perhaps his stage shows. The Marrakesh trick, he just hypnotised the person as they got into the photobooth at a train station and then kept them hypnotised as they were taken from the train station, to the airport, on the plane and placed in a replica photobooth in Marrakesh. He does similar on a series he made in the US (where he tried to see if he could get a US audience - clips from the series were used in a UK series he made a year later). He is sat on a hill and tells a person the sun will disappear if he draws a circle with a stick in the mud and rubs it out 3x. The lad does this. On the 3rd time, Derren does a rapid hypnotic induction on the person, lays the person down, returns after the sun has set, sits the person up, brings him out of hypnosis and to the lad, it is as if he has just rubbed out the circle for a third time and the sun had disappeared, he doesn't realise he actually lay hypnotised for hours until the sun had set.
In my early days I used to record myself doing a lot of similar hypnotic stuff with my best friend (who unfortunately passed away last year). We would do things like putting needles through his hand, making him see spoons bending before his eyes (like the scene in the Matrix with the child - Derren did this in one of his TV shows, having people see spoons or forks bend before their eyes, while everyone else could see it wasn't bending at all), or removing a brick from his mind so that terror sets in (another thing Derren did in one of his first TV programmes) and hypnotic seance's (this is one of the first things I did here on UA-cam back in 2007 when I set up my UA-cam channel) and sitting next to people, hypnotising them using breathing and then walking away (Derren ended up taking this to another level, hypnotising someone using his breathing and body language and then he went over to them and suggested they walked into a shop and stole a TV - which they did).
There are very few reactions to Derren Brown stuff on UA-cam. He has done things like convincing people to do armed robbery, convincing people to murder, convincing people they have the confidence to land a plane, convincing people there has been a zombie apocalypse, convincing people they have murdered someone they haven't murdered, convincing people to protect others they wouldn't normally step up and protect, and so much more...
There are some things Derren does which work surprisingly well on a lot of people. He did a trick where he had a lot of people in a shopping mall suddenly put their right arm up in the air. I was telling my grandparents about it and my Nan didn't believe it would work on her. I said similar to what Derren has said to suggest to those in the shopping mall and right on cue Nan's right arm shot up in the air, she noticed it and pulled it down with her other hand.
In staff meetings I used to have competitions with a colleague to see who could hypnotise the most people in the meeting. We would use our breathing to have as many people in the room sitting hypnotised, eyes closed and silent. This is a skill I would practice on buses or other public transport and in cafe's etc.
In work I used to induce toothache in those who didn't believe they could respond to this stuff (in a similar way to Derren inducing toothache on his show), with my logic being that for someone skeptic who believed they couldn't respond, this would make a good convincer because they wouldn't be likely to 'play along' and develop toothache.
In work I also used to make managers I disliked forget things (like Derren making the taxi driver forget where the London Eye is and almost be blind to it even when they can see it, similar to another trick he did of making people on the London Underground forget what stop they were getting off at) and do other things influencing staff.
A lot of the psychological stuff works well on a large proportion of people. It doesn't work easily on everyone, but it works enough that you can expect it is likely to work when you go to do it.
As a fan and a subscriber, I would love to see the reactions to full episodes of Derren Brown's best moments. I know that long videos and full episodes are not the point of this channel, but it would be fantastic to see you react to the full process that he describes in each episode. Derren Brown is some of the best of British TV of the 21st century. I'm also aware that most of his episodes are aggressively copyrighted so this may be impossible, but it would be so fun to watch intelligent and perceptive Americans reacting to this British icon. I have been to two of his live shows, nothing is staged: he vets the audience for suggestability before the show begins, but this is not a deceptive thing, he is very open about the fact that some people are simply more vulnerable to his techniques than others.
P.S. Derren Brown is probably going to become a British national treasure. He is largely adored here.
I've seen his stage show and its a combination of oral/visual/aural manipulation and magic tricks but melded together in such a way that makes you think he's reading your mind.
Seen Derren Brown Live before and watched all his specials and tv shows. He is 100% legit and does not use actors or stooges (for the target person}) he is just highly gifted at mis-direction and understands how the human mind works better than anyone I can think of.
Btw there are a number of American reactors who I have recommended Derren to but you're the only ones that actually have checked his stuff out. You should check his full shows out, Personal favourites are The Heist, The System and Russian Roulette.
His stage shows are available for free on youtube [I'm pretty sure it's an official channel as well]. It would be really interesting to see your reactions to one of the shows, even if it's just highlights without sound or video [for copyright reasons].
My wife and I saw him live in Cardiff Wales, I think it was his Miracle Tour, he was excellent and it was a great show
"You can have anything you want, like A 'B,M' (touches Peggs' arm on the letters A, B and M). Then he moves hand away then says "or an X-(touches arm again) Box". Put those arm touches together and what do you get? A BMX! He puts those letters or words into your thoughts. Derren is also banned from a lot of Las Vegas casinos, as his 'card counting' is superb.
The Simon Pegg one wasn't done by suggestion. He switched Simon's note at some point from "BMX" (which is what he really wrote) to "leather jacket". This is a classic magic trick. The whole bit about implanting BMX into his head was invented as a clever way to explain it. Misdirection!
I've seen Derren live several times and he's amazing! He's very good at misdirection and manipulating you into something. I remember the start of one show there were people playing table tennis or something on the stage and then a video or something came on and nobody noticed one of the people swapped out for a person in a gorilla suit for 10 seconds or so. He told us it happened and everyone doubted it but he wad video - facing out into the audience to show it was us - of it happening. I also ended up participating in another show in a minor way. People had been asked to write a number on a sheet of paper when they arrived and they were collected for basically the big finale - and kept on the stage where they could be seen. I don't remember exactly how it worked as it was about 11 years ago (I think?) but it ended up with some members of the audience (including me) getting a "random" bit of paper. We had to read the numbers out and they were the numbers he'd predicted we'd guess. I think my number was 9 which was ok. It only dawned on me after that I'd been manipulated into saying 9 and not 6 by a line being under it. I'd hazard a guess that most people wouldn't think of doing that and yet me sheet had it.
I'd highly recommend watching his shows - or seeing him live if you ever get the chance! His things are often not the most ethical but he does it to make a point and with a lot of his tricks he goes on to explain how he does it (by manipulating people's thinking of probability of something happening and the like). It's absolutely fascinating.
I know the guy who Derren used in "the push" - one he did about pushing someone off a building. 100% not an actor!
Watch his stage shows. Literally mind blowing. 😁
Derren is very real. I remember watching one of his shows with my mother, and when we were watching it I told her there was something wrong at a particular part. They showed it again at the end and he'd added an incongruous word in the middle of a sentence at that point.
I had a girlfriend who was a dj for a club on a seaside resort. The club often had magicians and hypnotists. She told me that certain hypnotist always picked out the same few people from the crowd. They were all plants. So to were the magicians audience members. Now I'm not saying all magicians and hypnotists use 'plants'. But let's say that some definitely do... :)
He’s brilliant! Your heart is in your mouth all the way through his shows! It’s genius 🏴
I've seen him live, he actually explains all the processes he uses in his 'tricks'.
Love Darren brown. I remember the apocalypse show on telly, fantastic. He is brilliant.
You really need to watch a Derren Brown full show, it’s pretty cool
I thought the trick you did at the start was great by the way., I've no idea how you vanished and then reappeared like that! Well done!
And, as many others have said, you really need to react to a full episode from 1 of Derren's shows (there are some on UA-cam I think) as you can't really appreciate what he does from a "top10"
EDIT: Darren has his own UA-cam channel, so you should react to some of the videos he's done on YT! He has the full episode of "The Heist" on there, which I highly recommend, as well as his live show "The Gathering". They're both an hour long, so maybe too long to react to (unless you edit it I guess) but I reckon you should just watch them in your own time. His Faith Healer documentary is amazing too if you see it on his channel - Derren loves exposing frauds.
Yes but just because he can do it with the power of suggestion doesn’t make all those people frauds. It shows how powerful the human mind is to literally manipulate matter, something that science is only beginning to understand. And in a sense, hypnosis IS mind over matter, perhaps in more of a literal sense than we give it credit for, because it’s dressed up as a “trick”. The process of one person eliciting healing in another is probably not that far removed from the kind of mental manipulation that people like Derren can do. And his ability is an extremely rare talent, which means he intuitively understands something about the way the mind and reality interrelate - and reality is arguably subjective and only a perception of the mind anyway, being different for each of us.
His 'tricks' seem cruel but most of the time he does them to highlight just how possible it is to manipulate people and uses that knowledge to hopefully take some of the really evil manipulaters down. Derren always makes sure all the subjects are safe and have proper aftercare so they are not left psychologically damaged. Many of his subjects signed up for his show, for example his series called Trick or Treat, the subject picks an envelope at random knowing it could contain either trick or treat. They know this yet still sign up for it. A trick is a scary or crazy hypnosis trick. A treat would be a hypnosis with a very life changing positive outcome, like curing a phobia or giving them confidence, or just a really memorable, happy experience. His tricks are also planned a long time in advance, even a year or more. So a subject could sign up to be in his show but they are then sent home knowing the manipulation could begin anytime over the next year and they might not even realise it has begun. It's very subtle suggestion over a long period of time. It's how sleeper agents are brainwashed into doing awful things. It's scary but I like that Derren Brown has brought these techniques into the public awareness, using harmless entertainment to highlight a very worrying ability.
Just look at how the internet can convince people with conspiracy theories such as the Queen is an alien lizard ....i kid you not!
I just bought tickets to see Derren Brown next May and this just came up on my feed. Love your videos guys.
This guy is amazing. Watch some of his live shows or some of the "Tricks and Treats" from his series. The 30,000ft episode is a tearjerker of goodwill.
Went to see him live. He selects audience participants for "hypnosis" by letting the audience bounce a beach ball around while he looks away then shouts stop. There was one audience member he looked them dead in the eyes for a few seconds and then said "nope, it doesn't work on you, Next!", so there is clearly some people more or less susceptible to what ever he does.
He explained every single trick he did that night, some of which took months of prep in the local area - including setting up subliminal messages in local newspaper advertising.
London taxi drivers (or “black cabbies”) have to pass a test called “The Knowledge” proving they have memorised every single street in London, which is far from easy when you see what they look like on a map! London is not built on a grid system like modern cities and the roads go out from the centre according to the original Roman layout. Then there are winding and hidden streets and lanes all over the place. It has been shown with neural imaging that the hippocampus portion of the brains of London taxi drivers is significantly larger than it is in the rest of us due to the learning required to commit this complex information to memory.
Like many illusionists, Derren is banned from playing in casinos. He chose not to go to the USA, but did an off-Broadway show just before the pandemic. Top grades from all the critics.
I can remember watching Daren Brown,, Play’s Russian Roulette.
It was scary to watch. A definite edge of the seat moment.
My 3 favourite Derren Brown experiments are
Derren Brown: The Experiments (2011) episode 2 - Remote Control
Derren Brown: Apocalypse (2012) part 1&2
Derren Brown: Trick of the Mind (2004) season 2, episode 4 - waking dead game
In case anyone wants to check them out, here are the UA-cam links
Derren Brown: The Experiments (2011) episode 2 - Remote Control
ua-cam.com/video/ReUHhStG70k/v-deo.html
Derren Brown: Apocalypse (2012) part 1&2
Part 1 ua-cam.com/video/o_CUrMJOxqs/v-deo.html
Part 2 ua-cam.com/video/Lgvk1pj_Eto/v-deo.html
Derren Brown: Trick of the Mind (2004) season 2, episode 4 - waking dead game
ua-cam.com/video/dPZqX3iox-Q/v-deo.html
Thorpe Park is a theme park in England and they worked with Derron Brown to help create a ride. It's called Derron Brown's Ghost Train. It's an interactive ghost train with VR headsets. It's pretty messed up
Of course the thing about hypnotism is that the subject has to be fully willing to be hypnotised in the first place: so it would be impossible to hypnotise someone to shoot someone if they didnt really want to do it . His tricks are not fake, but there is an awful lot of preparation involved, in some of his tricks he would 'interview' hundreds and hundreds of people in order to find the most easily suggestible candidate.
Thew chess one he was remembering the moves they made then playing that move against the play across from them in the circle , they were all sat in a circle and he essentially made them play each other
The largest power he is is that he's famous. It means that if people are asked to show up to audition for a special, he can pick the one that's most likely to succumb to and follow his suggestions. Can anybody be made to kill a kitten? Probably not. But if you can choose from 5000 people and pick the most susceptible one, yeah you can. Not to say what he does isn't amazing, because it is, but the pre-selection which he is totally open about is the largest advantage he has.
The way Derren won against the great chess players was to "just" use his memory, see their moves, then use those moves against other boards. So like, board 1 really played against board 5, 2 against 6 etc. and not against Derren.
Have a read about NLP and other tricks. Things like repeating keywords or slapping table to break concentration.. You can watch the fulll shows and he explains some of it.
He's band from every gambling casino 🎰
If someone offers you tickets to darren brown - refuse
Derren does not actually exist he has just tricked everyone into thinking he does.
This guy is a actual Wizard
yup, just teasing the muggles
Derren is an honest illusionist. He does not believe in psychics/mediums etc. In fact, he actively works to demonstrate how they manipulate people and disprove their claims.
He always makes it clear that what he is doing is not magic or psychic etc, he is just using misdirection and showmanship. He never uses stooges or actors.
I use to watch Derren and was a big fan, he took magic to the next level