I went to see Derren Brown last night. I think I fell in love with him a little bit more than is normal. He blew. My. Mind. Well he would have done if I hadn't read his book and worked out how he did most of the stunts he pulled. Let's settle for he semi blew my mind.
First of all I need to admit to turning up on Thursday evening with a ticket for Friday night's performance. Some embarrassment was spared by realising BEFORE reaching the ticket collectors and calmly making an exit without drawing too much attention. Then, yesterday evening I struggled to get home in time from work so I stayed in Birmingham and got there early. Because I got there so early N and I had our faces photographed and our names taken down by some guy working for the show. This immediately made us nervous.
So along comes a game of "Guess Whom?" in the first half of the performance. A photo of yours truly being held in Derren Brown's very hand while our names were read out. There was about 20 of us altogether and I was fortunately NOT picked on for looking like a total dork in my photo. I also like to think he paused for a second on reading my name... possibly taking in the image of his future wife- he'd know of course being a master of prediction. His audience particpators had to pick a person from the photo's and Derren guessed who they had chosen through a series of questions which the audience member answered silently in their heads. Obviously Derren already knew who they were going to pick but it all makes for a great show. :-)
I worked out how a few of the more magic-trick- based stunts were done... but as for the mind/prediction/nothing-is-random based stuff- that's what blows me away. If I ever win a billion on the lottery I'm going to pay him to teach me everything he knows so that I can take over the world. It's hard to believe that as much as we like to think everything we do is free choice, a scary amount of everything we do can be controlled, influenced and easily predicted by intellectual, borderline obsessive experts.
The ending was phenomenal. He truly is a master of his art.
LOVED IT.
First of all I need to admit to turning up on Thursday evening with a ticket for Friday night's performance. Some embarrassment was spared by realising BEFORE reaching the ticket collectors and calmly making an exit without drawing too much attention. Then, yesterday evening I struggled to get home in time from work so I stayed in Birmingham and got there early. Because I got there so early N and I had our faces photographed and our names taken down by some guy working for the show. This immediately made us nervous.
So along comes a game of "Guess Whom?" in the first half of the performance. A photo of yours truly being held in Derren Brown's very hand while our names were read out. There was about 20 of us altogether and I was fortunately NOT picked on for looking like a total dork in my photo. I also like to think he paused for a second on reading my name... possibly taking in the image of his future wife- he'd know of course being a master of prediction. His audience particpators had to pick a person from the photo's and Derren guessed who they had chosen through a series of questions which the audience member answered silently in their heads. Obviously Derren already knew who they were going to pick but it all makes for a great show. :-)
I worked out how a few of the more magic-trick- based stunts were done... but as for the mind/prediction/nothing-is-random based stuff- that's what blows me away. If I ever win a billion on the lottery I'm going to pay him to teach me everything he knows so that I can take over the world. It's hard to believe that as much as we like to think everything we do is free choice, a scary amount of everything we do can be controlled, influenced and easily predicted by intellectual, borderline obsessive experts.
The ending was phenomenal. He truly is a master of his art.
LOVED IT.
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