Derren Brown Lecture

THE BLURB:
A radical and new thinker in the world of close-up magic and
mentalism. Derren performs forty-five minutes of hardcore
mind-reading and close-up hypnosis. Volunteers are slammed
into trance-states, achieving bizarre mental connections
with each other in some mind blowing routines that are now
earning Derren a dynamic reputation. The following effects
are performed:

LIFT: A spectator’s arm is immobilised. Then controlled
remotely, by the will of another volunteer.

PLEROPHORIA: A deck of cards is thoroughly shuffled by a
spectator yet Derren, while facing away, names each card in
order.

SMOKE: An incredible routine, where a card that has been
merely thought of by a spectator, is first named by Derren
then disappears from an untouched deck only to impossibly
appear...well, wait and see.

COIN READING AND BENDING: The date and denomination of a
volunteer’s coin, unseen and untouched by Derren, is
identified. Then slowly bent at the will of another
volunteer.

REMINISCENCE: A hypnotised spectator merely thinks of a
memory, a number and a picture. All are then perfectly
described in immense detail by both Derren and audience
members. This mind-blowing routine is Derren at his very
best.

The performance is followed by an explanation of Plerophoria
and a demonstration of mentally forcing an imaginary card,
plus some extremely valuable discussions on presentation and
Derren’s philosophy of ‘Invisible Compromise’. An immensely
useful video for both the budding and established mentalist.

MY COMMENTS:
The running time on this video is about an hour and twenty
minutes. The blurb is accurate. This is mostly a
performance video and it covers a lecture given around 1999.
Only one routine is explained. Derren mostly uses this
lecture to explain his philosophy about performing.
Specifically, he demonstrates that the most powerful
routines are ones that make connections to the audience or
participants. This is not a new idea, but one that
mentalists and magicians are constantly discovering, or in
need of discovering. I've always found Derren's
performances to be compelling and instructive. This video
covers material in his first two out-of-print books and it's
mostly card stuff. However, as I said, the routines are
just a way of Derren demonstrating his performance theories
to the audience. If you're looking for a collection of
routines to perform, this isn't it. I don't think there's
any question that the disc is overpriced in comparison with
similar DVDs, but Derren Brown's specials are not shown in
the U.S. and, until they do, this is good opportunity to get
a taste of what he's famous for.