Derren Brown: Archive
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From: hypersang
Date: Mon Mar 10, 2003 12:41am
Subject: Re: [Derren Brown] Sunday Telegraph 9/03/03 Can this man read minds?
Hahaha, I just went out to hunt for this newspaper with no luck. I
went to about 6 petrol stations, 3 off licences and a few shops that
open late - most of them don't sell it and one of them had it but was
sold out! Gutted...
I just got home and checked for any new posts and what do I see...
the whole damn article ready for me to read! ;)
Many thanks for this uberman - I am about to read it now... still
catching my breathe running about.
Sang
--- In a previous message Blue Chip wrote:
> bloody good job - keep it up :-)
>
>
> At 00:22 10/03/03 +0000, you wrote:
> >Derren Brown has been astonishing audiences with his apparent
> >telepathic powers. Is it just a trick? John Preston spends a
> >bewilderingaday with the celebrated 'psychological magician'.
> >
> >Let me make one thing quite clear at the outset. I am not, I think,
> >a particularly crecdlous person. Nor do I generally allow strangers
> >to go rooting about in the dark dungeons of my subconscious.
> >Frankly, I prefer those dungeons to remain properly bolted - to me
> >or anyone else. Especially me, come to think of it. Bearing all
this
> >in mind, let us step bravely into the unknown.
> >
> >I am sitting in the Bristol flat of the 'psychological magician'
> >Derren Brown. All around the walls are stuffed animals, including a
> >moose, a fox and a turkey. There is also - unstuffed - a parrot
> >which fltters about and occasionally alights on my knee. Brown has
> >asked me to write down three memories from childhood on three
pieces
> >of paper. One memory is to do with an activity I enjoyed; one a
> >hobby I had; and one the name of a friend.
> >
> >On my first piece of paper I have written 'Athletics'. On my second
> >piece of paper, not altogether accurately, given that the only
thing
> >I can remeber making out of wood is a breadboard, I have
> >written 'Carpentry'. And for the name of my childhood friend, I
have
> >put down his surname: 'Quartermaine'.
> >
> >After I have done this I fold up my three pieces of paper and drop
> >them into a bowl. Whereupon Brown, a small and mildly demonic-
> >looking man dressed entirely in black, picks out each one in turn,
> >sniffs it and adopts a thoughtful expression.
> >
> >"Now look into my eyes" he says. "And concentrate very hard."
> >
> >There is no sound, except for occasional ominous plopping noises
> >coming from the non-speaking end of the parrot. First up is the
> >activity. "It's something to do with...yes, with running. But not
> >just running. More general than that. Lots of different activities.
> >Running and jumping. Is it Athletics?" At which I give a grudging
> >nod.
> >
> >Now comes the hobby. "Mmm. Wood is involved definitely. Join.
> >Joinery? No, not joinery - but something like that. How about
> >Carpentry?" I nod again, even more grudgingly.
> >
> >Finally, it's the name of my friend - the clincher. "Look at me
> >again and really concentrate now. Does it...does it begin with a Q?
> >Now, syllables. THree, I think. Is there a T in the middle? Ah, is
> >it like the name of that science fiction character? What was he
> >called? Quatermass? But not quite Quatermass, no. Is it
> >Quartermaine?"
> >
> >So how does he do it? Well i'd like to be able to tell you, but my
> >journalistic integrity prevents me from doing so. All right, I
don't
> >know. All I do know is that Derren Brown is brilliant inducing
> >gaping astonishment in his audiences. On his current Channel 4
> >series, Derren Brown: Mind Control, he guesses someone's PION
> >number, makes a bookie pay out on losing bets and tells a man that
> >he plays golf, used to be a disc-jockey and has three terriers,
> >simply by touching his hands.
> >
> >Yet with brilliance comes a certain amount of oddity. Or quite a
lot
> >of oddity in Brown's case. Certainly, his flat is one of the
> >strangest places I have been. Along with the stuffed animals and
the
> >parrot, there's a table neatly laid for two in the corner of his
> >living-room. Nothing odd about this - except that Brown lives on
his
> >own is apparently single. Consequently, there's a rather creepy
Miss
> >Havisham feel to it. Propped up on a small lecternin front of one
of
> >the place-settings is a volume of Nietsche - author of The Will to
> >Power.
> >
> >Various paintings by Brown himself are very much in evidence -
good,
> >if sinister, squidgy faced caricatures of his heroes, including
Jack
> >Nicholson and Bertrand Russell. There's also a self-portrait of
> >Brown looking sly and lecherous.
> >
> >In the loo - that infallible pointer to the private self - an open
> >copy of George Bernard Shaw's Music Criticism Volumen Two is
resting
> >on top of the cistern, while in his monastic-looking bedroom
various
> >felt-tipped reminders have been written on a board besides his
> >single bed. "Shoes are a bit gay", reads one. It's not clear if
this
> >refers to a particular pair of shoes or is a more general
> >observation.
> >
> >What's hard to gauge is how much of this is done for effect. But
> >while Brown's appearance - droopy moustache and tufty beard to go
> >with his all black garb - suggests a high level of self
> >consciousness, his domestic trappings testament to a more private
> >exoticism.
> >
> >It's all a far cry from Purley where Brown was born 31 years ago -
> >the son of a lifeguard father and amother who once worked as a
> >model. As a child, he says he had no particular interest in magic.
> >When he was 18, however, he went to see a show given by a stage
> >hypnotist and came out convinced that this was what he wanted to do
> >with his life: "Above all, I loved the idea of being awestruck."
> >
> >
> >To be continued.....
> >
> >
> >
> >[e-mail address removed]
> >
> >
> >
> >> >http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/info/terms.html
