Derren Brown: Archive
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From: luise_f
Date: Mon Mar 10, 2003 12:46am
Subject: Re: Sunday Telegraph 9/03/03 Can this man read minds?
That was very interesting uberman, thanks a lot.
--- In a previous message uberman_21 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.....
