Derren Brown

I love Derren, but not in a sexual way. Have had multiple great nights out at his theatre shows. I have racked my brain, but still do not know how he does many of his illusions. Mainly the ones where he knows personal things about audience members.

Regarding the show with the zombies, he vehemently denies using actors. I do not know how he would have been able to keep it secret for so many years if he did use actors. Surely one of the actors would have appeared in another TV show.




Dilf = Dad I would Like to F*. If he is a Dad then that would have been magic as he is gay.

In a sense I kind of don't care how he does his stuff and whether he employs 'actors', because I've generally found his shows entertaining. I've seen quite a few of the TV shows and 2 or 3 of the stage shows and enjoy feeling baffled by how the "illusions" are done.

Seriously, dramatic much?

I used to really like him. Then I went to a show and it was one of the most uncomfortable things I have ever been to. I used to watch all the recorded live shows he did and the one I went to I couldn't face watching it when it aired.

I remember that a few people at the time thought they had caught him out on that, and that it was actor Karl Greenwood. Darren then did a video with both Karl and the 'victim'.

I didn't take part... in any way. I don't know if you remember the Miracle one at Palace a couple of years ago? I was actually really looking forward to it.

I can't remember the exact details. There was one part where he throws I (think it was a ball) around and obviously not everything is going to work but a guy caugt it and he asked him to think of something but the guy couldn't really hear him and said something that turned out Derren didn't guess. And he blamed the guy for it mocking that he couldn't hear what he was saying anyway.

He mocked someone who walked out.

Then there was a part where he had (I think bags). He asked for a female audiene memeber and she went up. Under one of the bags was a nail (either that or a knife I forget it was blurred with the video he showed before). Then asked her to pick a bag and then started doing the slamming his hand on each one she didnt pick. She looked uncomfortable anyway and even more so when she grabbed her hand by some force and slammed it down onto a bag.

Then there was a bit where he broke I think a light bulb then made another woman eat a but of the glass even though she clearly didn't want to.

There was some what forced audience participation which I didn't take part in. He basically wanted everyone to stand and hold hands. And I refuse to touch people I do not know. I mean for audience participation part in previous shows is mostly some objeck thrown. This was in part except that part.

Back in the mid 90s I was a doorman at a nightclub and one time they had a hypnotist come in and do a show on the stage. He seemingly picked random people from the crowd and he picked five people for the show, you know the sort of thing - eat an onion, pretend you are a chicken, thinking you are naked, caught having sex by your Mum etc etc.

However as the doorman on a club I knew the faces of everyone that came in on a regular basis, as you had to be aware of who wasn't allowed in, and he just so happened to randomly pick 5 people who had never been in before and who were never in again. Imagine that, picking 5 people at random who had turned up just to see the hypnotist and who had no intention of ever going back to the nightclub.

Anyway, when I saw DB at the Kings he used the frisbee but there is a lot of stuff in his shows that is easily explained - the lightbulb is sugar glass and not real glass, he can memorise all bus timetables in Glasgow and you can pick which one he recites by rolling a dice etc - and there is some stuff I don't know how he does it like the rice grabbing.

Derren's not only touring the UK in 2020 with a new show, Showman but also is doing Secret on Broadway.

That's a fairly lengthy run for Derren Brown. Usually he only does a month.

Saw Showman when it toured.
Just didn’t get it.
Who are these hordes of people who pretend to be hypnotised?

Not to the West End version, but saw the touring version earlier this year and wasn’t that impressed. Too much talking and not enough “doing”.

Probably my least favourite of his shows tbh.

I saw the show earlier this year on tour and thought it was brilliant, truly mind-blowing stuff. This was my first time seeing Derren live after watching all his previous shows on TV (Miracle on Netflix being my favourite) and thought to see it in person was incredible so totally agree with all the great reviews it is getting.