Magicians have been known to lie every now & again.

Russ
www.smartmagic.co.uk

Derren's usually honest about his dishonesty...or so he says...

In that case, he can lie about anything, and not really be lying. He already told you he would be lying... just not about which part. Derren uses PLENTY of pre-show techniques. He just does then mid-show. Also, the definition of pre-show is different. Traditional pre-show happens before the entire show. With a television show, the pre-show could be the 30 seconds of talking, banter, or set-up that happens directly before the effect and gets subsequently edited out. As far as the finger throwing effect... there's a reason he doesn't do this in his live theater shows.

I think Derren Brown just pretends to be using suggestion and/or NLP techniques as part of his presentation myself. I think he is often fooling the people watching and not actually the people it appears he is fooling, which is quite ingenious. I think he throws in lines like "I want you to hold up any number of whatever, but only for ONE moment. So think about what you want to do for ONE second or so, and then do what you choose but only make ONE decision, don't change your mind ONCE you decide."

I think using language somewhat roughly like that is simply presentation, and really has very little to do with his actual technique. I just get the feeling the reason some of Derren Brown's material looks so impressive even to magicians is because he is thinking in an entirely different direction than magicians are. And it does make sense, because I mean the guy is not doing magic anyway really. Sure its similar and shares some technique, but it is also quite different at times too in my opinion.

You're almost right, just completely backwards. Presentation in mentalism IS the technique.

Derren actually uses quite a few magic techniques. He is actually a very talented magician, especially when it comes to cards.

He knows how to present his work. He does so in such a way that actually hides the method quite well. However, he has even used effects that are on the market today. It is his presentation that makes them so convincing.

As for using NLP and suggestion; there is definitely some of that in there. However, there is much more as well. For instance, did you know that the professionals of the Rock, Paper, Scissors game actually watch for muscle movement in a person's arm in order to predict what they will throw down? It actually works amazingly, even though it is such a sleight movement, and sometimes hard to detect.

bump

But for an excellent reason- I just noticed that at about 0:40 he says, "do the same thing again". THAT is how he gets six a second time!!!!