as part of my wife's birthday present i bought us tickets to see the opening night of derren brown's westend run of "something wicked this way comes". if you don't know, he's a "psychological" magician, which prominent shows on channel four in england.
as i knew there would be audience participation, i decided to get circle seats upstairs, as i thought it would be "safer". so the show begins, and the first act of the show he asks everyone in the audience to think of the first person at school they had a crush on, and concentrate on that. then someone is picked downstairs (by throwing a monkey around a few times), he instructs her to find five people she thinks look untrustworthy, and like good liars. people she wouldn't want to play poker against.
but to make sure everyone is included, they've set up a camera to assist her in picking someone upstairs, and it sweeps along the front rows of the circle. where we are sitting. she just has to tell it to stop when she sees someone she thinks is suitable. she quickly picks a woman. and then the camera gets closer and closer to us. phew. it's past us. but then she says, "hang on, go back". oh shit. it's now centred on me. and then she says "goatee". oh shit.
so downstairs i go.
when i get to the stage derren asks my name, shakes my hand, compliments me on my beard (since he's sporting a similar one). he gets us all to line up, and write the name we were thinking about on a piece of paper.
he then makes us all pick black and white balls, i pick the ball which means i will be the truth-teller, and everyone else has to lie. derren will then have to pick who the liars are.
first person up is a very convincing liar (i should know, since i knew she was lying). then it's my turn. he points out various things i'm doing that signal that i'm telling the truth. like looking directly at him, having an open stance, etc. he then says that i could be putting it on however. he asks me to step back. when he's questioning me i notice he's really paying attention to everything i do. for instance i twitched with my foot, and i immediately saw his eyes go down to watch it. he quickly picks out the next three to be liars.
so it's between me and the first woman. i'm thinking he's definitely picked me out. but no, he picks her as the truth teller. wrong! i'm not sure if that means that i look dodgy even when telling the truth, or she was a good liar. or both.
so he gets her to sit down, and says he's got one more thing to do. he asks me if i'm comfortable, i say yes. he then look me in the eyes, asks me to put my hand on my forehead, and says sleep while bringing his hand down and clicking his fingers.
i immediately do what you always see on tv, and close my eyes and bow my head. he then asks me to concentrate on the name i was thinking about earlier. he keeps saying this and asks me to picture their face. after i've had some time to concentrate, he then tells me to slowly reacquaint myself with the room.
now i know hypnosis is bollocks. i've seen the refuting show penn and teller did in their very good, and entertaining "bullshit" tv program (i can recommend you try and find a copy of it!). so while he's telling me to do all these things, while i'm obeying, and thinking of what he's telling me, i'm also thinking, i'm not hypnotised, i'm not asleep ...
however, to everyone else it looks like i've just closed my eyes, and fallen asleep at the click of his fingers. even my wife (who also knows hypnosis is bollocks) thought he'd made me go to sleep.
it was simple enough. he told me to go to sleep, i'd seen it on stage and on tv, so i did exactly what i'd seen countless others do. without thinking. then he asks me to concentrate on something, so i'm so busy concentrating, i'm not moving, and look like i'm in a trance. and even though for me i'm also thinking, i don't think this is working, i'm hardly going to suddenly open my eyes, stand up, and say "this is all bollocks". not in front of 2,000 people. also, throughout the time on stage, i've been constantly following his orders. in other words he's perfectly prepared me.
so in short, even though i knew it was all bollocks, even though i'm a skeptic, even though i now how it works, i still was hypnotised. as far as everyone else was concerned anyway. very very clever.
anyway, while he's instructing me to think of the name, and to spell it in my head, and to picture their face, he's writing something on a large bit of card. i hear a "this is what i'm getting". when he wakes me, he asks me to say the name into the microphone, while holding the card up behind me.
i say "pruciss". there's a gasp from the audience. he tells me to turn around. i see the card reading "perkiss". amazing. he has apparently just read my mind. if i wasn't a kiwi with a funny accent, i'm sure he'd have got it completely right.
...
and the rest of the show was excellent, the finale was particularly impressive. so if you can still get tickets, go go go.
and i'm not just saying that because derren INFLUENCEd me to say that.
