That Derren Brown - he’s a slippery customer.
I was watching the (rather excellent) first episode of his new Channel 4 series Trick or Treat this week. It was my second viewing of the show and I was watching with a rather observant friend, who pointed out to me something interesting about a specific element of the show.
Now, I don’t want to spoil anything for those of you who don’t want know, but let’s just say for the moment that our viewing session involved lots of pausing the TV and craning our necks into bizarre positions. A handstand was even suggested at one point.
We all know with Derren that he is deceiving us — he’s fairly honest in his deception, so to speak — but it’s rare that one notices exactly how one is being tricked. Which got me thinking that maybe he meant for viewers to spot this one.
If you’re interested please read on. If you’re not, please don’t — and leave safe in the knowledge that the man is a wizard, not a magician.
The premise of the show is that Derren approaches his victim, sorry subject, and offers them a choice of two cards: Trick or Treat. If they choose Trick, he does something nasty and, if they choose Treat, he does something nice.
If only it were that simple. You see, the cards aren’t all quite they seem. They are rotational ambigrams.
For those of you who haven’t been reading your Dan Brown (odd coincidence that…), it means that one way up they say one word and the other way up they say another. In this case, one way up they say Trick and the other Treat, which of course means that Derren has complete power over which of the two his victim, sorry subject, chooses.
Just in case you can’t see it, here’s a close-up, with the rotation done for you:
Still I’m not 100% convinced that he didn’t mean us to spot this… What do you think?
Well, the camera picks up the cards when the man has to choose one. The viewers can see that he did pick 'trick' and that when Derren did reveal it to the camera it did say 'trick'. I don't think this is a stooge, I think its just an artist effect. Its an ambiguity, which is sometimes what Derren presents in some of his routines.
Laura - I think maybe I need to clarify.
I'm not saying the subject is a stooge. What I am saying is that the cards say both 'trick' and 'treat'. So to say that he picked the 'trick' card is a misnomer. The two cards are identical, but simply held different ways up.
If I recall correctly I believe that Derren actually inverted the card which the subject chose before showing it to camera.
Therefore, presuming this was the case, when the subject chose the card it read 'treat'.
Then, Derren inverts the card as he turns it over to present to camera and it says 'trick' when the viewers see it.
It's a trick - I'm not saying that there's a stooge involved in anyway.
Hi Alistair, I see exactly what you mean. This is more like Dan Brown follwoing Derren Brown...This double card as made famous by Dan Brown has been around for many years in the magic world. The principle is also use in math magic (turning numbers upside down.
As a mentalist enertainer myself I can assure you Derren is a great entertainer. Magic is moving on and so too are the methods that have to fool an more sophisticated audience. Like many of my peers we can all look psychic...we simply choose to use it for entertainment.
Good review...very observant:-)
Robert
Ooo, are you going to be blacklisted by the Magic Circle for revealing this, Alistair?
Utter Genius that man!! I was watching the programme and insisted to my flatmates that the cards were like that! Now I can show them... :D
Jodie
yes, i noticed it last week too. In other words, the stunt has already been decided on, and the "choosing" of the card is irrelevant - just a tension-builder!
I noticed it too, there are many methods for forcing a card on a person, Derren could be far more deceptive should he wish to be, as could any magician. It is neccesary to force the card on the person, other wise you would end up tricking that old lady, and even Derren is't that cruel. It is clever, it gives the audience a bit of insight, makes them feel clever/special that they have this secret knowledge on a part of the show that is really irrelevant to the final outcome.