What Derren does is a mixture of genuine psychology and traditional magic tricks. However, he forgets to tell you which is which. Most of the time when he claims genuine psychology is at work, its not. If he doesnt give an explanation for how he does something, then its normally hypnotism/suggestion in play.

However he does his tricks, there are two reasons he is such a sucsess in Britain today. Firstly the very clever way he puts his tricks together, he uses techniques from hundreds of years ago, but dresses them up in a new and impressive way. More importantly than that is his showmanship, in that reguard there are very few equals in the magic world.

Suprisingly, some of his methods are farely easy to replicate and explain, such as ‘wich hand’ Fourtunately this doesn’t use much phsycological skill. What Derren does is this: He tells the person(s) he is “going to try and influence which hand” they put the coin (small object) in. Whilst he is telling the person(s) what hand the can put it in. e.g: “you can put the coin in your LEFT that’s your LEFT not my LEFT, or you can put it in the other hand” because he told them he would try to influence them, they would listen out for any signals on his part, so because he influenced the word left, the fast majororty would try to catch him out by putting the coin in their right hand.

I’m a big fan of Derren’s and have been for quite a few years (since he very first appeared on C4 with ‘Mind Control’).

What’s interesting is that my opinion used to be just like yours, that “Derren uses a number of techniques to get the response he needs from subject. These include, but are not limited to, NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), Cold Reading, Suggestion, Waking Hypnosis, body language, behavioural trends (eye movement, muscle reading and more)”.

Well, Derren is a great entertainer, an exceptionally intelligent and a fantastic artist. He is certainly well-versed in all of the above techniques, but I think what you should realise, first and foremost, is that Derren is a MAGICIAN. What he does are conjuring tricks, of the kind that have been done for hundreds of years. What Derren does exceptionally well is to wrap them up in excellent presentation and showmanship. He uses psychology and all the other areas mentioned above as the context for what he does. They’re the ‘decoration’, the ‘wrapping’, whatever you want to call it. They are NOT the main way he achieves his effects.

The guy is a fantastic magician and entertainer, but let’s all realise he’s not a superhuman psychological genius or anything else. He’s a clever, well-practiced stage magician who presents his effects in a certain way. That’s all

Although DB always claims that no stooges were used, you have to face the fact that many of the tricks would be easy to pull off if the target was in on the trick. This is television and the best advice i can give about anything that comes from it, is to be very skeptical and not believe anything. This is entertainment not science!

There was a illusionist tv show in the 1970’s called The Amazing World of Kreskin, he claimed not to use stooges, however later it was revealed that he did indeed use actors in the audience.

DB has taken things further and he is very good at what he does. One thing is clear though like any good hypnotist knows, you have to choose your subject carefully as many people would not be influenced by his cues.