Derren Brown - Trick Of The Mind - Series 1 (DVD)

...the most refreshing things about Derren is that, despite the fact that the things he's doing are totally unbelievable and magic, he never, ever claims to have special powers or abilities, and questions a lot of those who claim they do. This DVD contains one of the first examples of this where he takes a girl in to a forest and using a voodoo doll makes her unable to move or talk, but is then very honest that there is no voodoo involved at all. (This ...
...including Stephen Fry, who, after Derren doing a card trick on him says, "I'd like to burn him at the stake and watch his witch's heart bubble" Nice eh?!


So, to the DVD itself, the cover is your typical run of the mill Channel 4 DVD cover, a simple picture of the man himself and the title in large letters. The menus are quite good, nice graphics, but not too long and simple to use.
The special features are ... more

Can this man ever fail to amaze?!

This is Derren's new DVD, "Trick of the Mind" which features the entire TOTM series, plus a few extras.

If you're not familiar with Derren, why the hell not?! lol, Just kiddin, but seriously this guy is amazing.

He says his work is a fusion of "magic, suggestion, psychology, misdirection and showmanship", obvious what he does from that, yeah? no? Well, it's very hard to describe properly, so if this is a bit vague, apologies, but I'll try and give a break down of a few "stunts", without giving too much away!

There are a few which are repeated through each of the episodes, one of these, and a personal favourite, is that at the start of the shoe public payphone is ringing, and a stranger walks up and answers it, then they fall to the ground asleep. The show then ends with them waking up slightly dazed! Mad, right?!

He also teaches total strangers how to read minds, and astounds both them and the person whose mind they are reading, along with everyone else with how precise they are!!

There's also a great scene, where he gets in to a London cab, and asks the driver to take him to the London Eye, which, most people will know, is a fairly huge landmark, but he makes the driver forget where it is, how to get there, and even what it is!

He also does a scene with a psychiatrist using the famous "word association", but changes it to word "dis-sociation" and then writes down the word before the psychiatrist says it. And in a similiar vein he gets a footballer to take penalties and draws an 'X' on a picture of a goal to show exactly where the ball is going.

I could go on, but, well, I don't want to ruin it!!

One of the most refreshing things about Derren is that, despite the fact that the things he's doing are totally unbelievable and magic, he never, ever claims to have special powers or abilities, and questions a lot of those who claim they do. This DVD contains one of the first examples of this where he takes a girl in to a forest and using a voodoo doll makes her unable to move or talk, but is then very honest that there is no voodoo involved at all. (This led on to his TV special "Messiah " where he was able to fool top spiritualists that he had special abilities, even though he admits he does not)

There's also a few celeb guests featured, including Stephen Fry, who, after Derren doing a card trick on him says, "I'd like to burn him at the stake and watch his witch's heart bubble" Nice eh?!

So, to the DVD itself, the cover is your typical run of the mill Channel 4 DVD cover, a simple picture of the man himself and the title in large letters. The menus are quite good, nice graphics, but not too long and simple to use.
The special features are enjoyable, there's a nice little interview, which, despite not being as personal as that on "Inside Your Mind" is still fun to watch. There is also a behind the scenes featurette, which displays a bit more of Derren's sense of humour, but doesn't actually tell you much about what happens behind the scenes, but still worth a watch. Two unused routines are also included, another making a taxi driver get lost and a great little piece where he makes a pianist play a tune he was thinking of! The commentary is also a lot of fun to listen to, and he gives one or two tricks away, so listen closely ;-)

I was glad that this DVD had the entire TV series, unlike his first DVD which was just a "best of" collection, however the one really annoying thing about this DVD is that the credits are rolled after every individual episode as opposed to just starting the next episode. Then again, maybe those people just really like getting credit?! Also, some people may not be keen on sitting through the 5 half hour shows in one go, personally, I just wanted more!! That said, those truly are the only drawbacks on another amazing piece of work from Mr Brown! 

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