Hardin's Magic Brain

flJ~E EffECT
Direct Mind Reading
And Magical Artistry

Derren Brown

Photographs by Peter Clifford

MAGIC BOOKS
I \ ~tt

~ I

I
---
·--
I:

Derren Brown and his lovely cat Spasm relaxing at home.
When a performance is over, what remains? Fun can be forgotten, but
powerful emotion also disappears and good arguments lose their thread.
Wizen emotion and argument are harnessed to a wish from the audience to
see more clearly into itself- then something in the mind burns. The event
scorches onto the memory an outline, a taste, a trace, a smell - a picture. It
is the play's central image that remains, it's silhouette, and if the elements
are highly blended this silhouette will be its meaning, this shape will be the
essence of what it has to say. When years later I think of a striking theatrical
experience I find a kernel engraved on my memory: two tramps under a
tree, an old woman dragging a cart, a sergeant dancing, three people on a
sofa in hell - or occasionally a trace deeper than any imagery. I haven't a
hope of remembering the meanings precisely, but from the kernel I can
construct a set of meanings. Then a purpose will have been served. A few
hours could amend my thinking for life. This is almost but not quite
impossible to achieve.

From Peter Brook's The Empty Space.
We are proud to be able to offer the magical fraternity this series of
manuscripts that Derren made in the 1990s. Although originally
nothing more than a few blank sheets of paper tied together with
string, we have been able to reconstruct them as he would have
wanted had he cared. This first volume represents the best of his
output, before he eventually retired to concentrate upon his second
great love - contributing short stories to the specialist magazine
Wheelchair Fellatio.
C6J/Jc/lTS

A Moment of Your Exceptionally Valuable Time ........................9

Part C>ne - (Pracli~l)

Making Contact .................................................................................. 13
Realising the wonder - My priorities - Combining
magic and mentalism

Working With the Spectator... In Mind ........................................... 19
Working from the spectators' perspectives - Not being an arse
Establishing contexts - Providing meaning - Tabula rasa
Anchoring

Risk and Delight ................................................................................. 31
Dealing with obvious solutions - Bold handlings of classic effects
Incorporating chance

Part Tw() - ( t1agi~l Artist~)
"Zamiel's Card." ................................................................................... .55
The magician removes real cards from an invisible deck to find the selection.

A Three Card Routine ........................................................................63
The audience are entertained and exhausted by the magical antics of three cards.

"Magicall" ........................................................................... 87
The cards become a mobile telephone and the perfomzer calls a helpline to find the
selected card.
Magno Conatu Magnus Nugas ........, .................................................89
A selection of moves, sleights and assorted nonsenses.

Part Three - ( Direct f1i"dreadi"~)
Invisible Compromise and an Approach to Mind Reading ...........101

Communicative subtleties .....................................................107

You're Supposed to be Reading Minds .................................... 113

"Smoke" .............................................................................................. 119
A thought-of card disappears from a deck and appears in place of the magician's
cigarette.

"Plerophoria" ......................................................................................129
The spectator fairly shuffles a deck and the magician is able to identify every card
and any number removed, with his back turned.

"Perfect Coin Reading" ........................................................ 145
The performer can tell the denomination and date of a coin held in a spectator's fist
without at any point seeing the coin.

"Transformation" ................................................................ 149
An intimate, metaphorical routine using numerological readings from cards.

Two Verbal Card Forces ....................................................... 155
Methods for forcing mental selections, using only suggestion and gesture. No cards
are used.

Final Thoughts .................................................................... 161

Thank-yous .................................. 7.....................................163
9

A l10'1cllT of Yov~ fXCcfflOIIALLY VALvABLc TJl1c

deeply, and widely, believe that performance is a very personal

I affair, and that one must pursue one's own sense of integrity and
remain a little detached from advice and precedent offered by
tradition. For this reason, I do not offer myself as arbiter elegantiae,
merely as another student following his exquisite nose through these
matters. All of the nonsenses described in this book are routines and
ideas that serve me well in the very practical matter of performing
for real people whom I hope will sit quietly and not be sick. These
effects are offered to anyone interested, with the aim that they will
suggest to the reader notions more suitable to him and his own
splendid style.

For the reader who is interested in nothing but solid
mentalism, some of the routines on these pages may appear as soiled
whores; shameless Daughters of Joy who have raised their petticoats
and yielded their most secret charm to the flippant and capricious
world of mere thaumaturgy. To that reader I can only apologise for
my unabashed love of mixing mindreading with magic to find the
strongest effect - I do believe that the two, in context, may
complement each other quite charmingly.

Of course it is equally true that the reader who
comes to this volume in search of neat tricklets may also find but
disappointment and chagrin - many of my routines demand in
performance a setting of the psychological stage, and a delight in the
baroque-like filigree of linguistic devices that subtly guide and, Lord
help us, even manipulate the unwitting participant into making
responses agreeable to the success of our little theatre. These
techniques, I hope, will not be enjoyed by all.
10

I am unsure then who precisely will find this book entirely
to his or her palate. Hopefully no one other than myself, although I
trust that more will find something of use in these pages. Perhaps
those others who have been obliging enough to pay actual money for
my volume but who find it only vapid, mindless and irrelevant will
find some other use in it - perhaps they could fashion from it an
impromptu hat to wear in the rain, or it may even serve as a simple
toy for a least favourite child.
11

fA~r6//E

,P,(ACTJCAL

The image comes to mind of a man juggling the
most delicious fruit in front of a group of
lwngry children.
13

'1AJ<1#q CO/ITAC T

I
worked as a magician for eight years before J realised what I was
doing wrong. Two events made me stop and re-evaluate my
performance. The first occurred at a magic convention in London
when I met Eugene Burger, who was performing for some magicians
at a bar table. J asked if I could join him. He reached over and shook
my hand, gesturing for me to sit down. He introduced himself and
asked my name, in that characteristic mellifluous blend of rich
baritone timbre and erudite camp. I sat down, expectant and
grinning like a big girl. "Now," he stated in a voice that sounded like
a Russian Orthodox mass played backwards at low speed, "I want
you to pick a card ... " Magic was afoot.

The second came as I reflected upon a conversation not
dissimilar to many I had had before with a member of what we
elegantly refer to as the 'laity,' as we peer down from the dizzy
ecclesiastical heights of thaumaturgy. This chap, a guest at a function
where I had been table-hopping, had told me of a trick that he had
seen a magician perform some twenty years before in a bar. I forget
the details of his wonderfully embellished version of what I guessed
to be the original performance, but some time later the chord struck.
I realised that the magic that I perform is the anecdote waiting to be
told twenty years from now by my spectators.

The incident with Eugene Burger made me realise that my
magic was missing the experience of wonder. There was no
awareness of the emotive potential of magic waiting to happen. No
welcoming of the spectator in.to something special. Mr. Burger deftly
and unselfconsciously created a sense of something wondrous. The
later reflection on the conversation after the function made me
realise that I was not treating my magic with the respect that it
14

deserved - that while I was just making sure that I got round all the
tables before the speeches started, I was giving the guests something
that they would probably never get again in their lives: most
probably they would never see another magician perform live and
close-up. I was giving them a few minutes that could stay in their
minds for at least another twenty years before they decided to relate
my tricks as their anecdote years in the future. I knew that magic is
something inherently very impressive, but when I considered my
attitude, I saw that it did not reflect that fact. Rather, I was concerned
with being funny, and getting through a handful of tricks in a short
space of time. Rather than focussing on the experiences of the few
individuals for whom I was performing, I was thinking in terms of
the room as a whole, and which tables were left to 'do.'

I decided that my magic had to change. That I had to give
serious thought to presentation. That, in fact, my presentation of the
effects is where my impact as a magician lies - I realised that it can
turn a good effect into something artistic and stunning. I believe that
the concentration on presentation is the most practical aspect of
magic performance, presuming that one is working already with a
set of decent effects.

This process of addressing my performance will take an
entire career. I do agree with Eugene Burger that one could spend a
lifetime working on a presentation worthy of an effect, and this book
is designed to be a set of thoughts and effects that have come to
fruition during my early days on that road. I hope that some of my
thoughts will seem appropriate to the reader, and I trust that the
effects contained here will spark off ideas for him to create his own. I
trust that the astute reader will not be inclined to perform my
routines quite as I describe them.
15

My Aims and Priorities
I don't consider myself a Mentalist. I do not restrict myself to
mindreacting effects when I am performing in the real world.
Enough magicians have asked me about the wisdom of combining
magic and mindreacting in performance. No lay participant in my
effects has ever queried this. If I explain my thoughts here, I will be
able to express a few points that I find important. They begin with
the old worry about mentalists' disclaimers and the ethics of psychic
performances. I have an interest in suggestion and what gets labelled
'hypnosis.' I work to combine magic and mindreading with
'hypnosis' to create something new and very powerful. Because this
is a keen interest of mine, I tend to communicate it in my
performances. I find that most intelligent spectators are more
interested in the psychological techniques than the sleight-of-hand.
Most would rather feel that they had only seen the card change
because they expected to see it change than because I was adept at
exchanging it under supposedly impossible conditions. So whilst I
have no desire to present my effects as mere psychological chicanery,
I will allow the possibility that a lot of subliminal suggestion is afoot.
People do find that fascinating, as do I. Now, later I offer to take the
spectators a little deeper into the art and we embark upon a few
mindreading and 'psychic' effects. Here I let them feel that I am
using a heightened sensitivity to body language and a whole set of
hypnotic skills to make the effects work. I don't spell it out unless
someone takes me to one side and talks to me about it, but I base my
own silent script and the belief I take on board about how I'm
getting the information into or from another mind on the notion that
these suggestion-based techniques really work that reliably.

This classic presentational ploy that Banachek calls
'psychological direction' allows for the illusion of enormous skill, as
long as you let the participants figure out for themselves that you are
employing such methods. I believe I earn their respect by
16

denouncing 'psychic power' as woolly guff and I challenge those
lobotomised flower-fairies who believe in such nonsense, appealing
to their intelligence and belief in tnemselves as sceptical creatures.
The other advantage of this angle is that it allows the effects to sit
comfortably with a magic routine that suggests that similar ploys are
at work. The two sets become connected by a seductive undercurrent
of apparently deft manipulation of the participant's minds. At first,
these techniques are being employed to produce wonderful,
mystifying and artistic magical effects. Then the tone darkens, and
the performer, almost with an air of reluctance, sensing the correct
rapport in the group, casts aside his props and amusements and
begins to rely entirely on his knowledge of human nature to delve
into the thought processes of the group. The spectators sense this
intensifying of the situation, and adjust their interpretation of the
event accordingly. What we are seeing here is no longer trickery.

Whilst I see the arguments for not combining the two areas
of performance as valid and sensible, I do feel that they are limited. I
would take my idea even further and say that it is sometimes even
possible to combine magic and mi.ndreading in the same effect and
still have something that has a deep impact. In these pages I will
discuss a favourite effect of mine, Smoke. I perform this as a closing
item in my close-up set and it is, if you'll forgive me for being so
awful, something of a stunner. The effect is that a thought-of card is
divined, disappears from the deck, and arrives burnt and smoking in
the performer's mouth in place of the cigarette he had been smoking
throughout. It would fail as serious mentalism, although it might
work as a piece of bizarre magic if handled correctly. Emotionally,
the three-part structure allows for a real impact:

1 - the card is merely looked at in a ribbon-spread. The
performer is facing away. The deck is reassembled. Yet he states his
aim to divine it, without touching the deck. This will get everyone's
attention. It does seem impossible. Climax One - the card is named.
The spectators sit back.
17

2 - The magician says it was never there in the deck. He lets
the participant argue that he saw it. The performer coolly blows a
smoke-ring, smiling to himself. All eyes are now on the squared
deck. The magician spreads it out again. True, the card isn't there.
Suddenly there is confusion. The spectator is sure he saw it. Climax
Two, which will have the audience searching for an answer. Their
attempt to work out how the performer knew the card is thrown into
disarray.

3 - The performer splutters and the cigarette seems to be
causing him trouble. It can be seen to have changed. He removes it
and unrolls it. A resolution to the card's disappearance is given, but
the weirdness has escalated irretrievably. There are no answers.

The aim here is to begin with a decent mindreading effect
and then take it a stage further. While out of place in a straight
mentalism routine, the effect of the 'magic' ending is, I feel, to stop
them from treating the mindreading like a puzzle to work out, and
to yield to the greater performance.

As much as I perform mindreading effects, I rarely enjoy
watching most mentalism - I do feel that its entertainment value is
inherently quite low. It is more suited to late-night demonstrations -
rather like telling ghost stories. In commercial performance, I prefer
to ensure that the effects I perform are really going to knock the
audience for at least six. So these effects here are borne out of a
desire to push mindreading into somewhere new, and a wish (which
I hope one day to achieve) to combine conjuring, hypnosis and
psychic effects into a heightened new form of close-up
enterta inmen t.
19

wO/?KJJ/~ wJ71f T1(E S/JECTATO/l .. J}I l11i/O

I
f we are honest, what is our starting-point for forming an effect? I
feel there is a tendency amongst many magicians to start with a
new move, some clever sleight - from some point of
methodological skill. Then the possibilities of that move are
explored, until an effect is formed. Often that effect is marvellous,
and one that will fool everyone. But to make it magical, the magician
will have to change focus. And there, I feel, lies the rub.

The question for the performer in forming an effect should
not be 'What can I do?' or 'How can I use this?' The ultimate
questions that will lead to truly magical effects must be spectator-
centric. 'What would really freak out a spectator?' 'What would
convince them that I possessed this power?' 'What would move
them in a particular way?' 'And what would they want to see?' Only
after answering this, I think, one should ask - 'And what then can I
provide to take it a step further?'

It is my opinion that this leads to a more creative process.
The performer is placing himself in the position of the spectator. He
is subjecting everything that he does or desires as a performer to the
consideration of the effect that it would have on a spectator.

This consideration is paramount also in the performance -
not just the effects themselves. I remember recently visiting the
restaurant where I regularly perform here in Bristol. I was sat in the
spacious, Byzantine lounge area where attractive staff and a belly
dancer pampered the guests. This was after maybe ten years of
performing, but was the first time I ever got a dear sensation of
exactly how I would feel ifl were to be approached by a magician. It
occurred to me that in those years of performing, I could never have
20

really considered that. I realised how easily a chirpy, adequate
magician would have made me cringe and been utterly out of place.
I saw that I wanted to be pampered, not made to feel self-conscious.
Had I really been ensuring that my little audiences had actually
warmed to me and felt comfortable? I imagined a suave and
theatrically-dressed chap coming over and introducing himself with
a charming and discreet air - asking if he might join us for a few
moments... I saw that it would be exactly right, exciting and
elevating. But how easy it would have been to get that wrong!

I realised that through feeling insecure about approaching a
table and compensating through brashness, I had probably alienated
a lot of people in the past. How easy it is to be an embarrassing
imbecile with this work!

Setting a Context
These thoughts led to me restructuring much of my close-up
performance. Here I can only speak of how it affected my own style,
which is appropriate to the venues where I perform. But I think the
questions and considerations - but I make no presumptions about
my answers - are worthwhile for anyone to take on board. Those that
have will realise how rewarding such a reappraisal is.

The magician's first task is to set a context for his
performance. I see the group as a tabula rasa. I approach them, I feel,
with charm and confidence, and quickly achieve rapport. Yet I also
retain an authority that I want them to feel. I want to be seen to be
withholding something. I want to hold a promise of something for
them. I want to give them time to get ready for the magic. To become
curious and attentive. To watch, essentially, on my terms. This is
much more enjoyable than launching !nto a routine immediately. I
21

can learn everyone's name, and make sure that they know mine. I
am, after all, coming into their group uninvited. I have a basic
responsibility to be at least civil. Again, I remember Eugene Burger
at that convention. The magic can start long before you start an
effect. I also remember that if I am walking into their space to
perform, I am asking them to form judgements about me. Any
magician that begins a table-hopping set with the selection of a card
or the inspection of an object is deluding himself if he thinks the
audience are interested in the cards or prop for those moments. They
are forming their opinions about the performer and assessing how
they feel about him. I feel it is much better to realise that and give
them a chance to like me and respect me before I start performing
my magic for them.

For me, another result of making these changes was that I
started to really and reliably enjoy table-hopping and walkaround
magic. This may sound strange, but I trust that all of us that perform
regularly will be familiar with the terrible ennui that can set in before
approaching the first group of the evening, or starting again after a
break. We're not in the mood. I found that by changing the way I
interacted with the spectators and slowing down my performance to
allow them to feel charmed and respected, I never again felt that
grotesque reluctance to perform that comes when one has to force
oneself into an 'upbeat' state unwillingly. There was no need to do
that. My performance became more honestly me. An exaggerated
version of me, certainly, but I no longer had to become something
that I wasn't.

The next level where one must be aware of setting a context,
I feel, is finding a meaning for the effect itself. Much has been said on
this by other authors and I do not have the years behind me nor the
standing to speak with the same authority. Similarly I can add
nothing very new to the discussion. But consider this: if what you
are presenting to the spectators is seen to be a puzzle to be solved,
then they will be concerned with that task. And as with any puzzle
22

offered, if they cannot arrive at the right answer themselves, then
they will feel entitled to be told the solution. If the performer does
not offer one, then they are entitled to feel resentful. I think of those
ghastly lateral-thinking problems that a particular type of person
enjoys offering for solution. Rather than simple murder, one engages
in an attempt to find an answer depending on how polite one feels
one should be. Imagine if one genuinely tried to work out the
problem, until finally giving up, to find that the poser of the problem
had no intention of confiding the answer. Heaven forefend that any
of us should be such arses in our performance, but the question of
what meaning we are attaching to the effect is vital to performing
strong magic that transcends the mundane.

If I may be so bold as to offer an example from my own
repertoire, then I would direct the reader to my effect
'Transformation' towards the end of this book. This is, from a
technical point of view, little more than some cards changing on the
table, but it will have immense personal resonance for the spectator.
Inasmuch as it is important to relate the effect to the life of your
spectator for them to find some meaning inherent in it, there is little
in the realm of magic and mentalism more relevant to a spectator
than a personal reading, which forms the structure of the effect.

I would suggest that the participant with whom you are
about to begin your magic presents a clear, open and responsive
slate for you to fill with emotional information. Most will have had
no experience of live magic before, and even more will have had no
previous experience of your magic. The spectator/participant awaits
cues from you to know how to behave. Presuming that you have
picked your participant with a reasonable degree of wisdom, you
23

can presume that she is eager to be helpful and not appear to be
incompetent of performing the tasks at hand.

This is why I believe before anything else regarding
performing effects, that what you perform should be presented as
essentially serious. NOT necessarily solemn, but essentially serious.
When I think of an effect in this way, I imagine it to seem to have
integrity, relevance, and elegance. Although it may be
communicated with humour, it is clear that it is not trivial. The adult
spectator realises that magic is an adult art. Because your participant
comes to you eager to learn how she should respond to your
performance and instructions, you have the choice of whether she
responds to them in a transient, lightly amused way, or whether she
takes something rather personal and marvellous away with her.

Behind each effect I perform is the question of whether the
presentation and communication of the effect are worthy of it. The
effect has potential for unspeakably powerful impact. Where along
that line am I performing it? Am I merely trivialising it?

If we take, then, as our starting point that our participant is
open to suggestion and emotional and psychological direction, we
can now consider what emotions and states of mind are useful to
elicit, and how to do so. Paul Harris has written marvellously about
how magic takes us back to our infantile state of astonishment. That
the experience of wonder triggers that early period when nothing
made sense and the world was one of unfurling surprise. It seems to
me that this would be a marvellous experience for a spectator of my
magic to have. When I began to consider this, I saw the importance
of eliciting emotions with the magic, to give it a deep resonance and
to provide an emotive journey of some sort for my audiences.

May I suggest that your aim as a magician is to create and
manipulate wonder and astonishment while avoiding confusion and
mere puzzle solving on the part"of the spectator. There is an inherent
24

beauty in possibly all effects, something that can be found and
brought out. 1f the audience find a sense of that beauty, and even
artistry, it will be easier for you to help them attach an emotional
meaning to the effect. This emotional meaning is one at the opposite
end of the spectrum to resentment, which we have discussed as the
emotional result of failed puzzle solving.

There are a number of ways of securing an emotional
response in a close-up setting, where lighting and music changes are
impractical, if not ludicrous. The first is simply to suggest or demand
these responses. 1f you are working with the presumption that there
is something inherently beautiful in making an object vanish (which
I believe there is), then it is reasonable to be quite blatant in
requesting the appropriate reaction from the spectator: "I hope you'll
watch this carefully and not miss a second. This really is a beautiful
moment that you'll remember for the rest of your life. Your ring
simply and elegantly... disappears. Isn't that lovely?"

The second technique is a little more involved. In the world
of hypnosis and Neuro-Linguistic Programming, it is called
anchoring. Perhaps you'll be enough of a love to let me consider it
now separately.

This is a useful skill, and one that although it will sound a
little elaborate in description, should become second nature in
performance. Here, we are working with our natural tendency as
human beings to attach associations to such things as objects, faces,
environments, gestures and tones of voice. It is the same process that
occurs when we hear a particular sopg and are taken back to the
emotions associated with our first hearing of it, or when by merely
25

thin.king of people we know we make ourselves feel melancholy or
excited. This can be of use to us as magicians interested in eliciting
powerful responses of different kinds, and in giving the audience a
more powerful memory of the event. Here is the basic process for
'anchoring' a response:

1 - Gain rapport with the spectator and then, as you
talk, enter that desired state yourself. This you can do
through amplified voice tonality and physiological
changes on your part. If you keep the rapport in check,
you should bring the spectator with you quite easily.
You can ask her questions relating to her experience of
it to amplify it further.

2 - When you can see that she is in the correct state,
'anchor' it with a touch or gesture and a suitable word
or sound on your part.

3 - Repeat this a few times over a period to enhance
the association.

4 - You can now trigger off that response again by
using the same touch and word at a later point.

It certainly is not desirable to spend time eliciting the state
(Step One) in every effect that you present. However, often, a useful
response will present itself quite spontaneously through a strong
reaction to an effect - a reaction that you can then 'steal' through an
anchor for later. Here are some examples from my own experiences
with this technique that 1· hope will communicate the relative
straightforwardness of the procedure:
26

The Energy In The Spoon
This was a great example of a spontaneous response that I anchored
and kept for later. I was performing some spoon bending in a cafe
queue in the rather delightful Primrose Cafe in Boyces Avenue,
Bristol. As the spoon bent slowly upwards, the woman to my right
became quite animated and said that she could see the energy rising
up the handle. Far from wanting to discourage her notion, I leant
over and touched her on the shoulder, making the same "Whoa!"
sound that she had just made in shock. Then a little later I bent
another spoon and was about to let it break in two. Just before I did
this, I touched the same woman in the same place and excitedly
exclaimed, "Whoa!" in that same way. Immediately she shifted from
watching attentively to getting excited again, pointing at what she
could see again as energy. As the spoon broke, her excitement
peaked quite vociferously.

Stopping Smoking
This has nothing directly to do with magic performance per se, but is
a good example of the power of this technique. I was sitting with a
chap I knew reasonably well in a pub, the two of us slowly yielding
to the florid grape. He mentioned that he wanted to give up
smoking. In my practice as a hypnotist, I have seen many people
who have this request. I had neither time nor inclination to spend
serious time with him then, so I started a conversation on the first
cigarette he'd smoked. I asked him a series of questions about the
toxic nature of that first experience, and as the questions about the
sensations demanded increasing amounts of detail, so too he became
deeper involved in that state. The ortly way he could answer the
27

questions was by fully reliving the unpleasantness again. As he did
this, I drummed casually on the table with my fingers. I brought him
to a peak, drumming louder, then stopped dead and changed the
subject drastically. Ten minutes later, he extracted a box of the foul
weed from his pocket and lit one to smoke it. I immediately
drummed on the table. He spat the thing out, nearly gagging. He had
no idea why it tasted bad. Taking advantage of his confusion, I leant
over and said knowingly - "And now whenever you try in vain to
smoke one of those, you can feel this each time stronger... " That was
two and a half years ago, and I know that he has not smoked since.

Sometimes in a magic performance, the spectator that is
helping you may be experiencing a subdued version of the effect that
everyone else is witnessing. This device is something I enjoy using to
create the effect of a real miracle for the audience. It may be that pre-
show work has taken place, of which the vast majority of the
audience have no idea, or some more subtle division of effect
between what the participant thinks is occurring, and what the
audience believe to be the case. Here it will be useful to make the one
spectator react in an amplified way, to match the audience's reaction
- and their expectation of her response. I have often seen a mentalist
point at someone in the audience and say something along the lines
of, 'You, Madam are thinking of a country.... it is Denmark, am I
right? And your mother's maiden name would be Jones, would that
be correct?' The audience member, rather than reacting with the
appropriate response of sheer mindless terror, merely nods and is
asked to sit down. The rest of us are careful to react to this
apparently strong effect, for we note that the spectator was not
especially impressed. Here, the' value of a good anchored response
would be invaluable. In a close-up setting, where this sort of
methodology is at work, care could be taken to ensure that the girl in
question responds well as follows: During previous effects, her
enthusiastic responses to the magic are repeatedly anchored - say,
28

with a touch and some sort of exclamation. Then, when it is later
desired that she respond in an amplified way to an effect, he triggers
off the touch/sound anchor again. She will find herself responding
much more powerfully.

Here are some further examples of anchoring used to
provide a greater emotional response to an effect:

Enhancing Your Attractiveness to the Spectator
This may sound a little suspect, and perhaps it is. However,
there is a very flirtatious quality about performing magic to the
opposite sex that can be exploited to ensure that they play the right
psychological game during (and, if you like, after) the effects.
Invariably I find myself alongside the female managing director of
the company that has booked me for the evening, and I find that by
using the following ploy I can induce her to feel a little more than
attraction to the magic - which goes a long way in the schmoosy
world of corporate networking. First I want to create the 'desire
state' and anchor it, so early in the set I might begin with:

'Have you ever seen something that you just know that you
have to have? Something that you see and immediately know that it
has to be yours, and you won't stop thinking about it until you have
it? You know what I mean? [I give her time to find something and
respond accordingly.] You know that feeling inside you get when it
just penetrates you and says [I put my hand on her shoulder] Look at
me. And you really want it. Well, that's how I felt when I first saw
magic that I couldn't explain. I knew that's what I had to do. Let me
show you what I saw... '

Then later, when I come to do a bit of mindreading, I place
my hand on her shoulder in the same way and say 'Look at me' as
29

before. I may continue, 'Now I'm sure that you like me have had some
experiences you can't explain away.. .' triggering off the shoulder
anchor again with the words 'you like me.'

It's a harmless piece of seductive by-play that enhances the
feeling of intimacy you may wish to create. And brings in a bit of
extra work.

Out of This World
Here I use Paul Harris' idea of our natural state of astonishment to
provide a strong emotional ending to Mr. Curry's classic effect. I can
only say that my performance of this has doubled in impact since I
included this at the end, sitting back and talking for a moment to
build anticipation before the rows of cards are turned over:

'Well, I've been performing magic for ten years now and one
thing keeps occurring to me. That magic can take us back to our
infantile state, our natural state of mind, which is one of wonder. [As I
say this I move my hand over the cards with a gesture that will
mirror the turning-over to come in a few moments. This is the
anchor]. As babies we wonder at everything - the world is full of
astonishment. Of course after a while we start to learn how things
work and we lose that capacity to hold something in childlike awe [I
gesture again over the cards]. Do you know what I mean? And it's
the same when you first start enjoying magic. The same feeling of
wonder [gesture]. But for me, of course, once you know how it's
done, and you know the secrets, you lose that beautiful sense of
astonishment. You watch a magician with his hands all over the
cards and you can see him doing the moves. So... you can imagine
what it's like for me, after ten years of doing this, to just sit back and
see something utterly impossible [I start to tum over the cards] that
30

makes you wonder about that beautiful child-like state again.
Remember this, and thank you very much indeed.'

It may read rather disgustingly, but now every time I
perform this effect there is a beautiful silence as the emotions are
triggered, then expressions of disbelief, and then comments along
the line of, 'It sends shivers through you, doesn't it?' This I find very
rewarding. It really has become something more than a card trick.

I repeat, it would not be appropriate to overwork this sort of
presentation, but to have a small number of such points during a set
will, I believe, enhance the impact of the performance considerably.
Of course it must happen in a way that is entirely honest and
congruent on your part - you should be really feeling the states of
mind that you are describing and eliciting.
31

/ljSK AIYD .OElJqf(T

"Familiarity begets boldness"
The Antiquary by Shackerley Marmion

I
f one works as a full-time table-hopper, a week may pass where
one performs the same trick a hundred times. Slowly one may
come to leave behind the lesser joy of this terrible whoring, in
favour of more exclusive performance, but for those of us at least
who cannot live out our expensive lives without occasional returns
to the bustling banquet hall, I would like to offer for discussion the
problem of over-familiarity with those methods for achieving our
miracles.

I am thinking of a tendency that I recognised in myself to
consistently use tried-and-tested means for my magic that harked
back to when I first began to perform the effect in question. There are
a few effects that I have performed for years, and feel that I would be
able to continue to do so effectively, even if my brain were removed
by a nurse. Even though I was growing as a magician, and becoming
increasingly skilled with people and performance environments, I
was continuing to use methods that were suited to me as a fledgling
performer. I am convinced that it is too easy to perform old tricks in
old ways without any reappraisal of their emotional impact, the
meaning they convey, and what they say about you as a performer. It
is an eye-opening procedure to return to those effects and design
32

new presentations - but I have already spoken of this, and the
importance of context in magic. Here I would like to mention an area
that I find allows me to experien~e some delight and entertainment
in my own performances, namely the use of bold technique and the
employment of risk.

The safe and solid methods that we once needed to perform
an effect with confidence may now not leave us room to apply our
years of experience and skill that we have amassed as good
magicians. We may delight ourselves in excellent ruses in our latest
effects, but think nothing of over-handling in a trick we have
performed for years. I would like to defend the use of boldness,
blagging and bunkum in close-up magic, and suggest that it can
provide more of an edge to the experience of performance.

Let us look at some effects that we are all familiar with. The
famous 'Cigarette-thru-Quarter,' or (more correctly) 'Cigarette
through Pound Coin,' meets with an interesting reaction from
magicians alone. Many, myself included at one time, would not
perform it, from some lurking feeling that the effect was a little 'too
clean.' There is no doubt that this effect is a modem classic, but at the
same time any performer that does not think that his audience is
going to take some convincing that the coin was not exchanged is
probably deluding himself, perhaps more than his audience. I
thought that I had solved this problem admirably when the reaction
from the spectators seemed all that it should be. Then, one night,
after the cigarette had made its defiant journey through the coin
(symbolising the mammonish reticulation of Wealth and
Debauchery), a lady responded, "Ooh, you must have swapped the
coin for one with a hole in it." Two other people jeered at her with
sarcastic cries of, "No! Really?" and so on - suggesting that her
remark was so obvious that it didn't need stating. Despite one's
frustration at this only partially correct solution, it is not appropriate
to vehemently insist that they saw the cigarette emerge from the coin
leaving no hole. lt is clearly more sensible for them to presume that
33

you managed to exchange the coins under impossible conditions
than it is to believe that the cigarette went through. This lady's
reaction, or more correctly that of the miserable, flatulent bugger to
her right who had said nothing all evening but chose this moment to
open his foetid, purulent mouth to mock her conclusion, worried me.
For the presumption that the coin was exchanged to be so obvious
that it would inspire mockery to even mention it seemed to me to be
a problem. And I wondered how often similar conversations had
occurred once I had wished these groups a good evening and
wended my way.

The solution that I offer here is, I'm sure, far from complete,
but it illustrates a point about incorporating a certain boldness of
subterfuge into the proceedings. Firstly, there is an old rule that one
takes for granted as a magician that one must never make explicit
possible solutions or methods for fear of alerting the spectators to
precisely those methods. For example, it is wrong to say, "Notice
that my hands are empty": instead one must make a gesture that
shows the hands to be clearly so. This is generally good advice, but I
do feel that certain provisions can be made. On the one hand, the
guilty magician who has exchanged a card and is suffering pangs of
conscience, and who refers to the card as "the same card"
unnecessarily is dearly making a mistake, as is the coin worker who
comes out with such monstrosities as "I place the coin in my right
hand," and then points at his fist for good measure. Such over-
enthusiastic references to the glaringly obvious are horrendous.
However, in those situations, we do not wish to arouse any dubiety
in the mind of the spectator as to a fact that should be obvious, and
our stating of that fact will only cause them to pay undue attention
to it. The presumption is that nothing untoward has happened. But in
the case of the cigarette effect. under discussion, I believe that the
stronger presumption will be that the coin has been exchanged. Similar
effects may also create a similar bias in the minds of the audience.
The rule that forbids us to say such things as "Notice that my hands
are empty," no longer applies. If we know that the audience will
34

believe unanimously that our hands were not empty before some
object is produced, then I feel that a mere gesture to demonstrate
emptiness does not suffice. Many may forget that they saw a pair of
empty hands, and work with the more convincing logic that they
must have already contained the object. One must look at the
presumptions made by the spectators and work with those
presumptions. If they have no reason to presume that a subterfuge
has occurred, it would be disastrous to mention the possibility, even
by denying that possibility. But if we are honest and see that in a
particular effect the presumption will be strongly in favour of some
secret move, then our demonstrating of the fairness of the procedure
by explicitly eliminating possibilities of chicanery can be justified.

Therefore, I decided that the only way to perform the
'Cigarette through Coin' effect satisfactorily was to face this issue of
the partial transparency of method head-on. As far as I could see, the
presumption in the minds of an audience of average intelligence was
that I had exchanged the borrowed coin for one with a hole. (Not
wishing to describe the workings of an effect currently on sale, I will
presume the reader understands the method for achieving the effect,
and not explain it beyond referring to the exchange that does need to
take place). This is frustrating on two counts: firstly, the method is a
little cleverer than that, and if they would look carefully they would
see that there really is no hole remaining as the cigarette exits the
coin; secondly (and this may sound a little fey), I work hard to
believe in my magic as I perform it, and such explanations spoil it for
me too. The following change in handling has allowed me to deal
specifically with the exchange issue, and needs nothing more than
sheer confidence to make it work. I would recommend this change to
anyone performing this effect.

It is simply this - ask for the loan of a coin and take it from
Person A to your right and pass it to Person B to your left to 'hang
onto for a moment.' Bobo switch thE; coin at this point, and leave the
gimmicked coin in her hand. Don't tell her to make a fist around it,
35

just leave it on her hand. Then ask her if she has a cigarette. If she
has one, let her find her pack and extract one for you - this will
occupy her and keep her mind away from the coin. If she has none,
bring out your own. Here I open up a lovely silver cigarette case, and
palmed beneath it is the real coin, still retained, as I ask her to
remove one. I then ask her to inspect the cigarette (be it mine), or to
light it (be it hers). She will do all this with the gimmicked coin in
hand, and pay it no attention. Take the cigarette, and light it if need
be, and then 'start' the trick. I tum to the group and say, "Now,
when I do this on your electric television sets, we are often accused
of stopping the cameras and swapping the props. You are getting to
see this live and very close-up." I particularly aim the next sentence
at the lady with the coin. "Please watch very carefully - I don't want
mindless accusations that I distracted you and exchanged things
when you weren't looking." I reach over to take the coin from the
spectator at fingertips. "Look - I am using the very tips of my fingers
- no sleeves, no pockets, no swapsies. Poppet, you may wish to keep
an eye on the coin, you are nearest after all."

I then continue with the effect. For the sake of completeness,
I finish by removing the cigarette with my right hand, the real coin
still finger palmed. The gimmicked coin is displayed as whole and
undamaged in the left, and I take it with my right fingers and bring
the cigarette back to my mouth. As the hand swings down, I drop
the wrong coin into the left and extend it for retrieval by the
spectator, mentioning that he will be able to feel a warmth in the
centre of the coin. As I say this, the cigarette is still in my mouth. The
attention on the coin and the act of talking in this way provide
enough distraction for the guilty left hand to be forgotten. It comes
up to take the cigarette, and the coin rolls from the hand into a Topit
as it makes this journey.

The act of leaving the gimmicked coin with the spectator
before you apparently begin allows you to, in effect, perform the
trick without having to exchange the coin. You are able to safely
36

spell out that nothing is being exchanged and therefore deal with the
major obstacle in the presentation of the effect as magic. Some may
still object that the mention of exchanges remains counterproductive,
but I would answer that to not deal with this issue is to ignore a
major challenge in this marvellous effect.

I also believe that the boldness and risk involved in this
handling makes the task of performance far more interesting. The
magician must remain alert, and his interaction with his audience
becomes a little more involved.

Another favourite from the shelves of the magic dealers is
the Flying Ring. I perform this regularly, with the ring arriving, by
means of climax, inside my sock or pierced onto my arm, depending
on the sensibilities of the venue. (Both revelations, upon reflection,
may be equally repellent). Here the inclusion of a couple of bold
moves makes the effect, I feel, more powerful. Firstly, after
displaying the ring in the left hand and commenting on its beauty (I
do not make snide remarks about it being cheap - this is an example
of the pointless unpleasant behaviour I mention earlier), I let it shoot
into the case as I extend a now imaginary ring at the left fingertips
and ask the spectator to blow gently upon it. I bring my hand close
to her mouth, knowing that she won't have a chance to refocus and
see whether the ring is there or not. This is an old ruse, but it is
effective. The rest of the spectators think that she has seen it. I then
make a fist with the one hand and slowly perform a vanish.
However, the real boldness comes later, when I vanish the key-case
from between the spectator's hands. After the ring has travelled
twice to the key-case, I remove it fairly and proclaim that I shall
repeat the effect, but with the owner of the ring (who is sat to my
right) holding the keys. I take the ring onto my right thumb and hold
the key-case in the same hand. The following actions happen
quickly, and are designed to leave the spectator focussed on the ring,
while she thinks she holds the key-case. Firstly I tell her to hold out
her hands. I apparently pass the case to my left hand to give to her,
37

but in reality it falls into the Topit. The right hand forms a 'thumbs-
up' position, displaying the ring fairly near her face and I wiggle the
thumb slightly, as if I am preparing for a secret move. As the left
hand travels across, apparently holding the case, I instruct her to
cover it with her other hand.

The situation that develops here is called by some hypnotists
a 'cataleptic trance.' Her hands are placed outside of her awareness
as she focuses on the ring. Or perhaps we are reminded of the
situation where one is passed a drink while at the same time having
an absorbing telephone conversation, and might stand for some
while with the drink still at arm's length, unaware of the amusement
caused to the rest of the room. lf this is handled correctly, her
attention will be so focussed on the ring that she will perform the
actions involved in taking the case (and I help her by moving her
other hand to 'cover' it) without any conscious involvement. Instead
her attention is absorbed by the ring, while her hands hold an
imaginary key-case.

I now false pass the ring from my right thumb to my left
hand, retaining the ring in the way one might vanish a thimble.
Because I am close to the lady in question, I can use the cover of her
body to load the ring into a slit in my trousers that will cause the
ring to be dropped via a chute into the sock. Simultaneously I extend
the left hand and suddenly snap it open and say, "Gone!" My right
hand, and I hope you find this as amusing as I, travels behind her so
that my fingertips are near her ribs on the far side. The left hand
points at her hands apparently clasped around the key-case and says
"Gone!" as I secretly deliver a tickle to the aforementioned ribs. The
spectator responds with a jerk, and opens her hands, her attention
only now directed to her hands. The case has gone. "Feel that?" I ask.
Regardless of what she thinks has happened, the effect on the rest of
the spectators is priceless. It does look as if the case disappeared in a
burst of magic electricity between her own hands.
38

The reason for the snappy vanish of the ring in the left hand
is to ensure that the spectator has no chance to think, "Ah, it's going
to disappear from there, and reappear in the case which - oh yes - I
am holding." Rather she is kept in the frame of mind where her
attention is being quite forcefully controlled. It never returns to her
hands, which supposedly hold a key case.

Another bold ruse to enliven one's performance and enhance
the magic applies to psychokinetic effects with borrowed watches. I
have a real fondness for this type of effect - the impact is always
very strong, and the performance generally impromptu. Even if I
have left the house without a magnet strapped to my knee, I find
these effects most powerful to perform when requested to display
my skills.

I finish the routine by stopping the second hands on a few
watches. Two spectators - one to my left, and one to my right - hold
a watch each in their hands, and I instruct the spectator to my left to
perform various visual exercises and to suspend his disbelief for a
while to allow the phenomenon to occur. After I secure his
involvement, I tell him to hold his breath and then at any moment of
his choosing, to merely think the word 'Stop.' He does, and the
second hand halts. The spectator to my right is told to hold his
breath in the same way, and when he looks at the watch in his hand,
he sees that it has stopped too. One other spectator from the group
may express scepticism or plain awe - I tell him to hold his breath
and think 'Stop.' I gesture for him to look at the watch that he is
wearing and when he does, it too has stopped. All three watches are
started up again under the spectators' control.

Few routines have as much potential for such rewarding
nonsense as these. The effect of his own watch being strangely
affected is staggering for a spectator, yet the means used to bring
about such behaviour are straightforward.
39

The above episode with the three watches is achieved as
follows: the watch to your left is stopped using a large PK magnet, as
one expects. I sit loosely cross-legged, away from the table, and the
spectator holds the watch flat on his hand, while I ensure that it
remains in the vicinity of my knee, to the side of which the magnet is
strapped. I found that using the table was not as effective - too many
spectators guessed that a magnet could be strapped there. Somehow,
though, the absence of the table seems to stop the suspicion of a
magnet from arising. As for it stopping at the exact moment that the
spectator thinks 'Stop' - well, one can generally get away with this.
Part of the reason for telling him to hold his breath is that he will not
delay the mental instruction for too long. Between that and the fact
that it takes a moment to realise that the watch has stopped, one can
convincingly create the illusion that it stopped on command. Even if
this subtlety is missed, the effect of the watch stopping will be
dramatic enough to pass over this minor regret.

The watch given to the spectator on my right has had the
crown pulled out at an appropriate moment before placing it in her
hand. Again, I do not ask her to make a fist around it, nor do I place
it facedown. It is openly face-up and stopped in her hand, but
everyone, her included, is focussed very heavily on the watch held
by the spectator on my left. It is a minor point, but far fewer people
will ever think that the watch was pre-stopped if it has been fairly
displayed on the spectator's hand for some time. Also, after stopping
the watch to my left magnetically, I can give the spectator to my
right instructions to hold her breath and think 'Stop' - which take a
few moments for her to process and perform. Thus, her noticing that
the watch has stopped and her subsequent reaction are delayed,
which further reinforces the illusion that the watch was moving
before it was instructed to stop. I do not tell her to choose her
moment in thinking 'Stop!' .:. I just tell her to do it. If this extra
subtlety has worked well with the first spectator however, I will
exploit it immensely. Later I can truthfully say that the watches
40

stopped when they were mentally instructed to do so, and hopefully
the first instance, where the moment was apparently chosen secretly
by the spectator will blur across the other instances.

The strength of the first stopping of the hand is such that the
secondary and tertiary effects, if performed in rapid succession, will
go unchallenged. The third watch that is stopped on the spectator's
wrist has been previously tampered with. Perhaps ten minutes
earlier I have, during the course of another routine, pulled out the
crown on someone's watch. I make sure that I sit far away from this
person during the watch routine, but keep a lot of eye contact with
them during the effect. Thus it is not difficult to get them to make
some comment after the first two watches have been stopped, and I
can react to this comment with the final climax in a way that seems
very spontaneous. The tampering with the crown can be done using
classic pickpocket ruses, such as moving the spectator from one seat
to another, or holding his wrist while his attention is focussed on
something in his other hand. I approach it as I would a watch-steal,
but it is a lot quicker to perform.

1f you are silently asking, "But Derren, what if the spectator
realises that his watch has stopped before you want him to?" then
perhaps this chapter is not well suited to your style. Otherwise, I
hope that I have illustrated something that I feel very strongly: that
bold ruses make the

Derren Brown Pure Effect2