Shocking News About Forthcoming Derren Brown Book

Today is March 25, 2008, the release date for my biography of Derren Brown. Traffic to the blog has been unusually high today, as many of you have checked for the eBook. I am sorry to report, however, that the book is not finished.

Having written and published several books previously, I thought I would be able to hit the March 25 date no problem. But, to my chagrine, the project is taking longer than expected. Sorry for the delay -- I will post the ebook here as soon as I finish it. Thanks for your patience!

In the meantime, check out a few firsthand accounts of Derren's current tour:

Gibson149
Yamabiko
Handbag.com
Dummies-for-destruction
Ukhappilyhomeeding
Cogita Tute

SciFi Channel Announces Season 2 of Mind Control with Derren Brown

A number of news sources are reporting today that the SciFi Channel will air a second season of Mind Control with Derren Brown in fall of 2008 (see, e.g., IESB.net, Zap2it, realitytvmagazine, and hollywoodreporter). That's great news for those of us in the U.S.!

Derren's first SciFi series can be downloaded from Amazon Unbox:
Season 1

Tour Generates Press for Derren Brown

Derren Brown's Evening of Wonders tour is generating some publicity in the UK. Most of the news coverage is pretty generic (see Norwich Evening News 24 and EDP24), but the New Shopper had a good article last week.

In the New Shopper piece, Derren promises to make some "outrageous claims" in his upcoming Trick or Treat series, refers to his own goatee as "laughable," and acknowledges that magic performances aren't for everyone:

It's easy to explain why someone might not like it. It's [sic] can be poorly presented, surrounded by naffness, and often amounts to little more than childish attempts to fool you.
I guess it's largely to escape those associations that I've gone the route I have.

The new Trick or Treat series is only a month away.

Happy Belated Birthday, Derren!

Derren Brown's birthday was two days ago (February 27). At cubicgarden you can see a picture of Derren celebrating with some birthday cake. He performed in London that night.

He will be performing in London quite a bit this year. It has just been announced (on Derren's site and on the Nimax Theatres site) that DB will do 32 performances of "An Evening of Wonders" at the Garrick Theatre in London's West End, May 2 through June 7 of 2008. Tickets go on sale February 29th.

Derren has repeatedly said he prefers stage shows to television, and he is certainly acting accordingly.

"Super Memory" is Not One of Derek Acorah's Special Powers

Derek Acorah is a British television medium. He claims to be psychic, able to speak to spirits, and so forth. In an interview this past week, he commented on Derren Brown:

I think Derren Brown would like to think that he bothered me, but he really doesn't...I have been touring theatres for 15 years and during the time he's been around that's not affected the standard of my work or the amount of people who come to see me.
If he is having an effect on mediumship, it's certainly not affecting my life.
Derren has said a number of things about me on a personal level and I actually asked him about them when I bumped into him in a hotel in Cardiff once. He claimed he'd never said them, so we were fine.

Acorah might be able to speak to dead people, but he does not have a very good memory for facts. The Sun reported that the self-proclaimed psychic did more than "bump" into DB:

Psychic Derek, 56, tackled illusionist Derren, 35, for publicly blasting him.
An onlooker at the Ramada Jarvis Hotel, Swansea, said: “Derren came over to say hello but Derek looked peeved and asked, 'Why are you always slagging me off?’

But that encounter was not in Cardiff. Maybe they've met in hotels on two separate occasions? At any rate, it does not sound like DB and Acorah are "fine" with each other.

I'm beginning to suspect that Mr. Acorah might not be an entirely truthful person.

Derren Brown Meets the Lying Ape

You might have heard of Brian King's book, "The Lying Ape" (released in 2006), but did you know it features a cameo by Derren Brown?

The book discuss various aspects of lying. It is an easy read and only moderately inciteful until page 177, where the how-to-tell-when-someone-is-lying section begins.

The author interviews DB for guidance in detecting lies. Derren offers the following:

My approach is to look for the truth pattern and look for how it is broken. So, for example, if I ask what you had for dinner last night, as you think about it, your natural response will be for your eyes to move somehwere; more often than not it is up and to the left if you are trying to remember something. our eye movement correlates to the part of the brain you are using.

But if I ask what you want for breakfast tomorrow, or how would you like to decorate your house - where the thing hasn't happened and you have to construct information - you have to use a different part of the brain and your eyes will, correspondingly, move to a different place.

Derren goes on to explain that the eye positions that correlate to different modes of thought differ person-to-person. So, for example, it would be incorrect to say that everyone looks up and to the left when trying to remember something -- though that is certainly the case for many people.

The lesson here is one that Derren repeats in his book, Tricks of the Mind: If you want to understand people, you have to pay attention to them. Watch for patterns in people's behavior and you will soon be able to receive more information than they intend to give away.

And Now For Derren's Next Trick...

With all the hype over "The System," Derren's upcoming series and dvd release have almost escaped notice.

For those who missed The System, Naquada has an excellent summary (as well as an impressive recap of the first 3 seasons of Lost). As expected, some critics liked the System, and some did not.

But now we move onto Derren's next project -- another season of Trick or Treat. It is scheduled to begin on Channel 4 April 13, 2008. As we know from experience, such dates are subject to change.

Also, Derren's official site announced today that his stage show, "Something Wicked This Way Comes" will be released on DVD April 21, 2008. It will include segments of the show not included in the original TV broadcast, as well as the usual DVD interviews and other features.

The DVD is already available for pre-order at Amazon.co.uk, and DB's site includes the enticing tagline:

"Go and buy, you need this in your life!"

I suspect that sentence is loaded with subliminal messages. If you find yourself unconsciously ordering the DVD at Amazon, you'll know why.