Derren Brown Demonstrates His Skills Live

We're going to choose five of you at random to come up here as quickly as you can. We're going to do that by throwing the monkey, and the first person I want to come from the dress circle. So if we bring up the house lights, whoever's got the monkey should be somewhere around Danny. Sir, stand up, we want to get it up into the dress circle. Go on, go on. Excellent, well done. Nicely done. Sir, stand up for us. You're the first person, you are number one of five. We're going to choose four more of you from downstairs, which will give you time to get down here while we're choosing the others. So in a moment, you're going to throw the monkey down here. When you catch the monkey, this is what you do. You need to get up here as quickly as you can, but you also need to throw the monkey again to choose the next person. So if you catch it, you need to head up here and throw the monkey again. Do you want to throw it down here for the next person, sir? Excellent, here it comes. Somebody catch that. Stand up, throw it again. You head down as quick as you can, sir. Stand up for me, throw it, head up here yourself. Thank you, thank you. Quick as you can. And stand up for me. Stand up. Throw it again. Excellent, nicely done. Stand up for me. Come up here and throw the monkey again for me. Give it a good throw. One, two, three, four. That's it, you're the fifth person. Head up. Up you come. Quick as you can. Give them a big hand. Thank you very much. What's your name? Charlotte. I need to put you over here, Charlotte. You can stand right... No, no. Just there for me would be great. Thank you, Charlotte. And you are? Stand right in the middle for me, that would be lovely. Hello. Hello, what's your name? Tony. We'll put you over here, Tony. If you can stand just sort of about... About there for me, Tony, that would be great. Hello, you are? John. John, good to meet you, John. If I can put you just there for me, John, thank you. And you are? Hello. Gary. Gary, good to meet you. Thanks for coming down. If you can just stand there for me. Good. Okay, if you can try and sort of line your toes up a little bit, just so my whole obsessive, pulsive, neatness thing can relax. Otherwise, I have got to make you walk up again three times in a row while I make weird humming noises in my throat. That's an explainment I want you to do. You're each going to take a ball out of the bag. I have five balls in here. That is one each. You'll take one out, but don't look at it. And don't let me see it. Just take it out, put your hands straight behind your back. What was your name again? Tony. Thank you, Tony. And Gary, was it? Gary. Thank you, Gary. And your name was? Philippa. Thank you, Philippa. Have a good rummage around. Thank you. Do you want to take the... Was it Dan? John. Sorry, John. If you take it for me, and then you can pass it to... No, take it for me, John. What was your name at the end? Charlotte. Charlotte, will you make sure you're taking the last ball? Otherwise somebody hasn't taken it. And just throw the bag off into the side. You can chuck it off there. All right, thank you. Four of you will have a white ball. One of you will have a black ball, because that's what was in the bag. In a moment, I'm going to ask you to have a look and see what you've got. If you are the one person with a black ball, you might be tempted to give yourself away a bit by smirking or laughing or fainting or something. Don't, all right? Keep an absolute poker face. So for now, I'm just going to look over here. Just bring out your hands like this, but keep the ball contained, concealed in your hands. And while I look over here, please just prise apart your thumbs just enough to take a quick private peek at your ball. Very rare when I say that. Teetering on smut. When you've done that, please put your hands back behind your back. Thank you very much indeed. In fact, if you've got a back pocket, can you put the ball in your back pocket? If you don't have a back pocket, improvise. Okay, that's for you. Tony, thank you. You're all off the hook now, but you will have on your minds the surname of the first person you had a crush on, yes? I'm going to get you to write down that name for me. Now, like the word mouse, you need to write nice and large and clear. So if we do need to show it around, people can read it. So large, clear, block capital letters. Just the surname. When you've written it, you tear the paper off, please. Just fold it up, put it in your pocket, get everything out the way. That's really important. While you're doing that, I should explain the rules of the game to you. But I need to do this while I'm not looking at you. So please make sure you're listening. One at a time, you're going to come up to the microphone. You're going to tell me your name and what you do for a living. And please be honest about that. Then and only then I will ask you a test question. Now, when I ask you the test question, if you're one of the people with a white ball, you must lie in response to the test question. All right? So a white ball is a white lie. Please remember that, guys. If you're the one person with the black ball, though, you always tell the truth. And my task is to work out which one of you is the truth teller, which one of you has the black ball. And all the people I think are lying, I will send back to their seats. Is that all the writing done? Yes? All done? Great. Okay. So then let's start with you, Tony. Why don't you come forward for us? Thank you, Tony. So remember, starting off being absolutely honest. Your name, please, and what you do for a living. My name's Tony. And I'm a house husband, house wife, whatever. A house husband or a house wife. Okay, thank you, Tony. Now, you understand the game. I'm about to ask you your test question now. If you've got a white ball, you're going to lie. Black ball, you're going to tell the truth. Bear in mind the chances are pretty high that Tony is going to lie at this point. There's only a one in five chance that Tony would be telling the truth. So we can almost guarantee you're probably going to tell a big fat lie at this point. So face the front, absolute poker face. You also might want to bear in mind, Tony, that because of the sorts of... Keep facing the front for me. Because of the sorts of unconscious behaviours that we unconsciously choose daily, male subjects tend to be... They tend to give themselves a little bit more away than female subjects, right? But don't let that put you off. Don't let any of this put you off. Otherwise you'll be even less convincing. So keep facing the front for me. If any of you are so convincing that I believe you... £50. If you lie so convincingly that I think you're telling the truth... It's a lot of money to those people up at the back there. £50 if you lie so convincingly that I believe you. So here we go with your test question. Face the front for me, Tony. Here we go. Ready? One... A little bit more light on Tony, please. Just a little bit more light. Thank you. Here we go. One... Two... Three. What's your mother's maiden name? Haggerty. Just to reiterate to the rest of you, your task is to lie as convincingly as you can. It wasn't bad. There was just a very strange pause there. Don't believe a word of it. I'm going to take your white ball off you. Send you back to your seat, Tony. There you go. One down. Thank you, Tony. Nicely done, though. Not bad at all. I'll let you head back. Not bad at all. That was unfair. That was unfair. I didn't give him any time to think of a better answer. And understandably, he flummoxed. You guys have an advantage. I will ask you the same question. Your mother's maiden name. Even now, you can be thinking up a nice, convincing answer. As a tip, come out with the name of someone else you know. That's often more convincing than trying to make up a name. But we'll see how it goes. Let's go with Charlotte. Come forward. If you can just stand there for me. Into the microphone. Your name and what you do for a living. My name's Charlotte, and I work for London Ambulance Service. I'm sorry? What did you say? I work for London Ambulance. London Ambulance Service. Excellent. Thank you so much. So, Charlotte, you understand the game. What is your mother's maiden name? Haylock. Very open, relaxed, innocent. I'll keep you back in line for the moment. Very good. Maybe too relaxed and innocent. That's the only thing. Normally, when people are put on the spot, they do tend to act a little bit guilty. Like if the police knock on your door, and you haven't done anything, but you act like you've murdered somebody because they are stood right there. The police knock on your door because the girl had said she was older than she was when you were on tour, or whatever that is for you. Let's go with Gary. Do you want to come forward for us? So, your name and what you do for a living, please be honest. My name's Gary, and I work in IT. Very good. Thank you, Gary. And I'm going to ask you the same question. So, here we go. Your mother's maiden name, please. Johnson. Okay. Spoke about being too innocent here. The opposite's also true. Very difficult not to blush if you know you've been caught out in a lie. That's a very common response. Because lying has a terrible stigma attached to it in our culture. We use words like, you dirty liar. No, you filthy liar. You dirty, filthy, stinking liar. We use words like that. Very difficult not to blush if you know you've been caught out. You know what blushing is. It's just blood that kind of rises up through the collar line. You get that sort of warmth across your forehead, and across your cheeks, too. And there you go. Lovely shade of beetroot. I'm going to take your little white ball off you. Send your big red face back to your seat, Gary. Excellent. Nicely done, though. Thank you very much, indeed. All right. So, let's go with John. Would you want to come forward for us? Thank you, John. And into the microphone, please. Your mother's maiden name is? Smith. Right, right. Okay. I'm going to keep you back in line, please. Philippa, you're last. You can come forward for me, too. Oh, it's what I call the walk of shame. Did you see it? It's this kind of... It's the walk of someone who doesn't want to walk forward. It is the walk of a woman burdened by her own guilt. A woman on her way to the gallows. I won't even ask you to say a word. I'm going to take your white ball off you. Send you back to your seat, Philippa. There we go. One down. Thank you, Philippa. So, it's one of you two. Would you both come forward for me? Both of you come forward for me, please. Okay. Stan, if you can just stand and face each other sort of about there. That would be great. Lovely. All right. So, look. One of you two is the final liar. One of you two is the truth-teller. All right. For this last round, I won't ask you your mother's maiden name. I will ask you the surname of the first person you had a crush on when you were young. All right? However, for this last round, you only answer in your head. You say nothing out loud. All right? You only answer in your head. Same rules applies. If you've got the white ball, you're going to lie. You're going to think a lie. Black ball, you're going to think the real name, but you only do it in your head. You say nothing out loud. Is that clear? Yep. Okay. Both of you turn and face the front for me. Thank you. In your mind, then. Not out loud. Think of the surname of the first person you had a crush on. Do that for me now. And as you're doing this, what we're looking for, they're called micro-signals. Tiny flickers of guilt. Oh, nicely done. Keep facing the front. Don't look. I'll tell you what I think. I think our truth teller is on this side. A lot of you are going to have this round the other way. I think this is our truth teller here. I think our final liar is here. All right? Truth teller here. Final liar here. If I'm wrong, all right, it's this person who gets the £50, because this is the person. It's difficult. Well, £40. We'll say £40. If I'm wrong, because this is the person I think is telling the truth on this side. I love this game. Let's find out. Can you both of you just get the ball ready first behind your back? Just make sure you're holding onto it. Don't let anybody see. Hold onto it behind your back. Done? Done? Yes? Okay. All right. For £30, will the truth teller please place her or his black ball into my hand? Yes! Excellent! Thank you so very much. Stay right there. Which means you've got the last white ball. Is that right? Thank you very much, John. I'll ask you to go and sit there down again. Thank you very much indeed. Now, you're all intelligent people. You know that these skills are not psychic. If you watch the TV shows, you'll know my skill base is magic, suggestion, psychology, misdirection and showmanship. And as part of that, I kind of give myself permission to be a bit dishonest with you sometimes if I think it heightens the effect. But I'm always honest about my dishonesty. Yeah? Unlike the psychic industry, which is occasionally well meaning, but always based on dishonesty. And big business too. There are some brochures outside in the foyer of things that are kind of going on around London. There are some fantastically expensive courses you can go on if you want to learn psychic powers. And if you choose page £1,400 a week to learn rubbish, then that's up to you. But there are some brochures out in the foyer. And Charlotte, was it? Thank you so much for coming up. Look at me now and just sleep. Just sink right the way down. Right the way deep. Right the way sound asleep. Just drifting and sinking and floating. You can take all the time you need to do this. Right the way deep. And right the way sound asleep. Now you can still hear and understand everything that I'm saying. That's really important. But this will allow you to do this perfectly. What I want you to do in your mind, Charlotte, nothing out loud, is first of all to picture that person, that first person you had a crush on. And as you picture him stood there, I want you, in your mind, just to begin to repeat that name to yourself over and over again. In your mind, please, nothing out loud. Nothing out loud. Just repeating the name to yourself over and over again. And as you do that, as you whisper the name to yourself, not moving a muscle, I want you to begin to move the picture in a little bit closer to you. So it's a little more clear. That you can really look at the picture and see it really clearly in front of you. Good. And just saying it to yourself over and over again. Saying the name and each time that you whisper it, just getting a little bit clearer. A little louder in your mind. But a nice warm sense of a whisper. Okay, stay. You're doing absolutely great for me, Charlotte. Stay right there for me. Let me show the rest of you. I'm sort of going to half-guess this because I'm not sure. So it probably won't be this exactly, alright? So it's a bit of a guess. But it'll be something like that. It's a bit difficult because there's only the one plosive at the beginning. Which doesn't really help. But it'll be something like this. If it's not this exactly, it'll be something similar. I hope you can all see that. Okay. So Charlotte, you take all the time you need, please, just to slowly reorientate yourself back to the room. And take all the time you need to come back to us. Okay? It's weird, isn't it? You alright? Okay, nice and honest. Please, honestly, into the mic. The name of the first person you had a crush on. Price. Thank you so much. Well done. Thank you. I'll let you head back. Charlotte, everybody. Thank you, Charlotte. Excellently done, Charlotte. Thank you.