Review of Derren Brown: Inside Your Mind

Introduction

Derren Brown is the insufferable know- it- all that you wouldn`t buy a used car from. Or would you? He certainly seems able to manipulate people into certain states of mind.

This DVD is a collection of the highlights of the first few specials.
Derren introduces himself and sends up his rather satanic presence by admitting he dyed his hair for the series and went through several changes of beard.

Highlights include the Blair Witch episode, a rather nasty incident with a large needle and how to get banned from casinos and dog tracks.

There have been various shows over the last two years including a whole night dedicated to Mind Control.

Video

Originally transmitted on Channel 4 in the last two years this is of good quality. There are various camera techniques featured for those who are interested. These include hand-held cameras, hidden cameras, infrared footage and even casino security cameras. Incidentally those casino cameras are of really high quality so don`t even think about cheating in those places

Audio

Apart from the irritating theme music the sound is of well reproduced.
Subtitles are included so that the viewer can follow what is happening on screen whilst running the commentary.

Features

Bonus features on short DVD`s such as this are crucial if it is to be more than a TV Special.


Commentary with Derren Brown and one of his producers.

The commentary is interesting and informative but you will probably get all you want from it from one play.

Deleted Scenes

There is an optional commentary with these scenes


Car salesmen lying. DB detects this even when they don`t open their mouths!

Ballroom dancing-as he explains deleted because it doesn`t exactly light up the screen. I would like to have seen a little more of this which I think may explains the `psychic` `cold reading` technique.


Links from Mind Control Night

Short intros from the Channel 4 Night dedicated to Derren Brown`s techniques.

Excerpt from 50 Greatest Magic Tricks.

Another Channel 4 Special. DB comes in at 42 and 19.
If anyone thinks these numbers are significant you probably need to get out more.

Interview

A 15-minute chat with Derren about life, love and playing basketball with Ali G and David Blaine.

Channel 4 links

Channel 4 Adverts for the show

Conclusion

I admit to feeling more than a little annoyed by the recent Russian Roulette stunt but despite that I really enjoyed watching this DVD. The main reason for extra satisfaction was the commentary track by Derren and his producer. They have a chat about the series and Derren offers us a few insights into how each episode was set up and what techniques he uses. But, oh, I wanted so much more. It is probably unreasonable of me to demand a full explanation of his techniques. He has been practising them for years after all and is not going to clarify them in 74 minutes of DVD.

So that was it. It does not really have any repeat value for me, which would be the only reason for purchasing it. A quandary then. This may well be a Christmas special so you could wait for that but you won`t get the commentary. Perhaps you run an NLP course and can show this in the tea breaks you`ll be able to write it off as a business expense.

It is worth a watch but I don`t think it is a worthwhile investment.