Durch das Video aus einem Supermarkt in der Stadt Jesi in der mittelitalienischen Region Marken wissen die Ermittler erstmals, wie der Mann aussieht. Die Bestohlenen können sich immer nur an den Satz “Schauen Sie mir in die Augen” erinnern – und danach an nichts mehr.
Die Aufnahmen zeigen den pummeligen bärtigen Mann, wie der die Kassiererin offenbar um das Wechseln einer 100-Euro-Note bittet. Dann flüstert er ihr etwas ins Ohr. Sie öffnet die Kasse, er räumt sie aus, sie sitzt währenddessen untätig da. Dann spaziert der Mann lächelnd davon.
So, a man “hypnotizes” the cashier in a supermarket to let him rob her cash.
Note: I remember Derren writing about leaving misses and accidents in his shows, so – in a strange way – somehow seeing how he fails makes the rest of the clip even more “convincing”…)
Experienced magicians know to watch out for blinking – not because they check their audience when to get away with a sneaky move (of course they do that, too, but that’s a different story), but the tendency to blink yourself when you want to hide a special moment.
I became aware of my own blinking when practicing the “Pass” and watching myself in the mirror – it’s a pretty standard, yet difficult to do card move – after years (literally – I think I started in 2003) of practice, I’m still not happy with my handling.
In the delicate moment where everything happens, I blinked “automatically”, unconsciously trying to fool myself that everything looked innocent and sweet, when actually some cards flashed.
Now, of course, like many other moves, especially the Pass has to be done on the offbeat. But still, my blinking in that situation reminded me of a kid covering her eyes and thinking that now nobody can see her. Even worse, I was not really aware of it. (Note: recording your moves with a video camera might help to get some more objective views on your handling. Recording your kid in that situation and showing them the tape afterwards is a different story…)
Weeks after my discovery, I noticed the same behaviour when entering my PIN code into a Bankomat (ATM) – I blinked. Usually, I cover the keypad from other people’s view anyway, but still I was amused.
Watch out for your own blinking in similar situations!
Germany’s Pro7 started it’s “The next Uri Geller” series today – basically “Deutschland sucht den Super-Mentalisten” hosted by Uri Geller.
The performances were ranging from the infamous knife-in-paperbag trick (performed by a German with an American accent posing as a Samurai), over a Swiss guy with “Siegfried”-hairstyle talking to a raven and answering questions about the dead, to a blindfolded medium “seeing” items her partner chose from the audience. Oh, and the guy stopping his pulse and “crossing the border to death”. Blah.
The problem I have with this show is that they seemed to make a point by interviewing “experts” (even a scientist) that it’s all “real”, these things are possible, nobody seemed to have doubts (or was allowed to voice them).
Derren Brown seems to be on his own crusade against fraud performers, and magician Criss Angel seems to follow this trend, as he attacked one of the contestants of the US show “Phenomenon” (also with Uri Geller – you can think what you want, but this guy is a marketing genius) who performed a dramatic (but IMHO pretty tasteless) spirit-writing session. (The good part starts at 05:20, if you can’t stand the fake epileptic movements)
I confess – I am a Derren Brown fanboy. Derren Brown, as in the British magician and mentalist, with his own TV shows.
Years before he really went famous, he produced a magic video. Here is a snippet – the conversation between Derren Brown and the presenter, Peter Clifford, after the explanation of a brilliant close up miracle:
You just don’t get that kind of conversation from your typical L&L American Performer.
Besides, where and on whom do you read biographies like that:
Derren was born in 1971 in Croydon. It was a difficult birth: his mother was in Devon at the time. [...]
Derren went to study Law and German at Bristol University and fell in love with the city. This was still at the time when marriages between man and city were frowned upon, so rather than risk public derision, Derren decided to just live there after graduating and vowed never to leave. [...]
In 1999 he was asked by what was then Channel 4 to put a mind-reading programme together for people’s televisions. Their first choice, Cheryl from Bucks Fizz, had turned out to be shit at it. [...]
In October 2003 Derren caused an international furore with ‘Derren Brown Plays Russian Roulette Live’. This secured his notoriety with the public and his big apartment in London. “Bristol can shove itself”, he said. [...]
He gets several letters of complaint a week from psychics and Christians. He is sensitive to everyone’s objections, but knows that at least the latter group will forgive him.
And so on.
If you have not checked out his book yet, I strongly recommend it. Oh, and of course there are tons of clips of his performances on YouTube, if you happen to have no idea whatsoever who I’m talking about.
