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Man Does Card Trick for Derren Brown, Fails, Tries Again…

Performing for celebrities demands a special kind of focus. Double that for magic celebrities.

So our heart goes out to Karan Singh who travelled to see Derren Brown’s new stage show Svengali and was lucky enough to perform for the man himself after the show. Unfortunately, things did not start well.

In fact, the first 1:48 seconds of this video are pretty toe curlingly awkward. Which makes the final 58 seconds all the sweeter once Karan rights the ship.

Posted by Editor on Thursday, April 19th, 2012 at 9:50 am.

  • http://www.facebook.com/crowgarrettmagic Crow Garrett

    Face Palm… Poor dude, happens to the best.

  • HAL

    O’h, that was so exciting. Did anybody else fall asleep? The audio was also superb. We need more tricks like this. How bout’ starting the “Save the Card Trick Foundation”?

  • http://iTricks.com/news JustinRYoung

    Someone is grumpy today…

  • HAL

     Me Grumpy? Justin, did you really find that entertaining? Pick a card, is this your card, what an act. I guess getting it wrong will get it on prime time.

  • Anonymous

    So why don’t I see you up there performing? It wasn’t supposed to be the greatest trick but an experience for him. You don’t have to feel ‘Grumpy’.

  • HAL

     I’m not grumpy, just truthful. I spent much of my life performing music. I never stopped in the middle of a song and said, oops, I’m playing the wrong song, let me start again. But that performance was like Elvis singing “Three Blind Mice”. Give me a break, that act was worse than terrible. Maybe for ‘The Gong Show’. How desperate are we for magic acts? Magicians, burn your cards, give them to kids to play ‘Go Fish’. Do some real #@&$%# magic. A deck of cards is about $2.98  Spend some money and do something worth watching already.

  • http://iTricks.com/news JustinRYoung

    Well at least we know you didn’t get LESS grumpy as the day went on.

  • http://www.facebook.com/karansinghmagic19 Karan Singh

    Thank you for posting this, I’m Karan, the performer in the video. Hal, I’m sorry if you didn’t find it entraining at all, and I’m sure you’re not “Grumpy.” You were just sharing your opinion. As for doing “real magic”, magic isn’t like music, the same way music isn’t like magic. There has to be an element of showmanship in both, and very different kinds of showmanship. I’m sure Elvis would make Three Blind Mice sound amazing if he sang it, the same way Derren would make cutting a girl in half fascinating. The reason I did a card trick on Derren is because that’s what he started of with when he was young and I’d mix what he did when he was young with what he does now, which is mind reading through a deck of cards. I know got it wrong the first time around, but that was also the first time I was nervous in ages. 
    I’m sure you’re brilliant at music, but I can guarantee you’ll be slightly nervous if in some weird supernatural way you got to play for Elvis.

  • http://iTricks.com/news JustinRYoung

    Thanks for chiming in Karan. I posted the video because I thought it was a great representation of a magician taking initiative and powering through.
    Good work.

  • HAL

     Not only are you good at running iTricks, maybe you should consider a stand-up act. The grump found that really funny.

  • HAL

     I really appreciate your post. Maybe it’s just that I question everything that I believe should be questioned.

    I certainly question Derren’s act. He “supositely” takes total strangers off the street, and instantly hypnotizes them (or whatever he calls it) into doing what he suggests, like falling down, etc. And my favorite, Criss Whatshisname, has people falling down in restaurants, and on the street at his command, pushing people into an elevator shaft that they “supposedely” don’t know if the elevator is there. Of course, none of these perfect strangers ever get injured, or sue the performer for these ridiculous stunts. If this is supposed to be magic, IMO, maybe the art should become extinct? What used to be illusions and magicians doing real performances have become jokes. Not meant as an insult, but how low does your intelligence have to be to believe this nonsense?

    I’m not brilliant at music, my father was. Maybe I’ll think again about ‘Three Blind Mice’, it was the theme song for the ‘Three Stooges’, and of course, these amazing magicians never use stooges. 

  • Snow White

    I think he’s Grumpy too!

  • guest

    I think this was just a unique way to get Derren Brown’s autograph.

  • HAL

     I may be Dopey. I’d be Happy with less card trick articles. Just thought of another great idea:

    Run a one week marathon, broadcast on every TV channel at the same time. Have every person in America watch. Get every magician in the world to perform every ‘CARD TRICK” there is. Get it over with once and for ever. Make it a death penalty offense to do a card trick till the year 2300. At the end, play the Louis Armstrong song, “What a Wonderful World”.

  • achuthan1988

    He is one of my youtube friends from india and i(achuthan1988) was the one who posted it on theory11 media section and now it is here. His youtube chanell is illusionmagic19

  • Mark

    Cool to see how down to earth and empathetic Derren is.  Would’ve thought he’d be a bit more conceited but I’m pleasantly surprised.   

  • Roccomagicman

    thats a good way to get a full deck signed by him! just act like your messing up!
    and of course derren knows how you did it hes derren brown!

  • Alikzam

    Of course Derren knows how its done! That’s like trying to fool Penn and Teller— NOBODY can fool—– oh wait…

  • HAL

     Please allow me to reveal the BIGGEST secret behind these..”PICK A CARD, SIGN THE CARD” tricks.

    You have to get the person to SIGN the card, because if they don’t, they’re so BORED, they forget what card they chose.

    Here’s another idea, if you REALLY want to bore them to death:
    Have someone pick a card, place it back in the deck. Let them shuffle. Tell them, ‘I will now reveal the 51 cards you DIDN’T choose’. This could fill 20 minutes of your show. I should be a magic consultant.