New Category
Dearest blog frequenters – you shouted – we responded! Many of you are constantly asking what Derren is reading, listening too or watching. Well in general reading seems to be the biggest deal due to the colossal pile of books that turns up every day.
There’s a rumour that Amazon have their own warehouse just to store DB’s orders and Brown Towers has a full time “Official Librarian” – although I haven’t actually seen him on the lower floors so far this year. Derren also has an e-reader – we will let you know how that pans out too.
So click on this feed in future and you’ll find a regular string of things that DB himself is reading or recommending and we will do our best to at least get a comment or two about it and you too can fill your house with plentiful amounts of clutter and crap.
Love Coops and Phillis
Vatican reaches new level of crazy
A senior Vatican cleric has defended the excommunication in Brazil of the mother and doctors of a young girl who had an abortion with their help.
The nine-year-old had conceived twins after alleged abuse by her stepfather. Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re told Italian paper La Stampa that the twins “had the right to live” and attacks on Brazil’s Catholic Church were unfair.
It comes a day after Brazil’s president criticised the Brazilian archbishop who excommunicated the people involved. Brazil only permits abortions in cases of rape or health risks to the mother.
Brazil only permits abortions in cases of rape or health risks to the mother. Doctors said the girl’s case met both these conditions, but the Archbishop of Olinda and Recife, Jose Cardoso Sobrinho said “the law of God was above any human law”.
Chimpanzee ‘created weapons to hurl at zoo vistors’
Santino the chimp would calmly collect stones and fashion discs made out of concrete even when the zoo was closed, to throw at visitors when they returned.
Scientists believe his behaviour is the strongest proof yet that humans are not the only creatures which can make plans for the future. Although he was clearly agitated and distressed when pitching his ammunition, the scientists found that Santino was always calm whenever collecting or crafting the stones.
This cool behaviour proves that he was not driven by his immediate circumstances or need, according to a new study in the journal Current Biology. Born in Munich Zoo in 1978 Santino, a male chimpanzee, was transferred to Furuvik Zoo in Sweden when he was five years old.
Telegraph (Thanks Katherine)
“Lunatic Ninja” burglar turns out to be kangaroo
No Mr Brown I haven’t been sniffing the Toilet Duck again. The Independent wins most bizarre story of the day.
When a dark intruder smashed through his bedroom window and repeatedly bounced on his bed, Beat Ettlin at first was relieved to discover it was a kangaroo. ”My initial thought when I was half awake was, ‘It’s a lunatic ninja coming through the window,”‘ the 42-year-old told The Associated Press today. “It seems about as likely as a kangaroo breaking in.”
West End details – you heard it here first folks
DERREN BROWN: ENIGMA
The ‘G’ is pronounced. I shall be on London radio this morning plugging this for all its worth.
Tickets will go on sale 10.00am, Thursday 12 March. We’ll put a reminder here.
Adelphi Theatre
The Strand
LONDON
WC2E 7NN
Box Office: 0844 579 0090
www.seetickets.com (no booking fee)
Monday June 15 – Saturday July 18. All performances at 8.00pm, no performances Sunday.
Tickets: £25.00, £35.00, £45.00, plus limited number of £65 premium seats at each performance. The performance is not suitable for children under 12 years.
Hope to see some of you there.
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How well do you know Michael Ball?
Well? Next time someone comes over all ‘I know everything about Michael Ball’, have them take the test.
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Shriek of Araby hangs up his slippers
Some of you reading this with only a peripheral interest in magic may have read the notices that a famous and well-respected magician called Ali Bongo died today. If the name rings a bell, let me explain who Ali was, is, and will continue to be. Firstly, as might be imagined, Ali was a legend amongst magicians and has been for decades. As a performer, he dressed in trademark garish, mock-Oriental garb as the ‘Shriek of Araby’ (definitely riding the furthest cusp of political correctness by today’s standards) and was famous for his colourful, visual comedy magic. As a consultant, aside from his film and musical work, and his own 1971 series Ali Bongo’s Cartoon Carnival, he was a vital force behind Paul Daniel’s unparalleled success, and David Nixon before him, and has lent his encyclopedic expertise to probably every British magic show in memory, including mine. As a thinker, his ideas were nothing short of brilliant. Several times I have seen him lecture for a room of magicians and floor all of us with impossible tricks which he treated so lightly; methods so devious, delicious and invisible, yet passed off with a shrug and a laugh by their extraordinary inventor. As a man, he was always brightly yet impeccably dressed, twinkling and courteous; the very image of sprightliness, sporting his iconic thick-rimmed glasses on equally iconic thick-rimmed ears; a gentleman of the old school but effortlessly delighting in the changing face of the craft. He was only a short way through his presidency of the Magic Circle when he died, following a stroke, at 79. The magic fraternity is often a pedantic and political place, and Ali was a rare spot of vibrancy in their ranks.
There is a rare and rather brilliant glimpse of him here:
5 Ways Your Brain Is Messing With Your Head
We accept on a regular basis the premise that our minds are being screwed with. Advertisers, politicians, magicians; we accept that they know the tricks to pull the wool over our eyes. But as it turns out, the ways in which your head is being truly and royally messed with the most, are coming from inside.
Of course no article like this would be complete without reference to Mr Brown himself – but Im afraid those outside the UK will have to wait to see this one.
Please be advised that your brain does not want you reading the following article, and may kill you to protect its secrets.
Filming titles
Out in a very muddy part of Battersea, filming the title sequence for The Event. The kind ladles and jellyspoons have bought me the cheapest black suit from Burtons so that I don’t slop all over my nice ones. This one makes a ‘sshh’ sound as I walk.
Cary Grant, famed for his sartorial brilliance, apparently was a famous stinge and only wore cheap Burtons suits himself when off-camera. Yet, being Cary Grant, he pulled it off, and people never guessed.
When you see this sequence air, be quietly aware that the suit makes a ‘sshh’ sound and I’m wearing knee-high thermal socks.
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One law for all march
One law for all campaign against Sharia Law in Britain is kicking off in Trafalgar Square at the moment. Launched on Dec 10 2008 it calls for the government to recognize it is arbitrary and discriminatory. For more info go to onelawforall.org.uk to sign the petition or find out about future marches.
