I ended up on stage with him. He asked me to ring my dad on my mobile, a Mike was attached to my phone so the audience could hear the conversation, Darren had a white board and wrote down a series of numbers and asked me to tell my father I was on stage and I was instructed to ask my dad a series of questions written on cards, and if the numerical answers from my dad matched the numbers Darren had previously written on the whiteboard, Darren had pulled it off. Before he started he gave me a folded ten pound note and told me that if the answers he’d written down didn’t correspond to my dads answers I could keep the money. As my dad answered the questions, one of which was his old army number, Darren wrote the answers down alongside the answers he’d already written down. At the end, none of the answers my father gave to the questions corresponded with what Darren had originally written down on the white board. He told me that he’d failed and I could keep the ten pounds and asked the audience to applaud me but just as I was walking off stage he asked me back and asked me to open the ten pound note. When I did he’d written, “I’ll get him to say these numbers” and an arrow pointed to the notes serial number, the numerical answers my father gave in order, including his old army number, where the notes serial number…

So, when exactly is Ted gonna show up, haven't seen him in a single video yet.

While I found this very entertaining, I was hoping for some explanation on how he does it.

'A.H. Is there an A.H?' *The fuhrer has entered the chat*

Derren is amazing, he’s a national treasure here in the UK. Great to see him on TED finally.

Saw this guy's show in Nottingham a few years back, absolutely incredible. He performed one stunt where he walked through different sections of the crowd, he then performed this stunt with the envelopes about 30 minutes later and when he got to one he basically said it was too easy and proceeded to point to the person whose envelope it was, he read the initials and the guy said it was him, noticing all of our impressed / confused faces and murmurings, he proceeded to tell us that he could smell the same cologne on the envelope that the man was wearing and remembered the smell from when he walked through the crowd 30 minutes ago!! If you ever get the chance, go to one of his shows!

Even still, bet he couldn't figure out what my girlfriend wants to eat.

While this is a fantastic magic trick he deserves this place on ted talks because of his brilliant point that all we do is continually make patterns and stories for things to make sense. Being less defensive with people by reminding ourselves we are all scared or dealing with stories we've grown up with. He talks about kindness being so important to everything we do. He's a brilliant beautiful soul tbh

This people had no idea what was about to hit them. Derren Brown is simply unbelievable. The best of the best of the best in what he does

Derren Brown is the greatest mind reader of our time.

We saw Mr. Brown live and I was part of the last act, brought up on stage and it was truly amazing and definitely an unforgettable moment in my life. People kept approaching me after the show to ask if i was part of the act. Truly a wonder evening ,Thank you sir!

I've seen Derren live about 4 times in my tiny town theatre. He's such a legend, love how clever he is.

"IT'S NOT THEIR PAIN YOU FEAR.. IT'S YOUR OWN"... That was a GOOD One!

Derren’s work is gold and second to none.He has revealed so much in how we misperceive and how some of us mislead others. I wish he would come to Melbourne

He’s really good at what he does. And I love the fact he debunks the “psychic” BS before he starts (& other shows).

Derren Brown is scary good at combining techniques. I love the stories he tells in his work and the empowerment he offers people through that work. NLP done well.

Derren is and allways will be the best.. Love him entertain. 10 years of watching him, still fastinates me

Truly magnificent. Have followed Derren's work since 2009 (13 years) and it was marvelous that he did imho one of his most stunning and electrifying mindreading displays at Ted! He truly is a British national treasure and indubitably one of the (if not The) greatest mentalists of all time.

I can't get enough of Derren Brown. The Broadway show is something to look forward to!

The women from Virginia seems incredibly sweet, like a genuinely kind soul.

Yes Derren! So happy to start seeing him getting the recognition he so deserves in America! 😍

This is incredible. He has the members of the audience giving him the answers to his questions and noone can see it. The level of understanding human behaviour and what makes us tick is incredible.

Can’t wait to see him next year! Loved him ever since I stumbled across his first show on tv. He is just amazing

For everyone saying he didn't explain his techniques, actually he did, but you have to read between the lines. He wasn't guessing what people wrote at all as that would be impossible. Instead he was gauging by hand writing which people are open to (hypnotic) suggestion, and on the stage right there and then, he was using using conversational hypnosis to make them give the answers that he planted in their mind. In the stories he tells people on stage (which are by design long-winded) there is another story that the conscious mind doesn't detect but the unconscious one does (a story within the story), this then primes the mind to give particular response. Very impressive.

I saw Derren in Eastbourne, and we had to bring a personal possession which he would read and attach to the owner. I was so disappointed that I failed to jump high enough to catch the hoop he threw out to select participants - I stupidly wore a fairly short dress, and was terrified of flashing! But the show (dedicated to his father) was beautiful and so spiritually uplifting; me and my friends (who came with me) both messaged each other at the same time afterwards, all saying how calm and peaceful we felt inside. Love Derren 💕⭐

I love derren so much. I always thought his psychological stuff was the best kind of magic, especially when he would show is how he did it too!

Amazing! I saw Derren Brown a few years ago and unfortunately his Jedi mind tricks didn't work on me, but I have a lot of respect for what he does

this man inspired me to get into the magical realm of mentalism....ty Derren!!!

Thank you, Derren for all that you do!

Derren Brown is one of the coolest, smartest and just wow entertainers I know of.

This is so historic in so many ways. Legendary stuff. This is one of them clips thatll forever inspire future magicians and mind readers. Absolute holy grail

imagine this guy plays among us

Access to data about who has bought tickets and where they are sitting plus a few hours researching their social media accounts makes almost all of this trick work. Top marks for somehow hacking Alan's password at the end, unless he had accidentally typed it into a free text box when buying his tickets.

I've seen Derren live 5 times, met him twice at the stage door after shows. The only attribute more amazing than his talents is his kind character. Just a total legend.

Always amazing to see Derren Brown!

His presentation is one of the best I have ever seen.

I went to see his stage show once, 10 years ago. As a psychology undergrad at the time I thought I might have the slightest idea of what he was doing. I didn’t. He did an amazing recap at the end, highlighting the little subtle tricks along the way that we’d all missed.... It was mind blowing!

Derren is amazing. The amount of time he must put into what he does blows my mind. Just the amount of reading he must of done, let alone the practice is hard for me to get my head around. 👍🏼✌🏼

Seen this guy 5 times, and he has never failed to amaze me......GENIUS!

It's clever how he has done this opening before in Infamous, only he's changed it slightly and it's still comforting to watch love Derren. Listen to this man, and also buy his book!

This is a clear demonstration of having the information ahead of time. He uses distraction to confuse people and make things look more impressive… consider that the blindfold was pointless since he is the one who picked out the guy. It’s not like a random audience member stood up. His team likely has everyone’s names and they do research. He chose which envelopes to pick. I love that he shows how easy it is to fake this stupid stuff.

Derren Brown is always amazing. Of course, he isn't going to tell how he does it. Mentalism is a form of magic. The magician never tells how it is done. Derren always says in his shows that he may use misdirection, suggestion, slight of hand, and showmanship.

I love Derren Brown and admire his work in debunking BS. One of the best TED talks ever :)

Always blown away by how captivating Darren is when public speaking.

12:04 amazing subtlety. The degree to which he pulls this off to make it convincing gives me chills, especially after seeing it live.

Been following Derren for years. Still amazed as the first time i saw him when he performs.

Went to see Derren Las night at The Lowery Theatre the third time I manage to see him. His show The Showman was spectacular and the most emotional show that I have ever seen. Thank you

Most of the things he does are just so amazing, I can't believe they're just tricks. I think Derren is from another planet and really has those powers.

I love him D.B. He’s really good. I will say this though. This ted talk seemed more like just another performance than it did a talk about the ability of how mentalism works or how it’s done successfully I can gather from watching that he’s guiding, directing the person. He tells you think about something, then mentions passwords. The man easily could have been thinking about his sick dog but since Derran spoke of passwords, it makes the man think of, gee, I do have a password to something so now his focus is on that instead of the few things or 1 thing that already came to mind. Everyone has a password so it’s an easy one to get a person to focus on instead of so now your both on the same page. The other questions thrown in I’m thinking are distractions to make you or subject forget what the 1st thought was and to go along with yes no questions and stick to what he’s asking you to focus on which is back to a password. How he gets to the rest is the real trick, getting the precise password right just by only guessing there was an I in it and he changed to I from a b. The only LOGICAL explanation for someone to guess a strangers password would be beforehand or prior knowledge and SPECIFIC, PRE picked individuals to show case your predictive ability by using pre hand knowledge of their life. It’s how Benny Hinn the televangelist can guess someone in his audience has a very very not so common specific illness he wants to pray for. He gets that info by sending out his people amongst the visitors and have them over hear conversations and those people are picked because they were the most vocal about why they were there, what they want to happen and had the best story to exploit in his program that would get others to believe and donate even more money hoping they will be the next to be called onstage or healed. But even those ppl are pre picked while the most I’ll are purposefully pushed as far back away from the stage as possible and overwhelmed with possible fake choices placed ahead of them so they can’t get to the stage, ask for a random healing and embarrass the televangelist on live broadcasts. Anyway, That’s the only logical way I can explain how he guesses certain things is because the person has mentioned it before and before the start of the show. If there is another tactic, I would not know what that would be and was hoping he would go into his act more and how he dose it which would explain the thumbs down for this ted talk. I didn’t thumbs down because I actually like him and watched most of his shows but thought this ted talk would go to detail how he dose it or how others if not him have done it but instead turned out to be just a performance or promotion for his next project which is find! Still love his work. Very talented he is!

Good to see Derren getting some appreciation across the Atlantic at last.

Always been a fan of Derren's work Bravo

I Love Derren! He's brilliant! Rewatching this in 2022.

Incredible what the human mind can do in the right hands...

literally can't believe what i just read in the notification I so like this guy

I saw his show in Newcastle a few years ago. Was superb! This demonstration was actually in the show.

Done so well. When you watch it again, look for the best part, where he says he's going to do one thing and then does another. I won't reveal the basic trick, but he does one of the oldest tricks in the book. But as in all magic, banter is everything.

After watching Derren doing incredible performance feats of mentalism like this with Brits, it's interesting seeing him doing it with Americans. The reactions are pretty congruent across the board!

Darren on Ted, yipee. A good influence on skepticism and critical thinking

Finally!!! I wish Derren would get a new show. He put on the best stuff ❤️❤️.. and now that I’ve watched this he’s just unreal. A true master of his craft. How? Nailed everything

Good old Derren. Always one ahead.

Its like dream came true to see derren on ted talks 😍😍😍

Anytime I see a mentalist on Got Talent, I always think they are crap if you compare them to Derren Brown 😅 He is the master of this and his delivery is exelent .

So so happy to see Derren on a TED talk. It was about time he had one.

Omggg a ted talk with derren brown?? I have high expectations

We are very predictable..if we put the time and energy into studying people..along with a good memory..some of us could also do exactly what he's doing. That's why I love Derren..he actually tells you what he's doing.

I absolutely LOVE you Derren and I can't wait to see you again. You are amazing!!!

In the German language Derren Brown might be called ein Wunderkind - a wonder child. He can do everything! He's just amazing!

This is still so great. I also love that watching this again after three years, I start to think about it more. When he gets the name Allan spot on, first I thought it was just an educated guess that feels impressive, where he just says a name suitable for the age group that he has in front of him. But then I noticed all these people have cards with their name on it. He probably just read the name Allan of the card before he blindfolded himself and took a good look at the guy too. Doesn't explain everything he does next, but I'm sure that's part of it...

LOVE Derren Brown, always so interesting to watch!

Derren Bown is the greatest - I've reviewed a lot of his effects and books on my channel . A living legend !!!

Although people are bitching"how does he reads minds...explain that"... but infact what he says in 1:53 in most powerful insight into our minds to be at peace! Thanks Darren!

I have been looking up Derren on youtube for the last couple of months waiting for this TED appearance... this is accually a bit from one of his last shows, and you'd be surprised how easy it is what he does....

This will always be the most impressive stage trick I've ever seen. Seen him do it in person, seen it on recording before. I'm sure the explanation is so tedious but man is it entertaining.

I know his focus was on the stories we tell our selves and the performance was intended to illustrate that, and it was brilliantly done. But I was really disappointed that he didn't talk about how his mentalism is done. Please have him back!

Love you DB! So psyched you are performing in NYC! See ya.

His opening statement is the most important, underrated concept for transforming the modern era.

I have seen Derren twice live and I can confirm that the shows are 100% mind blowing .. if you get the chance to see him please do as he is the master of manipulation you will leave the theatre absolutely gobsmacked and still not believing what you have just witnessed is real .

My mans looks like Jeff Bezos in the thumbnail

Derren is way more important than a Ted Talk

Been watching Darren's stuff for years.

Derren Brown is and has been the best entertainer in the world.

Feels like I just watched part of the backstory of a Batman villain. He even had his own mask/helmet thingie.

I've seen this man live. I have watched almost everything by him and I still have abso-fucking-lutely no idea how he does this.

I've seen him many times and Derren takes over Americaaaa!!!

4 weeks? it took 4 weeks for youtube to recommend this? "if you don't know me by now..."

His book "Happy" helped me alot! Great job Derren.

I went to a Las Vegas mind reading magic show and stayed after the show to meet the magician. I thought of a name in my mind. The magician read it immediately. Its juat unbelievable!!!!

He is an absolute legend of a man!

“We would worry a lot less about what other people think of us if we realised how seldom they do.” ~ Derren Brown That made me guffaw, and it is absolutely true. Wiser than most self-help books out there!

I loved the Broadway show - it definitely makes the audience think and question some of their beliefs :) Some illusionists talk down to their audience a little, but Derren has a great connection with the audience - he really makes everyone laugh and have a wonderful experience :)

Derren is definitely not of this world! This was absolutely fascinating!

Absolutely incredible.

Since TED is about educating, here is the explanation of this trick: the performer reads the content of any envelope and throws it away pretending that it's a silly question, while remembering what was written and then pretending to guess what's in the next envelope, while in actuality it was the content of the earlier envelope he's thrown away. Once he "guesses" the content of the envelope, he opens it and actually reads the content of the next envelope that he will be pretending to read. All this is accompanied by some guessing and info obtained from mingling with audience prior to the show. While in the past they've used an assistant who pretended that the first questions/answer was his/hers, while in fact the performer would open someone else's envelope and pretend that it is the content of the next one. Though there are many variants of this act, and Darren seems to be incorporating his own elements.

People who don’t get it. Lol! He’s messing with your personal narrative, skewing your internal monologue. Your thoughts are the explanation! Great job Ted talk.

How fantastic was that! Also, TED is the one platform bringing such extreme excitement for all! Wow!

Derren is a national treasure/genius/lovely guy! ❤️

I've just discovered him, and waouw... i know a french mentalist who's very strong at mentalisism but him... i swear i could spend my entire life to learn all the knowlendge about mentalisism to practice it on every person that i don't know, it's a real satisfaction to see him doing it !

Man! This is so hard to believe, yet I want it to be real and learn it.

This TED talk is great because it is a show, don't tell performance by Derren Brown. He tells us himself that we love stories and narratives and we disregard evidence to keep that narrative alive. Simultaneously, he paints an amazing narrative about how he can read minds and even passwords (!) using just social cues and small physical tics, when a simpler explanation of it being completely staged exists. He himself tells us not to trust him, but we fall ever so easily into his act anyway. Brilliant

One of my favorite mentalists, his experiments are so satisfying to watch