Fake Money? Real?

[Arconik]

I was watching Derren brown's documentary the other day and it showed a clip where he payed for a few things with blank pieces of paper, but made the cashier think it was money. I was surprised that I haven't seen this clip before and wonder how real it is. I never really looked into the more mental/psychological side of magic (only one time a few years ago I read some stuff on hypnotism and went around trying to hypnotize people - I gave up quickly). So anyway I just wondered how 'real' it is. Is this a legitimate thing, was there pre-camera things or is it just set-up with actors, he did show a clip of him failing but this may be purposeful?

More curious than anything, and if this is real then how often is this sort of psychology being used?

 

[Arconik]

(video link)

 

[EndersGame]

Derren Brown uses merely psychology as the surface explanation for his work.

But that's just the effect and presentation; in reality it's not psychology he uses for his magic tricks.

 

[ID4]

Derren Brown merely* uses psychology as the surface explanation for his work.

But that's just the effect and presentation; in reality it's not psychology he uses for his magic tricks.

*correction

This isn’t a magic trick though. It called being a con-artist. A similar con happens in real life called the “black paper scam”. But the con-artists in the video below were even more creative.

 

[RealityOne]

My guess is that this is the application of psychology to the viewer. The first one is sleight of hand (to prove possibility), the second a rejection (to prove that it isn't sleight of hand which builds your confidence) and the third one... judge for yourself knowing what the first two situations are.

 

[Scodischarge]

*correction

This isn’t a magic trick though. It called being a con-artist. A similar con happens in real life called the “black paper scam”. But the con-artists in the video below were even more creative.

Thanks for sharing this. Examples like this are a good reminder to people fascinated by scams (which magicians are prone to) that real people are hurt in very real ways by these criminals. Kudos to the man for going public with his story, it takes guts to do that!

 

[MohanaMisra]

Thanks for sharing this. Examples like this are a good reminder to people fascinated by scams (which magicians are prone to) that real people are hurt in very real ways by these criminals. Kudos to the man for going public with his story, it takes guts to do that!

To be fair, scientists are prone to loving scams too, because they simply provide so much insight into how flawed our brains are.

However, it's sad that such scams really do hurt people a lot.
This is exactly why so many magicians speak out against frauds who claim they can contact the dead and trick people emotionally. Yet people ultimately believe what they want to believe. Sometimes even knowledge doesn't safeguard us against scams!

And OP, get Derren Brown's books. He hides very little about his actual process (only hiding the ACTUAL bare-bones method because come on, this is how he pays his rent), the way he looks at things and how he approaches hypnotism, manipulating with the help of psychology, scams, etc.

 

[Arconik]

To be fair, scientists are prone to loving scams too, because they simply provide so much insight into how flawed our brains are.

However, it's sad that such scams really do hurt people a lot.
This is exactly why so many magicians speak out against frauds who claim they can contact the dead and trick people emotionally. Yet people ultimately believe what they want to believe. Sometimes even knowledge doesn't safeguard us against scams!

And OP, get Derren Brown's books. He hides very little about his actual process (only hiding the ACTUAL bare-bones method because come on, this is how he pays his rent), the way he looks at things and how he approaches hypnotism, manipulating with the help of psychology, scams, etc.

I think I have read confessions of a conjurer and maybe tricks of the mind, and I remember it being quite interesting on the psychological side as well as the table routine which I think I tried to copy but gave up