88 replies to this topic

[Colonel Rhuairidh]

ExpandMyMind, on 21 February 2013 - 01:56 PM, said:

I don't think you can blame him for his 'titles' on Wikipedia. He is a well educated man with quite a bit of life experience. I'm not sure why the titles bother you? He is clearly an illusionist; probably the best mentalist I've ever heard of or seen in action; an accomplished hypnotist, as we all know; probably a crap painter, or amateur at least, so probably not much need for that in there; he has written books, so obviously a writer; and he devotes much of his life to debunking the 'paranormal', very successfully I might add. I'm not sure what the problem is.

because describing yourself as any of those, like spelling his name 'Derren', is pretentious.
And precisely because he devotes much of his life to debunking the 'paranormal'; there is nothing so tiresome as a professional Skeptic. They're almost invariably so far up themselves they can see daylight from the other direction.
At least Paul Daniels is funny, if not always intentionally.

[Frank Merton]

I wonder why you find professional skeptics tiresome.  I generally find them informative and honest.

[Colonel Rhuairidh]

Frank Merton, on 21 February 2013 - 02:54 PM, said:

I wonder why you find professional skeptics tiresome.  I generally find them informative and honest.

and insufferably superior to the gullible masses. They share many characteristics in common with professional Atheists, like Dawkins.

[Frank Merton]

Maybe they are superior.  Now I find Dawkins somewhat tiresome, that is true, mainly because he is so utterly unwilling to grant any benefit to religious belief, but his arguments are nevertheless generally sound and certainly more honest than those he tends to appear against.

[ExpandMyMind]

Lord Vetinari, on 21 February 2013 - 02:48 PM, said:

because describing yourself as any of those, like spelling his name 'Derren', is pretentious.
And precisely because he devotes much of his life to debunking the 'paranormal'; there is nothing so tiresome as a professional Skeptic. They're almost invariably so far up themselves they can see daylight from the other direction.
At least Paul Daniels is funny, if not always intentionally.

He was given the name 'Derren' at birth, and used 'Darren' as a stage name. What would you have him do? Change his name to seem less pretentious? And how are those titles pretentious? Illusionist, mentalist, artist, writer, hypnotist; none of them are pretentious in the slightest. They are fields of, mainly, psychology, that have existed for far longer than he has studied them; fields in which he is undoubtedly an expert. I'm not following your logic here and believe that your opinion is based on a biased, negative view of the man, for whatever reason.

There are few things more commendable, to me, than a professional sceptic. With the millions upon millions of gullible people throwing money at cold-reading fortune tellers and charlatan, talk-to-dead-loved-ones 'psychics', the World needs more and more professional sceptics. If not to convince current believers of such nonsense to reassess their beliefs, then at the very least to ensure we don't have another generation of science-ignoring, gullible ignorants, who would be as well picking up a book on Greek God mythology and treating it like an actual history book or watching a series of the X-Files, believing it is a documentary.

Edited by ExpandMyMind, 21 February 2013 - 03:20 PM.

[~C.S.M~]

I like Derren, he reminds me of the demon Crowley (now king of hell) from supernatural.

[Colonel Rhuairidh]

ExpandMyMind, on 21 February 2013 - 03:18 PM, said:

He was given the name 'Derren' at birth, and used 'Darren' as a stage name. What would you have him do? Change his name to seem less pretentious? And how are those titles pretentious? Illusionist, mentalist, artist, writer, hypnotist; none of them are pretentious in the slightest. They are fields of, mainly, psychology, that have existed for far longer than he has studied them; fields in which he is undoubtedly an expert. I'm not following your logic here and believe that your opinion is based on a biased, negative view of the man, for whatever reason.

As i've tried to explain, the reasons are because he's (a) smarmy, and ( a TV Celeb. Of course, the two are usually synonymous. And surely being an "illusionist" means that he's admitting himself that he is in fact actually a fake, and none of the things he does is actually real? How can someone who's made a career out of faking things hope to be taken seriously?

... Oh wait, he is in fact very very serious really ....

Quote

There are few things more commendable, to me, than a professional sceptic. With the millions upon millions of gullible people throwing money at cold-reading fortune tellers and charlatan, talk-to-dead-loved-ones 'psychics', the World needs more and more professional sceptics. If not to convince current believers of such nonsense to reassess their beliefs, then at the very least to ensure we don't have another generation of science-ignoring, gullible ignorants, who would be as well picking up a book on Greek God mythology and treating it like an actual history book or watching a series of the X-Files, believing it is a documentary.

Whereas Darren Brown makes loads and loads of money from TV shows and books out of being a professional Skeptic. But as he's a Skeptic, and is on a self-proclaimed crusade to free people from Superstition and Irrationality, making lots of money is in this case noble & honourable. Or perhaps he doesn't make lots of money; perhaps he gives it all to charitable causes, and he appears on TV and sells books purely out of altruism and makes nothing at all from it.

[minera]

lots of weirdos in this world

[ancient astronaut]

Maybe he's gonna do the trick on himself.

[Rye17]

People are so gullible now days they believe anything they see, read, or hear... I blame Fox news

[Heaven Is A Halfpipe]

He uses actors. The guy in the end of the world stunt was a former actor. Says it all.

[burt_ie]

I wonder if  he will be using actor's again this time?

I know plenty of gay men who turn straight men gay every weekend,  all it takes is a shead load of beers!

And how is Darren going to test this gayness? Will he allow his subject to kiss another man? Sleep with another man? I smell BS.

Edited by burt_ie, 05 April 2013 - 04:01 AM.

[RigDigman]

I think it'd be harder to turn a gay man straight than a straight man gay. It's easier to feed someone something they haven't tried, than it is to feed someone something they know they hate.

[CRYSiiSx2]

RigDigman, on 28 April 2013 - 08:51 PM, said:

I think it'd be harder to turn a gay man straight than a straight man gay. It's easier to feed someone something they haven't tried, than it is to feed someone something they know they hate.

I'm pretty sure I know I would hate another man's turd factory.  I don't need to try it, I like boobies.