I'm soon to stage my mind control act however, I am looking to do an effect that I have only ever seen perfomed by Derren Brown. He talks to the audience and suddenly their right arm raises and no one knows why it happened. I want to open my show with either this or something similar, to get the audience instanly hooked, please advise guys.

In my opinion, you can use 2 methods for that.

1st: Dress the old method we all know from childhood. You are in front of the spec. You grab his wrist and ask him to push, as if he wanted to raise his arm with all his strength and with your hand (grabbing his fist) you retain him. It's like he's forcing against a wall. Then you make him close his eyes and ask him to be cooool, relax, as you free his wrists. You see that his arms will slowly raise (it's mechanical).

2nd: Use basis of hypnosis, it's one of the first things you can try, and it's very funny

See you soon,