Derren Brown: The Events #4: How to beat a Casino

area · September 2009

Derren Brown

Magician, Illusionist, Mentalist

Arguably the most popular UK magician, Derren Brown has just finished a sold-out live tour, including a stay in London lasting over a month, and is now embarking on a series of four specials, under the heading of 'The Events'. He's been working on them for over a year.

Event One: How to win the lottery.

Spoiler:

Event Two: How to Control the Nation:

Spoiler:

Event Three: How to Be a Psychic Spy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8doPZWcIAZE

Event Four:

Less is known about this, though the broad description is known. From the man himself:

Spoiler:

Anyone else looking forward to these?

darleysam · September 2009

Show 1 = win the lottery
Show 2 = how I predicted the result
Show 3 = how to control the nation

I wonder if there's any connection at all between these. The kind of people who are going to tune in to the lottery prediction one to learn how to do it. It obviously won't be a foolproof way to win the lottery every week just handed out to the masses, but you'll get an absolute tonne of viewers who are seeking such a prize.

Teslan26 · September 2009

I wonder whether he really was upset that Channel 4 would not let him buy a ticket. I mean, he did not do anything illegal (we assume) and it would have proven beyond all doubt that it was a genuine prediction.

I am curious whether he is going to be setting up the next stunt throughout fridays show? As in making us all more susceptible, imprinting shizzle, in advance to make his job easier.

JohnOrangePeel · September 2009

Teslan26 wrote: »

I wonder whether he really was upset that Channel 4 would not let him buy a ticket. I mean, he did not do anything illegal (we assume) and it would have proven beyond all doubt that it was a genuine prediction.

I am curious whether he is going to be setting up the next stunt throughout fridays show? As in making us all more susceptible, imprinting shizzle, in advance to make his job easier.

I was going to say why the fuck didn't he buy a ticket if he really could predict the result, but you pre empted me. Got a source on T4 being the spoil sports here?

Also there definitely was a slight time delay on his tv feed, i checked using 2 tvs.

Also the thing about subliminal messages being 'illegal' is interesting as there was one (at least) on tonights show; something white appeared at the top-right of the screen but its was too quick to indentify.

Lux782 · September 2009

Derren Brown had a show on in the US on SciFi for a short while. I really enjoyed it. I would love to be able to watch his new sets of events. They sound very entertaining.

Cantido · September 2009

Can he put 800 people to sleep?

Improvolone · September 2009

Cantido wrote: »

Can he put 800 people to sleep?

Spoiler:

Echo · September 2009

darleysam wrote: »

Show 1 = win the lottery
Show 2 = how I predicted the result
Show 3 = how to control the nation

I wonder if there's any connection at all between these. The kind of people who are going to tune in to the lottery prediction one to learn how to do it. It obviously won't be a foolproof way to win the lottery every week just handed out to the masses, but you'll get an absolute tonne of viewers who are seeking such a prize.

Show 2:

Spoiler:

He's done it before with horse racing.

edit: spoiler'd just in case.

HamHamJ · September 2009

Any links for this stuff?

Echo · September 2009

He flipped a coin and had it land heads up ten times in a row too, and then showed how he did it. It's dead simple, actually. Anyone can do it.

Spoiler:

surrealitycheck · September 2009

Messiah is up on youtube - imo link it for our american chums. It's a great show

Echo · September 2009

Here's the ten heads in a row coin toss.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1uJD1O3L08

summeryclept · September 2009

Derren's awesome - big celebrity among the magician community. I've got some of his lecture notes of some of his earlier works, and the methodology behind it all is just as fascinating.

Also, to mirror an earlier question: anyone know of a way to view this, from America?

area · September 2009

Here's the prediction show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JS8AK3F8_sY

It is, of course, not a prediction - just a reveal. The youtube comments seem to be talking about a raised ball being evidence for a split-screen method, but I can't spot it.

Mojo_Jojo · September 2009

Cool. I shall have to try and remember to watch on friday.

MikeRyu · September 2009

I've met him. I was a runner on a day's shooting of one of his shows. Brought him a sausage and egg sandwich. There's my claim to fame.

mere_immortal · September 2009

MikeRyu wrote: »

I've met him. I was a runner on a day's shooting of one of his shows. Brought him a sausage and egg sandwich. There's my claim to fame.

What kind of sauce did he have on it?

He strikes me as a brown sauce guy, but meticulously applied.

Falx · September 2009

MikeRyu wrote: »

I've met him. I was a runner on a day's shooting of one of his shows. Brought him a sausage and egg sandwich. There's my claim to fame.

You mean you actually bought him some crack-cocaine... which he then convinced you was a sandwich.

saint2e · September 2009

The 39 seems a bit higher than the other ones in the row. Very cool though.

darleysam · September 2009

Echo wrote: »

darleysam wrote: »

Show 1 = win the lottery
Show 2 = how I predicted the result
Show 3 = how to control the nation

I wonder if there's any connection at all between these. The kind of people who are going to tune in to the lottery prediction one to learn how to do it. It obviously won't be a foolproof way to win the lottery every week just handed out to the masses, but you'll get an absolute tonne of viewers who are seeking such a prize.

Show 2:

Spoiler:

"Easy, I just bought tickets for a ton of lotteries and just showed you the one I won."

He's done it before with horse racing.

edit: spoiler'd just in case.

The odds of getting that right, regardless of how many tickets you buy..

Reading about next week's show, apparently he intends to literally stick everyone watching at home to their seats through suggestion. I'm both fascinated and apprehensive about that.

Mojo_Jojo · September 2009

So all I can think for this one is that it was a camera trick. The motion wobble was faked somehow and it was indeed split screen with the second camera (which was unused for the trick itself) used to show this on Friday.

saint2e · September 2009

Mojo_Jojo wrote: »

So all I can think for this one is that it was a camera trick. The motion wobble was faked somehow and it was indeed split screen with the second camera (which was unused for the trick itself) used to show this on Friday.

Yup. There's no reason, from a broadcast perspective, why that couldn't have been a stationary camera. As well they didn't use that secondary camera at all that they flipped to for about 3s, which is probably where they first did the split screen.

xiears · September 2009

Im going to agree with Echo here, i think its along the same lines as the horse racing/coin flipping. He said hed get 5 numbers right, so thats just over 55000 possibilities. He said it was the result of a years work, it would take a looooong time to film 55000 clips.

Zetetic Elench · September 2009

It's possible for that to be a part of it, but - it doesn't really explain much of anything, and it wouldn't take the best part of a year to figure out how to pull it off.

Aside from that, camera tricks are not really Derren's style. He vastly prefers misdirection and psychological odds-stacking to openly lying, which is essentially what a camera trick is.

saint2e · September 2009

Zetetic Elench wrote: »

It's possible for that to be a part of it, but - it doesn't really explain much of anything, and it wouldn't take the best part of a year to figure out how to pull it off.

Aside from that, camera tricks are not really Derren's style. He vastly prefers misdirection and psychological odds-stacking to openly lying, which is essentially what a camera trick is.

Valid point. He could've done the "camera trick" tease to get us all to think that way, while really he had some clever way of doing it that isn't obvious. I'd like to believe this scenario as I quite enjoy Derren's work.

Mojo_Jojo · September 2009

xiears wrote: »

Im going to agree with Echo here, i think its along the same lines as the horse racing/coin flipping. He said hed get 5 numbers right, so thats just over 55000 possibilities. He said it was the result of a years work, it would take a looooong time to film 55000 clips.

I don't see how that makes sense. There was no handy cut to use and it was a live broadcast.

xiears · September 2009

Mojo_Jojo wrote: »

xiears wrote: »

Im going to agree with Echo here, i think its along the same lines as the horse racing/coin flipping. He said hed get 5 numbers right, so thats just over 55000 possibilities. He said it was the result of a years work, it would take a looooong time to film 55000 clips.

I don't see how that makes sense. There was no handy cut to use and it was a live broadcast.

Ah ok, I must admit I havent watched the clip too closely, just the fact he said it took him a year sparked it off in my mind.

area · September 2009

saint2e wrote: »

Zetetic Elench wrote: »

It's possible for that to be a part of it, but - it doesn't really explain much of anything, and it wouldn't take the best part of a year to figure out how to pull it off.

Aside from that, camera tricks are not really Derren's style. He vastly prefers misdirection and psychological odds-stacking to openly lying, which is essentially what a camera trick is.

Valid point. He could've done the "camera trick" tease to get us all to think that way, while really he had some clever way of doing it that isn't obvious. I'd like to believe this scenario as I quite enjoy Derren's work.

The motion of the camera stops completely around 6:08 before starting up again a few seconds later. If there is a split screen / motion capture setup, that's almost certainly when they switched back.

The footage from the second camera used could well be going to be played in Friday's show to show what was 'really' happening.

MikeRyu · September 2009

mere_immortal wrote: »

MikeRyu wrote: »

I've met him. I was a runner on a day's shooting of one of his shows. Brought him a sausage and egg sandwich. There's my claim to fame.

What kind of sauce did he have on it?

He strikes me as a brown sauce guy, but meticulously applied.

Uhh I think it was ketchup.

Falx wrote:

You mean you actually bought him some crack-cocaine... which he then convinced you was a sandwich.

No kidding. I was scared to meet him, he could have had me eating my own arms and I'd think they were hamburgers.

Æthelred · September 2009

I think we can discount the talk of getting five balls right. He got six - the 1/44 chance he guessed that last one is pretty low.

A camera trick would be pretty straight-forward, but very, very boring.

Aroduc · September 2009

darleysam wrote: »

Echo wrote: »

darleysam wrote: »

Show 1 = win the lottery
Show 2 = how I predicted the result
Show 3 = how to control the nation

I wonder if there's any connection at all between these. The kind of people who are going to tune in to the lottery prediction one to learn how to do it. It obviously won't be a foolproof way to win the lottery every week just handed out to the masses, but you'll get an absolute tonne of viewers who are seeking such a prize.

Show 2:

Spoiler:

"Easy, I just bought tickets for a ton of lotteries and just showed you the one I won."

He's done it before with horse racing.

edit: spoiler'd just in case.

The odds of getting that right, regardless of how many tickets you buy..

Reading about next week's show, apparently he intends to literally stick everyone watching at home to their seats through suggestion. I'm both fascinated and apprehensive about that.

Couldn't you do that by just not taking a commercial break? Or talking about it until the end? The suggestion's already in place.

Uncle_Balsamic · September 2009

I love this man. I can't wait to see what he does with these shows.

Teslan26 · September 2009

JohnOrangePeel wrote: »

Teslan26 wrote: »

I wonder whether he really was upset that Channel 4 would not let him buy a ticket. I mean, he did not do anything illegal (we assume) and it would have proven beyond all doubt that it was a genuine prediction.

I am curious whether he is going to be setting up the next stunt throughout fridays show? As in making us all more susceptible, imprinting shizzle, in advance to make his job easier.

I was going to say why the fuck didn't he buy a ticket if he really could predict the result, but you pre empted me. Got a source on T4 being the spoil sports here?

Just his twitter page

Æthelred wrote: »

I think we can discount the talk of getting five balls right. He got six - the 1/44 chance he guessed that last one is pretty low.

A camera trick would be pretty straight-forward, but very, very boring.

I hope it isn't just that, but on the other hand 6 nCr 49 = 14million and some change....

Rook · September 2009

Teslan26 wrote: »

JohnOrangePeel wrote: »

Teslan26 wrote: »

I wonder whether he really was upset that Channel 4 would not let him buy a ticket. I mean, he did not do anything illegal (we assume) and it would have proven beyond all doubt that it was a genuine prediction.

I am curious whether he is going to be setting up the next stunt throughout fridays show? As in making us all more susceptible, imprinting shizzle, in advance to make his job easier.

I was going to say why the fuck didn't he buy a ticket if he really could predict the result, but you pre empted me. Got a source on T4 being the spoil sports here?

Just his twitter page

Æthelred wrote: »

I think we can discount the talk of getting five balls right. He got six - the 1/44 chance he guessed that last one is pretty low.

A camera trick would be pretty straight-forward, but very, very boring.

I hope it isn't just that, but on the other hand 6 nCr 49 = 14million and some change....

Or he just something like e-ink paper. I mean he obviously can't predict the future.

darleysam · September 2009

Aroduc wrote: »

darleysam wrote: »

Echo wrote: »

darleysam wrote: »

Show 1 = win the lottery
Show 2 = how I predicted the result
Show 3 = how to control the nation

I wonder if there's any connection at all between these. The kind of people who are going to tune in to the lottery prediction one to learn how to do it. It obviously won't be a foolproof way to win the lottery every week just handed out to the masses, but you'll get an absolute tonne of viewers who are seeking such a prize.

Show 2:

Spoiler:

"Easy, I just bought tickets for a ton of lotteries and just showed you the one I won."

He's done it before with horse racing.

edit: spoiler'd just in case.

The odds of getting that right, regardless of how many tickets you buy..

Reading about next week's show, apparently he intends to literally stick everyone watching at home to their seats through suggestion. I'm both fascinated and apprehensive about that.

Couldn't you do that by just not taking a commercial break? Or talking about it until the end? The suggestion's already in place.

Yeah, I'm wondering if it'll be something as simple as that, "Now I'll really tell you how I won the lottery.. after this break"

I'm curious about the adverts they were running, with everything going backwards, lots of red, there's going to be tonnes of suggestion in those. Damnit Derren Brown, you are an enigma.

Italax · September 2009

I tried to watch this but I think I ended up catching a show in London that was on afterwards by mistake.

What did I end up watching?

Will definitetly watch this tonight though.

darleysam · September 2009

So apparently it was done with a crowd of 24 people using automatic writing, then taking an average of their results.

I.. really don't know what to make of that.

Also, the colour red is coming up SO much through this show. All the adverts for it beforehand, the stage that it's being filmed in, it's in all the adverts between, there was a bit in the middle where he had a red and blue team tossing coins, where the red team were decked entirely from head to toe in the colour, and winning in a crushing victory.

Zwa · September 2009

Well obviously the 24 people thing was bullshit to fill up the time. And let us laugh at gullible people.

I love the idea that he fixed it, but sleight of hand/camera tricks are still most likely.

JAmp5 · September 2009

I'm beginning to think this whole show is a suggestion or a form of mass manipulation. Neither the prediction using 24 people nor the fixing of the machine suggested seem at all plausible. I just watched an hour of fluff where I learned nothing of how he "predicted" the results.

Zwa · September 2009

It could be that this whole events thing is building up to a major headfuck at the end where he does something amazing and explains everything.

And then we worship him as our new god.

darleysam · September 2009

That's what I'm thinking. Telling people how to win the lottery is a great way to get a huge, suggestible and greedy audience, just right to manipulate. The bit about willing events to happen with your mind was completely un-Brown, and using automatic writing to predict the result? That's the polar opposite of rationality. I'm sure this is a setup for something bigger.

Penny Arcade

Derren Brown: The Events #4: How to beat a Casino

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