Derren Brown: The Events

[ozziechef]

Derren Brown starts a 4 week series of event TV this week, or so the Press release states.

4 stunts including:

• 'Sticking' the UK public to their sofas
• Working out a trick to always win at roulette
• Getting the public to draw a hidden object

and perhaps most intriguingly on Wednesday Derren will predict the Lottery numbers before the are announced.

As a fan of Derren (and his nervous twitch) I'm looking forward to this greatly, I saw him live a couple of months back and it was pretty impressive, even though a lot of his tricks

Spoiler alert

rely on stuff being printed after the event by cleverly hidden printers etc

[close]

there were still a number of real surprises and the show had a great ending.

Oh and apparently it will be 5 out of the 6 numbers to give someone a chance of winning!

[Ignatius_S]

...and perhaps most intriguingly on Wednesday Derren will predict the Lottery numbers before the are announced...

Predicting them's easy, it's getting them right is tricky.

[JesusAndYourBush]

Ah, I'd read about something "The Event" but the thing I read said some guff about Derren not revealing what "The Event" would consist of beforehand or "he probably wouldn't be allowed to do it".

"The Event" is being broadcast at the exact same time that the lottery results show is on so I wonder if the BBC use some sort of slight delay in their broadcast and he'll have someone in the audience texting him the results as they come up.  It can't be as simple as that can it?  I suppose it depends on how much time passes between his prediction and the balls being drawn.

[ozziechef]

He says minutes before apparently.

I'm sure it won't be using a delay (wasn't that used in Jonathan Creek once? And the Real Huste?), there's a follow up programme on Friday detailing how he did it.

Derren's blog has the confirmation that this is the trick he couldn't talk about:
http://derrenbrown.co.uk/blog/

[Artemis]

Just posted on his blog and on YouTube, Derren explains what's coming up

I love how excited he clearly is about all this. He claims that the lottery thing was the result of "months and months of secret research" but I'd imagine the whole thing is probably boiled down to something disappointingly simple, as it usually is.

Still, he's up there with the greatest illusionists as far as I'm concerned, so I can't wait for this!

[Craig Torso]

It's being broadcast on the sides of a building in a few cities.  I might go to the Manchester one because I've now convinced myself that the real trick is going to happen at these public broadcasts.

[Mr Colossal]

How is he going to be pick the lottery numbers?    -I dont mean his method of seclecting them, but is he going to be live before the draw, present 6 numbers the night before etc.


It would be stupid to attempt something as grande and get it wrong,  so I dont doubt that he wont be successful somehow...      it'll just be annoying.

[Marvin]

All magic tricks are disappointingly simple in explaination, it's all about the presentation and patter and Brown is an absolute master of it, he's an exceptionally good magician, of the proper old-fashioned variety, despite the modern style of his presentation.

[JesusAndYourBush]

How is he going to be pick the lottery numbers?    -I dont mean his method of seclecting them, but is he going to be live before the draw, present 6 numbers the night before etc.

The show lasts 10 minutes and is on at the exact same time as the lottery results show, so as ozziechef said, it'll have to be just minutes before.

[Dark Sky]

I'd imagine the whole thing is probably boiled down to something disappointingly simple, as it usually is.

All magic tricks are disappointingly simple in explaination, it's all about the presentation and patter and Brown is an absolute master of it

Yeah absolutely!  The secrets behind all magic are crushingly boring!  Magic is all about the presentation and the personality of the magician.

Really REALLY looking forward to the lottery number thing!  What an absolutely amazing idea!  That's the great thing about Derren...he comes up with these incredibly good concepts.  He really is the best thing to happen to magic for years and years and years.

[Mr Colossal]

Sorry, didnt notice that.  I was going to say,      there'd be mass flooding to your nearest newsagent with his numbers otherwise...


He cant really use a similar method to the horse-betting thing because that required hedging all bets and applying all tomfoolery afterwards, unless theres someway of rigging the lottery draw/tv timings proper... Usually when people are predicting future events they're pretty vague, or bang-on observations that wouldn't necessarily appear obvious, but somebody with a shrewd eye and a holmesian mindset could comfortably ascertain... But he cant imply any of that if he's just picking numbers. So it'll be interesting to see how he does it.



If he does it.   He's such a slippery customer he'll either pull it off somehow or turn it into a send-up to describe the audiences/his own fallibility!

[Dark Sky]

Is it perhaps more likely to be that we won't see his prediction until AFTER the lottery numbers have been revealed?

Obviously that won't be particularly impressive at all as it's a standard of magic.

Unless he comes up with some new idea which makes it seem even more impossible for someone to have tampered with what he's written down before it's revealed.

[Mr Colossal]

I can remember Uri Gellar's infamous 'spoon bending' show on a saturday evening when I were little and ITV's switchboard being literally 'jammed' with callers like one guy who 'left his car keys on top of the tv' and couldnt pick his daughter up, because they were BENT IN HALF!!'



Maybe it will be like that.    Just someone screaming down the phone  'he's done it!!!!! OMGz  *del boy dance*



Nah... He surely knows predicting them afterwards would immediately come across as something as a let down, as he's used the 'getting the answer into the envelope'  on a number of his smaller weekly shows now hasnt he?     I will expect the program to be full of the usual statistical stuff-  because he likes to spend the first half labouring under the misapprehension that he's cracked the universal fabric, and got it down to some sort of 'magic equation', before sweeping the rug...



Really want to watch this now.   He's got more of a pull than Blaine's stunts.  I haven't seen anything from that 'Mindfreak' guy in years either, I Just always come across people slagging him off.

[Smeraldina Rima]

There would be no real lottery problem if he were to predict before as the winnings remain the same, just everyone would share the pittances that week. I can see this being a disappointingly contrived thing with a written answer to be revealed or him watching the live broadcast and saying the number as the big money balls are spinning round. I'm very excited for to see it though.

[confettiinmyhair]

Why doesn't he pop down to the local Spar a few hours before the show, buy a ticket and donate the winnings to charity?

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

I expect however he does it, he won't actually have done anything in particular. It'll end with him delivering a little aesop about it being impossible to actually predict the numbers. The fact that he took half an hour to get to that point is the real trick.

[JesusAndYourBush]

Is it perhaps more likely to be that we won't see his prediction until AFTER the lottery numbers have been revealed?

I thought about that, that the viewers at home would see him 'predict' the numbers after they were announced, then the people watching the screenings at the live events would get shown a slighly delayed version of the lottery results played to them to make it look as if he correctly predicted it.  It won't be that though as it wouldn't require a 'how I did it' show on the friday as we'd already know how he did it.

I suppose he could buy so many tickets so he gets every number combination, then after the numbers are revealed he can produce the winning ticket as proof that he correctly predicted the numbers.  He'd just need a very good filing system in order for someone to be able to fish out the correct ticket and get it into his back pocket in a minute or two.

What would it cost to buy every number combination?  Wait, he said 5 out of the 6.  What would that cost then?

[confettiinmyhair]

Maybe the show will be only shown on Channel 4 +1

[Backstage With Slowdive]

All magic tricks are disappointingly simple in explaination, it's all about harnessing the power of the supernatural.

Fixed.

[weekender]

I thought about that, that the viewers at home would see him 'predict' the numbers after they were announced, then the people watching the screenings at the live events would get shown a slighly delayed version of the lottery results played to them to make it look as if he correctly predicted it.  It won't be that though as it wouldn't require a 'how I did it' show on the friday as we'd already know how he did it.

I suppose he could buy so many tickets so he gets every number combination, then after the numbers are revealed he can produce the winning ticket as proof that he correctly predicted the numbers.  He'd just need a very good filing system in order for someone to be able to fish out the correct ticket and get it into his back pocket in a minute or two.

What would it cost to buy every number combination?  Wait, he said 5 out of the 6.  What would that cost then?

Or he could just have some special printers on standby which print off what look like winning lottery tickets.  Or one with 5 numbers, anyway.

I like the way he's going to get me to stick to the sofa on Friday night, personally.  The 'trick' there is that I can't be arsed getting off the sofa on Friday nights anyway, so he's won already.

[imitationleather]

After about 7pm you're not allowed to buy tickets for that night's draw, so he could easily broadcast the numbers before they come out of Guinevere or whichever machine some girl with no legs who's just got a swimming certificate picks.

Looking forward to this, mainly just to see what happens. I usually find Derren Brown's stuff extremely underwhelming though, so I'm not expecting this to be any different.

[Johnny Yesno]

I thought about that, that the viewers at home would see him 'predict' the numbers after they were announced, then the people watching the screenings at the live events would get shown a slighly delayed version of the lottery results played to them to make it look as if he correctly predicted it.  It won't be that though as it wouldn't require a 'how I did it' show on the friday as we'd already know how he did it.

I wonder if he has enough clout to have the BBC broadcast of the draw delayed by, say, a minute.

I suppose he could buy so many tickets so he gets every number combination, then after the numbers are revealed he can produce the winning ticket as proof that he correctly predicted the numbers.  He'd just need a very good filing system in order for someone to be able to fish out the correct ticket and get it into his back pocket in a minute or two.

What would it cost to buy every number combination?  Wait, he said 5 out of the 6.  What would that cost then?

According to this site the chances of getting 5/6 numbers is 1 in 55,491.33333 so I guess it would cost £55 491 to make sure you got five numbers. Not an implausible figure to spend on a magic trick, particularly as other costs for making the programme would be minimal.

[weekender]

HE'S GOT SOME SPECIAL PRINTERS

WHAT ABOUT THE SPECIAL PRINTERS DON'T YOU WANT TO BELIEVE?

IT'S LIKE GOD ALL OVER AGAIN

[Blue Jam]

Is it still possible to stream Channel 4 live from their site? I love the idea of event television, this should be like interactive Torchwood but with less death.

^{and I still would.}

[Uncle TechTip]

Just to note that the show is 10 minutes long, at exactly the same time as the draw.

I wondered if Camelot were involved somehow for a bit of publicity but the spokes-quote I read was quite categorical, "he is an illusionist and he will be creating an illusion". It's not out of the question though. Is the draw really live at 10:35?

[massive bereavement]

You do magic like this.....

[Blue Jam]

More like this:



^{Waaaarrrggghhh.}

[Braintree]

Just to note that the show is 10 minutes long, at exactly the same time as the draw.

I wondered if Camelot were involved somehow for a bit of publicity but the spokes-quote I read was quite categorical, "he is an illusionist and he will be creating an illusion". It's not out of the question though. Is the draw really live at 10:35?

It is live. You usually get Michael Ball or Scott Mills or the Scottish blonde lady asking for a time check from Alan to prove they are going out live.

I wonder if it will be a split screen thing or are Channel 4 not allowed to do that?

[Dark Sky]

Really want to watch this now.   He's got more of a pull than Blaine's stunts.  I haven't seen anything from that 'Mindfreak' guy in years either, I Just always come across people slagging him off.

Oh I love how when Blaine decided his next magical illusion would be spending a bloody long time doing nothing in a box, Derren Brown came along and said, "right, I'm going to do a trick where I might shoot myself in the head on live TV"

He's brilliant.

I wonder if he has enough clout to have the BBC broadcast of the draw delayed by, say, a minute.

I highly doubt that, though...surely the lottery is really scrutinised by officials and the broadcast has to be officially live and stuff.  Wouldn't you think?  I highly doubt Channel 4 could say, "hey, just delay it for one minute but let us have an actual live link up please"!

Would Channel 4 be able to broadcast the lottery on the Derren Brown show?  Or will we be having to flick between the two channels during the show?

Oh this is really exciting :D

[Craig Torso]

I'm still adamant that the real trick will be done to the people watching it in public.  In the original backwards advert he claims he's been working on four events of misdirection.  I think all this lottery stuff is part of it.