Derren Brown

[LostInBrussels]

Derren's great entertainment. I love how he gets me thinking about my own thought processes, and how easily the subconcious can be influenced.

[sasguru]

It always amuses me when imbeciles accept the hype surrounding his latest game as if it were real. Of course, he's very good at that: he gets the numpties like sy01 all hysterical over a tabloid interpretation of his claims. If you look closer, you find that the tabloid imbeciles have completely misinterpreted what he claimed he was going to do... which is exactly what he intended

I personally think DB is brilliant. I have happily paid to see him live, and his stage shows are as impressive as his TV shows, yet somehow even more so for happening "before your very eyes".

Can he predict the lottery results? No, of course not, and you're an absolute cretin if you think he can.

Has he claimed to be able to predict the lottery results? No, of course not, although you may be dumb enough to misinterpret a very carefully-phrased statement by him as saying so.

Will he make you think he's predicted the lottery results? Well, you were stupid enough to think he possibly can and has said he will... so he'll find it very easy to make you think he did, even though he will never claim to have done so

Even better - he'll tell you exactly how he fooled you and how easy it was; you will then reject this explanation because it hurts your ego

WHS +++ especially the bold bit

[d000hg]

He's very confusing to watch on TV because even though he says he tells you how he apparently did things, you don't know how much of the initial trick is not staged.
For instance the whole NLP thing... does he employ the technique or is that the act?


He's better than David Blane/Blain/Blaine/whatever.

[LostInBrussels]

He's better than David Blane/Blain/Blaine/whatever.

David Blaine is not comparable. Have you seen David interviewed on TV? He cant even string together a coherent sentence.

[BrilloPad]

I love DB's book tricks of the mind. Very interesting exposee of the tabloid believing masses.

Personally I can't wait to see the show tonight.

[NickFitz]

For instance the whole NLP thing... does he employ the technique or is that the act?

In his book Tricks of the Mind he states that other people have said that he uses NLP, but he has never said so himself.

Note the ambiguity

[TimberWolf]

He's very confusing to watch on TV because even though he says he tells you how he apparently did things, you don't know how much of the initial trick is not staged.
For instance the whole NLP thing... does he employ the technique or is that the act?


He's better than David Blane/Blain/Blaine/whatever.

His explanations (e.g. eye movements or other nonsense) are likely misdirections too.

[suityou01]

WHS +++ especially the bold bit

Actually you can GTF.

There was no tabloid misinterpretation. The post was motivated by Twet-Boy in an advert on E4 saying he would predict the lottery this Saturday.

Really HTH

[TimberWolf]

Has he claimed to be able to predict the lottery results? No, of course not, although you may be dumb enough to misinterpret a very carefully-phrased statement by him as saying so.

Will he make you think he's predicted the lottery results? Well, you were stupid enough to think he possibly can and has said he will... so he'll find it very easy to make you think he did, even though he will never claim to have done so

Even better - he'll tell you exactly how he fooled you and how easy it was; you will then reject this explanation because it hurts your ego

Here's what he's saying:

…On Wednesday 9th September at 10:35 p.m. live on Channel 4, I’ll be attempting to predict the results of the national lottery draw. And then on Friday night at 9 p.m. I’ll tell you how I did it and how you might be able to do it too…
http://derrenbrown.channel4.com/index.shtml

First thoughts are that the BBC broadcast is delayed by a few minutes, but making use of a delay would be a bit lame (and it likely does not exist), so regardless he would also need to use a standard conjuring trick of making people believe the correct numbers had been picked before the show - but crucially not shown to be correct until after the draw.

[NickFitz]

Here's what he's saying:


First thoughts are that the BBC broadcast is delayed by a few minutes, but making use of a delay would be a bit lame (and it likely does not exist), so regardless he would also need to use a standard conjuring trick of making people believe the correct numbers had been picked before the show - but crucially not shown to be correct until after the draw.

So, by your quote, he hasn't claimed that he will predict the lottery results - he has said that he will be "attempting to predict the results of the national lottery draw"... note the careful use of the word "attempting"

I have no doubt that whatever he does will be very clever, and will be in accord with his wording; but bear in mind that you have to be even fussier over the precise meaning of language than a lawyer or a logical positivist to be absolutely certain that his words actually said what you chose to understand from them.