Derren Brown

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===Russian Roulette===
 
===Russian Roulette===
Out of about 12,000 volunteers, Brown eventually chooses one to load a revolver for a game of Russian Roulette. After one false fire (which was part fuck-up and part playing up to the drama<Ref>[http://www.derrenbrowninfo.co.uk/bad_psychics.php DerrenBrownInfo.co.uk - Interview]</ref>), Derren points to a sandbag and fires the gun for real, thus narrowly avoiding killing himself on live television. The actual roulette (like most of his specials, the actual "event" happened at the very end after a few tricks or background explanations) was filmed in Jersey to avoid UK fire-arms laws.
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Out of about 12,000 volunteers, Brown eventually chooses one to load a revolver for a game of Russian Roulette. After one false fire (which was part screw-up and part playing up to the drama<Ref>[http://www.derrenbrowninfo.co.uk/bad_psychics.php DerrenBrownInfo.co.uk - Interview]</ref>), Derren points to a sandbag and fires the gun for real, thus narrowly avoiding killing himself on live television. The actual roulette (like most of his specials, the actual "event" happened at the very end after a few tricks or background explanations) was filmed in Jersey to avoid UK fire-arms laws.
  
 
===Séance===
 
===Séance===

Revision as of 10:14, 24 June 2010

The impishly handsome Derren Brown (right)
Derren Brown (b. 1971) is an English entertainer, magician, sceptic, and debunker of so-called "paranormal" phenomena. He has starred in a number of television series demonstrating his exploits, the most recent of which is Derren Brown Investigates:..., in which he investigates people who claim to have supernatural or paranormal abilities (such as psychics and faith healers), several "specials" such as The Events and that time he played Russian Roulette live on air, and a highly successful stage show. A former Pentecostal evangelist, he began to question his faith when he became interested in hypnotism and how people succumb to suggestion. During 2008, he came out as homosexual.[1]

Contents

Television

Derren Brown: Mind Control - 2000 (series)
Russian Roulette - 2003 (special)
Séance - 2004 (special)
Messiah - 2005 (special)
Trick of the Mind - 2004 (series 1)
Trick of the Mind - 2005 (series 2)
Trick of the Mind - 2006 (series 3)
The Gathering - 2005 (special)
The Heist - 2006 (special)
Something Wicked This Way Comes - 2006 (stage show > 90 minute edited TV special)
Trick or Treat - 2007 (series 1)
Trick or Treat - 2008 (series 2)
An Evening Of Wonders - 2009 (stage show > 90 minute edited TV special)
The Events - 2009, a series of TV specials and stunts such as predicting the lottery and controlling the entire nation.
3D Magic Spectacular - 2009, a single program as part of Channel 4's "3D Week" where viewers could watch his (and some special guests) normal shenanigans in 3D.
Derren Brown Investigates:...

Some clips from his shows are available from the Channel 4 website, and many are on the utubez.

Specials

Several of the one-off specials attracted considerable controversy prior to their screening

Russian Roulette

Out of about 12,000 volunteers, Brown eventually chooses one to load a revolver for a game of Russian Roulette. After one false fire (which was part screw-up and part playing up to the drama[2]), Derren points to a sandbag and fires the gun for real, thus narrowly avoiding killing himself on live television. The actual roulette (like most of his specials, the actual "event" happened at the very end after a few tricks or background explanations) was filmed in Jersey to avoid UK fire-arms laws.

Séance

An allegedly live séance was to be conducted on television and attracted great criticism from religious groups. A group of twelve students were selected. Using several techniques, such as everyone selecting the same picture from a group of photographs, and a Ouija board, the group conducted a séance to contact one of the dead members of a group who had supposedly been involved in a suicide pact. During the séance, the selected member, Jane, is channelled through one of the group, revealing details of her life which are later corroborated in a home video. While the group were recovering from their overwhelming experience, it was revealed that the suicide pact had never taken place and that the woman shown in the video was an actress who was alive and well.

Summary of one segment

from Mind Control - 2000[3]

Warning: Spoiler alert - this summary includes the denouement, taking away the fun if you want to watch it someday.

This demonstration was carried out in three locations (The U.K., the U.S., and Spain), and presents each of them in an interlaced, parallel format.

In each venue, five subjects have been assembled. They sit at a table on which are five pre-numbered large envelopes, and paper and pencils.

Brown instructs them thusly:

  • Select a numbered envelope at random, and remember "your" number.
  • On a piece of paper, write your birthdate, and draw an outline of your hand.
  • Select a small, non-identifying object from your person.
  • Put the object and the sheet of paper in your envelope.

He then walks a long way away from them and turns his back while they put together their envelopes. Before facing them again, he tells them to hand their envelopes to one subject and mix them up a bit.

The subjects are then brought to a comfortable lounge area with snacks and beverages, while Brown takes the envelopes into a work room to write detailed personality descriptions of each subject.

After about an hour, he returns and calls them back to the table. He hands them the envelopes, and tells them to take whichever one is "theirs", and spread out in the room to privately read, and rate, his descriptions of them.

The next montage of shots shows their amazement at various accuracies in what he has written about them. They then are shown rating his percentage of success, which seems to range from 80% to 99%. One enthuses, "I thought this would would be vague, like a horoscope, but it is right on in so many details".

They are amazed. They are filmed stating that they truly now believe that he has some paranormal ability. Many "woos" are heard throughout all three locations.

Just before they leave as new batches of "true believers", he has one last thing he asks them to do. They are to randomly exchange the descriptions, several times to shuffle them, and read them to see if they can identify each other from them. Oh, he says, "if you get your own back, exchange them again". Much confusion ensues...

Brown: "Yes, you all had exactly the same description. In fact, I wrote them several months ago..."

He has demonstrated a case of cold reading based on the Forer Effect, which the subjects completely bought into.

Note: the above "quotes" are not verbatim transcripts, but paraphrases from memory.

This "trick" is also covered in his book Tricks of the Mind, complete with a full transcript of his reading.

He also discusses the basics of this trick with Richard Dawkins in the first segment of a video available on youtube.[4]

See also

External links

Footnotes

  1. See his website or Wikipedia article.
  2. DerrenBrownInfo.co.uk - Interview
  3. Video is here
  4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xswt8B8-UTM&feature=PlayList&p=55A986E56B106611&playnext_from=PL&index=0&playnext=1
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