British Comedy Guide

Derren Brown: Predicting the Lottery Page 4

It would have been really spectacular if he'd actually bought a ticket.

It wouldn't have been as he would have picked the wrong numbers. You can't predict the lottery result. Simple as. :) ;)

Quote: Tim Walker @ September 10 2009, 12:55 PM BST

It wouldn't have been as he would have picked the wrong numbers. You can't predict the lottery result. Simple as. :) ;)

Really? But I thought he was magic or Jesus or something.

I was in the shower when that part of the show was on, but I expect it's done like an old trick I have where a 'ghost' writes an answer on a slate. At the risk of sounding like an utter nerd, I do collect magic tricks and do them at children's parties and stuff.

Bring back David Blaine.

No, not really. He's another one of the 'magic' f**kers who can do one.

Quote: john lucas 101 @ September 10 2009, 1:06 PM BST

Bring back David Blaine.

No, not really. He's another one of the 'magic' f**kers who can do one.

We all know why you hate magic.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077889/

Ali Bongo shits all over dem wannabe muthaf**kers. For reals yo.

'Oh look, the coin is behind your ear.'

'Oh look, my foot is in your crotch.'

(Obviously, not when Dolly is doing magic tricks, as that could create quite an awkward situation).

Quote: john lucas 101 @ September 10 2009, 1:06 PM BST

He's another one of the 'magic' f**kers who can do one.

But Brown isn't claiming to be magic, he says again and again how it's all just trickery.

My problem with this show is that he's promised to reveal not only how he did it, but also how we at home can do it.

If it's a split-screen camera trick, which is the only plausible explanation I've come up with so far, I can't see how we at home could replicate it, or why we'd possibly want to.

Plus, this is Derren Brown. He doesn't do camera tricks. If he were to fess up to using them on Friday, it would throw all his previous effects up for dismissal as camera tricks. I genuinely don't think he's ever used a camera trick before, beyond basic camera angles and editing room stuff that just happens to aid the misdirection.

And does "it was a camera trick" really need an hour-long show to explain?

So, is he going to pretend he was doing something else, and teach us all how to do that? Often in the past he's made up a bunch of bollocks about memory palaces or wotnot to throw us off the scent of a simple sleight of hand, so I wouldn't put it past him.

If he does reveal that it was a camera trick, I predict that the reveal will be that the supposedly empty theatre was actually packed full of people, probably with a full audience also -- the cutaway to the redundant second cameraman marking the transition between recorded material and a live performance.

Quote: Dolly Dagger @ September 10 2009, 1:12 PM BST

We all know why you hate magic.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077889/

Gottle a geer, Golly.

Quote: Matthew Stott @ September 10 2009, 1:17 PM BST

But Brown isn't claiming to be magic, he says again and again how it's all just trickery.

Yeah, but f**k him anyway, eh.

Watch when Derren is writing the numbers down on the board he's holding. When he says "28", the camera suddenly goes very still which suggests to me there's been a switch from a hand hel cam to a tripod-mounted one. The stillness only lasts a few seconds but that might be enough to quickly switch to a splitscreen to allow a hastily-prepared podium with the correct lottery balls to replace the blank one, before smoothly mixing back to the hand held cam.

Either that or he's in league with the very divvil himself.

Quote: Lee Henman @ September 10 2009, 2:28 PM BST

Watch when Derren is writing the numbers down on the board he's holding. When he says "28", the camera suddenly goes very still which suggests to me there's been a switch from a hand hel cam to a tripod-mounted one. The stillness only lasts a few seconds but that might be enough to quickly switch to a splitscreen to allow a hastily-prepared podium with the correct lottery balls to replace the blank one, before smoothly mixing back to the hand held cam.

That's the moment I reckon the ball switch was made, but the switch to a mounted camera would have had to have been made much earlier - when he cuts away to the second camera at about 0:53 in the video I linked to in the OP.

There's simply too much forced wobbliness in the way this was shot. Handheld cameras don't behave like that, surely? Aren't they called "steadicams" or something?

I reckon the first 53 seconds was prerecorded. Derren fluffs one of his first lines, which I reckon was deliberate, to make it appear live.

Quote: Lee Henman @ September 10 2009, 2:28 PM BST

Watch when Derren is writing the numbers down on the board he's holding. When he says "28", the camera suddenly goes very still which suggests to me there's been a switch from a hand hel cam to a tripod-mounted one. The stillness only lasts a few seconds but that might be enough to quickly switch to a splitscreen to allow a hastily-prepared podium with the correct lottery balls to replace the blank one, before smoothly mixing back to the hand held cam.

Either that or he's in league with the very divvil himself.

If you look at the video I posted a bit earlier in this thread, you can see that one of the balls suddenly raises during that switch between wobbly and mounted cameras so the trick definitely took place during those few seconds.

Quote: Kenneth @ September 10 2009, 8:00 AM BST

The trick is straightforward: He waited until after the BBC had broadcast the winning numbers to reveal his own set of numbers. Surprise, surprise, they matched. If he had shown his set of numbers a full minute BEFORE the BBC broadcast, well that would have been magic. But he claimed he could not do so because of legal reasons, which is absolute tosh. As far as I'm aware, there's no law against broadcasting a prediction. I used to share a flat with a magician/con-man, who often said that apart from quick hands and good preparation, the most important thing for a magician is the patter. In other words, convince gullible people with bullshit. In this case: lie that you're not legally allowed to reveal your predicted set of numbers before the broadcast. And lie that it has taken an entire year of your life to work out the split screen trick to seamlessly get the balls with the right numbers in place.

To be fair to Brown, it probably is true that the BBC reveal the draw before anyone else. But otherwise, it's bollocks.

I am verrry interested to see what he tells us tomorrow, anyway.
Well I'll have to record it and see on Saturday, but erm. Yes. You don't need to know that.

Quote: Paul W @ September 10 2009, 7:47 AM BST

with something indicating what the number is, morse code device tapping his leg?

Or an earpiece? :)

Quote: RubyMae - Glamourous Snowdrop at Large @ September 10 2009, 10:29 AM BST

I find him very scary. :( He makes me feel like he is going to steal my mind Teary.....

He'd have a hard task with that one. ;)

Quote: Leevil @ September 10 2009, 10:59 AM BST

He'll want to lave people in ore

"He'll want to leave people in awe"

Maybe?

Quote: Paul W @ September 10 2009, 12:40 PM BST

Oh, right, I assume it's building up to something more awesome like write "I had your mum" on the moon.

Laughing out loud

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