British Comedy Guide

Derren Brown: Predicting the Lottery Page 17

Quote: Steve Sunshine @ September 12 2009, 2:50 AM BST

A friend bought me the tickets to see Daid Copperfield at the MGM Grand when we were in Vegas.
I thought it would be rubbish & cheesy, but it was superb.

Who'd have thought he'd end up more successful than Lenny and Tracey?

Quote: Badge @ September 12 2009, 2:53 AM BST

Who'd have thought he'd end up more successful than Lenny and Tracey?

Laughing out loud

Quote: Steve Sunshine @ September 12 2009, 2:50 AM BST

A friend bought me the tickets to see Daid Copperfield at the MGM Grand when we were in Vegas.
I thought it would be rubbish & cheesy, but it was superb.

The big Vegas shows are usually amazing. I saw The Beatles' Love last Christmas when my family gathered in Vegas and it was AMAZINGLY entertaining.

Quote: Steve Sunshine @ September 12 2009, 2:50 AM BST

A friend bought me the tickets to see Daid Copperfield at the MGM Grand when we were in Vegas.
I thought it would be rubbish & cheesy, but it was superb.

Beyond the 80s cheese ball. There has to be a reason he's that successful. Is it his technical skill or the money backing it that makes him one of the best or most well know certainly. For example, there must be a young magician out there (lets call him Aaron), who has all the talent and abilities, but none of the financial backing to put on a show and make Big Ben disappear.

Late night ramblings, hope that makes sense :) Errr

Quote: Leevil @ September 12 2009, 2:56 AM BST

Beyond the 80s cheese ball. There has to be a reason he's that successful. Is it his technical skill or the money backing it that makes him one of the best or most well know certainly. For example, there must be a young magician out there (lets call him Aaron), who has all the talent and abilities, but none of the financial backing to put on a show and make Big Ben disappear.

Late night ramblings, hope that makes sense :) Errr

He made Jake How disappear. How? That's right.

Quote: Leevil @ September 12 2009, 2:56 AM BST

(lets call him Aaron), who has all the talent and abilities, but none of the financial backing to put on a show and make Big Ben disappear.

Late night ramblings, hope that makes sense :) Errr

Yeah but you try to post about Big Ben on the wrong thread.
Then our magician will make it disappear.

Quote: Kevin Murphy @ September 10 2009, 12:32 AM BST

The Wednesday show. Theories?

Just watched this for the first time and was immediately convinced as to how it was done.

Sorry, but I've only read the first page of this thread and not read any discussions elsewhere - so I may be repeating a debunked idea.

I notice the numbers on the balls weren't 'painted' on but were on a 'plastic' sleeve. I assume the stand had wiring (or radio signals were used) to turn on LEDs (I probably don't mean LEDs but just some way of burning a pattern) on these sleeves as the lottery numbers were announced.

(The sleeves seem irrelevant. The 'LEDs' could have been built into the balls.)

Boffins. They can do that, can't they?

Quote: Leevil @ September 12 2009, 2:56 AM BST

Beyond the 80s cheese ball. There has to be a reason he's that successful. Is it his technical skill or the money backing it that makes him one of the best or most well know certainly. For example, there must be a young magician out there (lets call him Aaron), who has all the talent and abilities, but none of the financial backing to put on a show and make Big Ben disappear.

Would you really need that much money to do that "Disappearing" building trick? I thought he did it by simply moving the camera or something?

Quote: JohnnyD @ September 12 2009, 8:55 AM BST

Boffins. They can do that, can't they?

It's a popular theory, and a damned sight more convincing one than Derren's.

I can hardly remember it, when I wrote that post I was thinking it was all lights and fireworks, but thinking about it, I'm sure it was really cheap arse looking, like a wobbly looking stage and people sat on fold away chairs.

The thing he did with the armed robberies was ace.

As is his abbility to persuade men to have sex with some one who looks like a vampire serial killer, with a beard

Quote: Ronnie Anderson @ September 12 2009, 12:52 AM BST

I think even if he did correctly guess the lottery numbers as he claims...

This is a social experiment in how easy it is for a con trick (dressed up as pseudo-science or psychic phenomena) to deceive a nation. Nope, he couldn't have predicted them using 'deep maths' or psychic phenomena. If so lottery winners would be mainly psychics and super-computer programmers.

The hidden balls weren't for building anticipation or 'legal' issues about predicting the draw. Because anyone who buys a lottery ticket is trying to predict the result. The delay was necessary to the illusion. He needed the delay to get the right numbers onto the balls.

In the 'reveal' programme: Did you notice the group of 24 were never allowed to total all of the psychic guesses (for themselves) and then divide by 24 or 23? There was no independent adjudicator. It was a few people working on one ball each and finally just one person was allowed to calculate the group's guesses. Why? Because DB was faking the 'maths' to give the appearance that refined psychic approaches were getting ever closer to the six-ball result. As the psychic guesses got better, the maths were done by just one person. That person was a stooge or was seeing the numbers DB wanted him to see. IIRC, the group had already received the lottery draw results before the group guesses were revealed; which is another clue that the figures were doctored to con us (and possibly more important, the group of 24 or 23 who must now be convinced of their psychic abilities).

Quote: Kevin Murphy @ September 12 2009, 12:55 AM BST

Incidentally, the coin thing may have been real:

The coin thing is not deep maths as DB claimed it was, IIRC. It was just another misdirection in showing how we accept things if they're dressed up in terms that seem intellectual.

Again, it's a trick with purely random sequences. If your opponent (as DB said) is forced to guess a sequence first, then you can frig your guess so that the first two of his tosses appear as the last two of your tosses. In that way he can never begin a winning sequence without you having had first crack at it. You'll win 50% of his winning runs before he can even complete them.

Quote: SlagA @ September 12 2009, 11:56 AM BST

If your opponent (as DB said) is forced to guess a sequence first, then you can frig your guess so that the first two of his tosses appear as the last two of your tosses. In that way he can never begin a winning sequence without you having had first crack at it. You'll win 50% of his winning runs before he can even complete them.

Very cool succinct explanation. Particularly "frig your toss". :)

Quote: Kevin Murphy @ September 12 2009, 11:59 AM BST

Particularly "frig your toss". :)

Now you know how I spend my leisure time ;) :D

I was disappointed - he basically gave us an hour of misdirection and ended up saying it was a trick but not explaining what the trick was which is what I'd tuned in for! I prefer the LED theory. :)

He also based his nonsense on the fact that the general public could get anything right as a group. That's when he lost me. Two words 'George Bush'.

:(

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