what do you reckon? He picked those numbers?

I didn't notice myself, but I read people saw an extremely thick cable leading to the tv and past the ball stand. Some sort of electronic displaying balls?

Another theory was that there was a superimposed camera feed on top of the other. I did see the camera shake, which did seem a little strange.

He freely admits that he has no special powers and that it's all tricks and misdirection. lets face it, if you had 6 lottery numbers, would you waste your time poncing around on telly or would you be straight off down the news agents with a quid coin in your sweaty palm?

I missed it, I take it he did it? as Onzadog says the point of pretty much all he does now is to prove that there is no such thing as psychic powers, its all misdirection and tricks..

Yes he 'did it'. Picked all six numbers. And yes, it was a trick. Supposed to be telling how he did it on Friday night.
Would have been better if we'd seen the numbers he picked before the lottery, but he had some reason why he couldn't.

It's simple, he said in the build up it's taken him over a year to do this. All he's done is filmed the bit where he's writing the numbers on the bit of card and turning over the balls thousands of times with different combinations of numbers. He said at the start he was only convinced he could get 4 correct which reduces the permutations by quite a lot (he might have been lucky with the 6). The hand held camera work was to make it more difficult to notice the switch – notice they didn't go back to the presenter after the balls were picked, cut off while they were still on the standard screen. Also this is why he couldn't show them in advance.

It's like the time where he got 100 (or 10 i can't really remember) heads (or tails – again I can't really remember) in a row – he just filmed all day while he was flipping coins until it happened.

As has been said – it is all misdirection and anyone that thinks otherwise needs their noggin inspecting.

Yes but it's clever misdirection, and it's also a challenge to work out how it was done.

Yes but it's clever misdirection, and it's also a challenge to work out how it was done.

Agreed. I am just saying that it is just a show. I am not disagreeing with anything here as all the posts above seem to think the same. I am just saying there are muppets out there that think it is real.

He is indeed the devils imp, and should be burned for his heretic ways.

His new show tickets have just gone on sale at £30 each.

Although I like him he'd need to work his magic on me to part with that sort of cash, what are these entertainers thinking of with such high prices, then there's the booking fee and the credit card fee.

I know the big stars charge nearly £100 but a magic show at £70 for 2 people I ask you…..

Rant over

That is the magic – 'Watch Darren as he skilfully extracts £35 per head to watch a sideshow'.

He works for the giant lizards and it's all a great conspiracy

I expect pjt201 has the correct solution – i think he did a similar thing with one where he predicted a number of horse races? (I didn't see that one)

whether that is the solution given on the show though is another matter – I think he sometimes gives a different, more impressive sounding solution than the more traditional "trick" he actually uses to get the same effect

Lots of people seem to think he recorded the show backwards….. although it makes my head hurt trying to work out how that would help!

He said at the start he was only convinced he could get 4 correct

I reckon that (along with the line about him not being allowed to buy a lottery ticket) is all part of the misdirection. He's busy trying to make it sound harder than it is (and to give the impression he predicted the numbers when actually he didn't).

I expect pjt201 has the correct solution – i think he did a similar thing with one where he predicted a number of horse races? (I didn't see that one)

Yeah, he'd only have had to do it 13,983,816 times to be sure of the six numbers. Or 1,031,397 times to get four numbers. Assuming it required a minute of filming per combination, it'd only take him 2 years of solid filming to get enough combinations for four numbers (or 27 years for the six numbers he actually did). I'm sure that's the most likely answer!

Joe

Hehehe yeah Joe exactly what I thought when I read that explanation, how the hell are you supposed to film nearly 14 million combinations in a life time when it's impossible to count to a million.

Never seen it so no idea how he did it but he is a clever illusionist.

thats me told!

you understand I didn't actually take the time to do the maths before I tolf pjt201 he was right – what kind of lunatic could be bothered to do that? 😉

The TV in the room was a live feed, no delay there, almost suspiciously little delay infact?

surely there would be SOME lag?

(i was channel hopping)

why shouldnt he buy a lottery ticket?
lots of people have "systems"
maybe his is just loads better, its still a random draw, surely?
im not saying he SHOULD or would, but its not against the rules is it?

"if you already know the result, you cant play?"

I didn't either but there was also no need to work out it'll take a bit more than a year to do that many. Given he's done so many other TV shows and tours in that year it makes it even less likely.

Tricks are often most impressive when explained. I remember the simultaneous games of chess he played against a load of Grand Masters. Basically they were all sat in a circle and he flipped from one to another, beating most of them. All he was doing was remembering the move another GM made and then duplicating it on another table i.e. the Grand Masters were basically playing each other. Very clever and more impressive than the "trick" itself. Now he's gone a bit too showy and I get bored of the build up of most of his tricks

I didn't see it, but would assume it's along the lines of what he did with the horse race gambling thing. He managed to show someone picking the winner of several races in a row, by getting enough volunteers to place enough bets to make it a certainty.

that grandmaster one was brilliant i agree,
no mind tricks, or mentalism or hypnosis or anything.

just logic, and a well trained memory.

did anyone watch the thing after "the event"?

Was there really 14 million people there?

The best thing he ever did was "Messiah".

He travelled to the United States to try to convince five leading figures that he had powers in their particular field of expertise: Christian evangelism, alien abduction, psychic powers, New Age theories and contacting the dead.

Using a false name each time, he succeeded in convincing four of the five "experts" that he had powers, and they openly endorsed him as a true practitioner. The fifth expert, the Christian evangelist Curt Nordheilm, whilst impressed by Brown's performance, asked to meet him again before giving an endorsement. The concept of the show was to highlight the power of suggestion with regard to beliefs and people's abilities, and failure to question them. Brown made it quite clear with each experiment that if any of the subjects accused him of trickery he would immediately come clean about the whole thing.

It should be compulsory viewing in secondary schools in my opinion.

Possible Solution

The real solution:
"Probaly require a lot of computer technology to get the perfect formular for the Lottery draw.."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ooP6s7PmXk&feature=related

It'll be pretty disappointing if it was camera trickery like just freezing one side for a moment or whatever, although he's kind of hinted that it might be.

Can anyone explain this one (I've no idea how – I dunno if it's a mentalism trick, listening for the numbers he wants or something more cunning):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJaGyCiPcfo&feature=related

or this one (maybe a bit more obvious, either he did it hundreds of times, or there's a switch when he faces away)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVy92jBj5GU

Joe

With that Blane trick its same as all his street tricks – he's surrounded by a whole production team – as numbers are being called out someone from the art department is making up the ticket (or placing the watch in the window, or writing something on the side of a bus) All Blane needs to do is keep his banter running long enough for someone to pass the wallet to him. There are cameras and soundmen everywhere, much more distracting than a pickpocket.

Some idiots at work genuinely believe it was "magic" 😆

Messiah was definitely his best program ever. Not so much "look at the brilliant trick" but "look how easily people [just like you and me] can be misled".

I agree everyone should see it, but it's strangely unavailable on DVD?
(fingerprints of the lizard overlords on that issue if you ask me!)

Blane takes it too far

on one of his street magic shows he appears to levitate. It looks very impressive

turns out that the street audience are reacting to a simple illusion where you stand up on one tip toe with one foot, whilst raising the other. It relies on being done quickly, with the audience having no build up or warning of what you are about to do. Howevet Blaine is not shown doing this on camera

On TV he is shown to raise a foot or so in the air – this was done using special affects with no audience present

Some idiots at work genuinely believe it was "magic"

I did some stuff with magic tricks at work, where the (very basic) tricks were revealed, and I had someone afterwards say that they were a bit disappointed that magicians weren't real. That surprised me a bit, I thought they were pretty open about it?

With that Blane trick its same as all his street tricks – he's surrounded by a whole production team – as numbers are being called out someone from the art department is making up the ticket (or placing the watch in the window, or writing something on the side of a bus)

Surely a lot of his street tricks (the ones where a car drives past with a card on and the like) are just classic forces of cards, with a fancy show-off ending. Most of them are just normal tricks done well. I still can't work out how he does his lottery one though – he just seems to have a bunch of different numbers in the 3 times he does it. I can see how he can force the last 2 or 3 numbers, but the other numbers I don't get, and I can't see how he can print out the ticket quick enough even with the help of a confederate.

Joe

@eat_the_pudding

Messiah was definitely his best program ever. Not so much "look at the brilliant trick" but "look how easily people [just like you and me] can be misled".

I agree everyone should see it, but it's strangely unavailable on DVD?
(fingerprints of the lizard overlords on that issue if you ask me!)

It's on thebox torrent site.

Signup
Torrent

Not the best copy in the world (low-resolution) but you'll get the idea.

I don't think the likely retail sales would be high enough to warrant a DVD release, and I reckon they'd have trouble getting release paperwork from those who were duped once they've seen the final cut…!

pretty convincing demonstration

Dont know if anyone else saw it, but on the advert for tonight's show, he held up what appeared to be a plastic snowflake – any opinions?

yes, i have an opinion – it can't have been a real snowflake as snowflakes are made of snow, not plastic.

6 balls,

6 points on a snowflake, each (in theory) will exactly replicate the point next to it right down to a molecular level.

Im guessing but suspect it has somethign to do with millions of possible combinations, and the number 6.

This:

Morning. Speculation this morning fantastic. Lasers, split screens, tiny LED readouts in the balls. I am loving today. Hope you are well.

— Derren Brown (@DerrenBrown) September 11, 2009

makes it seem like it is probably a conventional magic trick not a load of technology or editing/video effects. There's no reason it shouldn't be a conventional magic trick, there are thousands of tricks out there which people can perform well enough that a million people watching on TV wouldn't be able to guess how they're done.

Joe

As I understand it, the Lottery show is actually recorded at 8ish, and broadcast later.

I think he probably had someone in the audience who fed the numbers to him beforehand – Occam's razor: the simplest explanation is usually the best.

Even if it was broadcast 'live' there would probably be a five-minute transmission delay on the lottery broadcast, so as to allow for any hitches/mad nudist audience members/Shaun Ryder, so that would still provide enough time to set up the actual, directly live, Derren Brown thing.