Talk:Derren Brown/Archive 1

Was Derren born "Darren" as previous versions of the article have suggested?

No, it says Derren on his birth certificate, though he used the name Darren (and even d'Arren) in his teens. --Scaramouche 14:02, 20 May 2005 (UTC)

Also, I reordered the "Messiah" sections to the order the appeared on the program. Hugo Hadlow 20:16, 12 Jan 2005 (UTC)

I should probably note that the BBC page on this here gets it wrong - although it correctly notes that he started at chamber 3, the bullet was in chamber 1, not chamber 2. He only pulled the trigger 5 times in all, as any number of other sources point out... Evercat 01:40, 6 Oct 2003 (UTC)

What did you think after he sat there after firing chamber 5? The smile on his face before he pulled the trigger on that chamber suggested he thought that 5 was the one with the bullet in it, then he just sat there for ages. I thought he'd bottled it. Of course this could all be part of the act, but it added to the tension none the less. Obviously if he had blown his brains out we wouldn't have been watching it, so that should have eased the tension, but it was still pretty scary. Mintguy 01:45, 6 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Yes, he took ages to pull himself together after that. I expected him to quit, actually. Thinking about it though, the "mistaken choice" was also a great way to create tension, with the idea that even he wasn't sure where the bullet was. I guess we'll never know if he really thought it was in chamber 5... I would be interested to know how many seconds in advance it was filmed. Evercat 01:59, 6 Oct 2003 (UTC)

One thing - would it be fair use to lift the image straight out of Sky's page? Evercat 02:02, 6 Oct 2003 (UTC)

I think he's amazing in what he can do, but he may have gone too far with this stunt. It puts me in mind of that guy that's going to chop his legs off live on the Internet (has he done that yet). I expect Ch 4 will get a slap on the wrist from the IBA or ITC or whatever they're called these days. BTW I thought the Revels a la "The Deer Hunter" ad in the first break was a bit cheeky! Mintguy 02:04, 6 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Yeah, I noticed that. :-) I dunno about the "ethical issues" - magicians have done dangerous things before, and there are lots of movies etc that can be copied by people. I'm not sure the fact that it was real as opposed to simulated makes much difference. I for one was confident he would live (even if he had to quit to do so) Evercat 02:06, 6 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Speaking of "ethical issues" I was watching the new series of "Trick of the Mind" tonight and he appears to set someone up in a situation that will terrify them without obtaining their consent at all. Was it a fake set-up using an actor or are there major ethical issues involved in the stunt? LJade728 22:08, 6 May 2005 (UTC)

I think there was an element of hypnosis used in that sequence, and whilst Brown didn't explicitly get their consent, they chose to play the arcade game. -TonyW 22:17, May 6, 2005 (UTC)

---

I wonder if it would be worth mentioning how the suggesting of chamber one was (apparently) done. The following is from a Google cache of someone's usenet post, but it corresponds with my memory and I think it's accurate:

If it fucks up it's not your fault.

Right?

Pick up the gun.

Take the gun under the table.

Can you see the numbers?

Ok. Move it around a bit.

Familiarise yourself with the numbers.

Make sure you can see them clearly.

I want you to choose one of these numbers.

You keep that number to yourself and have a look at them now and choose one now.

It doesn't matter which one it is you can change your mind as many times as you like.

Would you make that decision for me and you settle on a number.

Are you thinking of one now? Yeah.

Evercat 23:45, 6 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Admittedly there's the possibility the whole thing was a sham. :-) Evercat 00:15, 7 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Seeing as the bullet, live or otherwise, was in chamber one tends to tie in with the use of the word 'one' a number of times in Brown's instructions, and he had chosen a guy who was nervous and probably more susceptible to such an auto-suggestion. --TonyW 16:04, Jul 29, 2004 (UTC)

I don't think Wikipedia is the place to include speculation as to how a magician's tricks are done. It's very easy to convince yourself that an apparent method is the 'only' way it could be done. Conan Doyle insisted the 'only' way Houdini could escape from handcuffs was to dematerialise his hands. The point of a good trick is that you can't work out how it's done. Wikipedia should contain confirmed facts, and not even reasoned arguments, let alone speculation. For what it's worth, I'm a friend of Derren, he asked me for advice when planning 'Russian Roulette' and no one has come close to the method in this discussion. More than that I'm not willing to say. --Scaramouche 14:02, 20 May 2005 (UTC)

Well you've apparently confirmed that it was indeed a hoax, if the "method" was other than the one he claimed (ie a real honest-to-god game of Russian roulette) Evercat 16:05, 20 May 2005 (UTC)

"Waking Dead" arcade game trick

I just removed the following:

Recently (June 2005) a clip from an episode of this series has been widely circulating the internet, most commonly on forums dedicated to online gaming. In the clip, Derren claims to create a video game he calls "Waking Dead" which is able to put people into a "catatonic trance". He accomplishes this by "carefully timed flashes". Derren explains that "roughly 1/3 of people who play it" (implying 1/3 of the entire population) is vulnerable to this effect. The absurdity of this claim appears to be lost on most viewers, since if the phenomenon were real then this effect would be well documented in medical journals, it would be used by the US Military to combat the insurgency in Iraq, it would be used by law enforcement, etc. The episode is thus quite obviously revealed as a staged hoax -- a technique well known to Derren.

Some of this may be worth inclusion, but it is currently uncited and written slightly POV. violet/riga (t) 5 July 2005 13:57 (UTC)

"Waking Dead" arcade game trick

I just removed the following:

Recently (June 2005) a clip from an episode of this series has been widely circulating the internet, most commonly on forums dedicated to online gaming. In the clip, Derren claims to create a video game he calls "Waking Dead" which is able to put people into a "catatonic trance". He accomplishes this by "carefully timed flashes". Derren explains that "roughly 1/3 of people who play it" (implying 1/3 of the entire population) is vulnerable to this effect. The absurdity of this claim appears to be lost on most viewers, since if the phenomenon were real then this effect would be well documented in medical journals, it would be used by the US Military to combat the insurgency in Iraq, it would be used by law enforcement, etc. The episode is thus quite obviously revealed as a staged hoax -- a technique well known to Derren.

Some of this may be worth inclusion, but it is currently uncited and written slightly POV. violet/riga (t) 5 July 2005 14:03 (UTC)