Derren Brown - outdone himself this time?

  • Thread starter Thread starter smr
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Surely the croupier isn't a variable once the the ball is rolling and the wheel is turning? Those two things are inevitable once the croupier has released the ball.
 
As far as I'm aware, all Magic Circle members of any affiliation are banned from Casinos.

Let alone a world famous magician, illusionist, psychologist showman :p
 
Surely the croupier isn't a variable once the the ball is rolling and the wheel is turning? Those two things are inevitable once the croupier has released the ball.

This would be true IF you believe that DB's trick is genuine and he is genuinely calculating where the ball will land, based on the speed of the ball. Bear in mind that there are no publically available computer programs that can successfully predict where a ball will land, once it has been spun, yet apparently DB claims to be able to do just that.
 
I like how people think DB failed.
The ball landed on the next number which showed that his 'calculations' were very close.
He could have easily stayed there and showed a film of him getting it correct so for that reason I think he planned to be one off.
 
I like how people think DB failed.
The ball landed on the next number which showed that his 'calculations' were very close.

Do you honestly believe that he genuinely calculated (in his head), where the ball was going to land?

Even if he had hooked the roulette wheel upto a computer, he wouldnt get as close as he did on Friday. Bear in mind that on Friday, he was virtually correct. For all intent and purposes, he guessed the right number.

DB's theory of calculating the speed of the ball by the number of times it passes the green slot, sounds fine. However, the theory comes apart though on 2 fronts:

1. the human mind is not fast enough to be able to make such a complex calculation, under pressure, so quickly. But lets assume, for the sake of argument, DB's mind is beyond any other human mind that has ever existd...
2. when you observe a roulette wheel spin, you will often find that the ball does not land cleanly on a single slot. It often "bobbles" (ie. it jumps up and down to and from different slots, as it hits the ridges of different slots). Sometimes it does this. Sometimes it doesnt. And it is this "bobble" that simply cannot be calculated by a computer (at present) or human. This is where the massive randomness of it all comes into it.

Some people need to stop believing in the impossible and get real. I believe it is people who believe in the impossible, who are also most likely to taken in by those hypnosis stage shows.

I generally like DB's shows, but people have to understand that they are merely entertainment shows. Nothing more. Nothing less.
 
If you genuinely took his shows in as being 'merely entertainment shows', which of course they are, I don't think you'd be getting so wound up about it all. :p
 
Interesting theory dimple :)

Why do you think he has done this? Something further in the pipeline...?

I just thought after the last 3 weeks it was obvious to get it right and it's just more mind games.
My sister in law only said this morning 'Ooh, he got it wrong, he isn't that good is he?'
However, she thought that he had done the other 3 with the reasons he gave.
 
No but I reckon he showed us getting it wrong on purpose

You could be right he might have been planning to show you it with whatever happened. There's a 1 in 35 chance he'd be right, in which case he'd look good, and then if they wanted it to go wrong to make him look human then it doesn't matter where it landed. It's possible it was just down to chance that it ended up near a number he guessed. Either way, the whole series of The Events has been a load of crap. This was one of the only TV series that I was genuinely looking forwards to and it's been a huge let down.
 
There's a 1 in 35 chance he'd be right,

1/37.

...in which case he'd look good, and then if they wanted it to go wrong to make him look human then it doesn't matter where it landed. It's possible it was just down to chance that it ended up near a number he guessed.

It does make a difference of where the ball landed. If it landed on the opposite side of the wheel, then it would show that his prediction system was really bad. But the fact that the ball landed right next to his prediction shows that his system does work.

Put it another way. If I had a system which would allow me to predict roulette to within 1 or 2 slots either way (DB did this on Friday), I would have more money than I know what to do with. Stock market investments operate in exactly the same way, where the fund manager doesnt need to be 100% correct, just roughly correct.

My own belief was that the whole thing was a set-up and that he knew exactly where the ball was going to land before the ball was even spun, as per the previous arrangement. ;)

What did people think of the radar/speed gun trick? Was that real or faked? If so, how?
 
I'm not really sure, but I've thought about it, I can roughly estimate the speed at which a car is traveling by looking at it. You know, like anyone can, so if I actually tried to get better at it, I've no doubt that I would get better. But the standard that Derren was achieving (if it was genuine, obviously) was incredible and if there's someone that can do it, it's him. ;)

But in answer, I wouldn't be so willing to write of the possibility of it being genuine. But I don't know. :p
 
'I'm going to separate all of the engine sounds and then you can pick a make of car, I'll tell you what speed it's doing and I'll even tell you what year it is'

Trick

My theory-

He got someone to drive that car he knew, told them a speed to go. He then used some method, much like he did with the spray paint, to predict the car he would choose. However, it seems flawed as how would the person driving know what time to come etc. Hard one.
 
The obvious method is to have the 2 guys who were with him on the bridge, "in on it". This would make it look as if he is getting the speeds correct, when in fact, he is wrong.

Guessing the speed of a car could be done, however, what about when he turned around and was judging speeds by sound only?

I'd love to know how he did it. If he did do it.
 
Regarding the car speeds from the bridge I'd say this fall into one of the categories he tells you about at the beginning of every show he's done since 2003 ish.

"This program fuses magic, suggestion, psychology, misdirection and showmanship. I achieve all the results you'll see through a varied mixture of those techniques"

Great entertainment Yes, but real, No way.
 
indeed there's no way to tell the Escort/Orion's speed just from Westwood saying "Ford" and if he can pick out individual car sounds from a high speed motorway then he's better than some top of audio software out there no?

Showmanship :p
 
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