Derren Brown's new project: The Science of Scams

silent sage

http://www.scienceofscams.com/


Seems like a modest venture compared to some of his previous work. I really enjoy everything he does, thought some might find it interesting.

Zillah

To be honest I would love to see some more modest projects from Derren Brown after his last few massively unimpressive though grand in concept stunts.

silent sage

You're talking about the events?

I found the controlling the nation and psychic spy stunts pretty weak, but the lottery and how to beat a casino were entertaining at least. Even if he did fail to beat the casino in the end.

...

Hmm, coming across this video has brought him down in my estimation.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news/2009/10/09/derren-brown-posts-bizarre-rant-on-youtube-saying-he-earns-a-living-out-of-smug-guess-work-watch-video-115875-21732828/

Busi_Girl08

silent sage wrote: »

Hmm, coming across this video has brought him down in my estimation.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news/2009/10/09/derren-brown-posts-bizarre-rant-on-youtube-saying-he-earns-a-living-out-of-smug-guess-work-watch-video-115875-21732828/

Not a Family Guy fan I take it?:rolleyes:

eightyfish

silent sage wrote: »

coming across this video has brought him down in my estimation.

Why?

doctoremma

silent sage wrote: »

http://www.scienceofscams.com/


Seems like a modest venture compared to some of his previous work. I really enjoy everything he does, thought some might find it interesting.

I like him very much. Mostly because of all the hard work he does to tear down the vultures that are mediums (media? ), clairvoyants etc.

silent sage

Busi_Girl08 wrote: »

Not a Family Guy fan I take it?:rolleyes:

Hehe, yeah i got the Stewie impression . Quite impressive.

silent sage

eightyfish wrote: »

Why?

Well, I was surprised to see him in this light. I had a vision of him being this constant pretentious showman who could perform highly complex techniques at will, and mess with peoples heads using almost superhuman psychology. Treating the general public like pawns without remorse. It was nice to think that there was someone out there doing these things. After doing some reluctant research, I'm disappointed to see that he's just like the rest of us. A great performer, showman and entertainer all the same. Just ruined my childish fantasy.

Busi_Girl08

silent sage wrote: »

Well, I was surprised to see him in this light. I had a vision of him being this constant pretentious showman who could perform highly complex techniques at will, and mess with peoples heads using almost superhuman psychology. Treating the general public like pawns without remorse. It was nice to think that there was someone out there doing these things. After doing some reluctant research, I'm disappointed to see that he's just like the rest of us. A great performer, showman and entertainer all the same. Just ruined my childish fantasy.

I don't know, I liked it
It was nice to see this....human side to him, if you are a regular viewer of his blog and Youtube vids then it's probably less of a shock
He also seems to have quite a dirty mind aswell...in the best possible way of course :cool:

Zillah

silent sage wrote: »

Hmm, coming across this video has brought him down in my estimation.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news/2009/10/09/derren-brown-posts-bizarre-rant-on-youtube-saying-he-earns-a-living-out-of-smug-guess-work-watch-video-115875-21732828/

That's one of the most entertaining things I've seen in weeks.

Busi_Girl08

Zillah wrote: »

That's one of the most entertaining things I've seen in weeks.

A man of many talents :pac:

Daftendirekt

silent sage wrote: »

Hmm, coming across this video has brought him down in my estimation.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news/2009/10/09/derren-brown-posts-bizarre-rant-on-youtube-saying-he-earns-a-living-out-of-smug-guess-work-watch-video-115875-21732828/

Really? I thought that was great. Awesome Stewie impression!

As for the Science of Scams thing, has anyone else noticed Derren (yeah, I'm on first name terms with him :pac:) becoming a lot more blunt?

He always used to be a lot more careful about not offending people who believe in psychics, ghosts, God, gods, etc. He doesn't seem to be overly concerned anymore though.

Also, the ghost video is a a neat trick.

MagicMarker

The man is just walking talent. His caricatures are insane!!

Zombrex

silent sage wrote: »

Hmm, coming across this video has brought him down in my estimation.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news/2009/10/09/derren-brown-posts-bizarre-rant-on-youtube-saying-he-earns-a-living-out-of-smug-guess-work-watch-video-115875-21732828/

What the heck? That is freaking brilliant.

Turtwig

silent sage wrote: »

You're talking about the events?

I found the controlling the nation and psychic spy stunts pretty weak, but the lottery and how to beat a casino were entertaining at least. Even if he did fail to beat the casino in the end.

...

Hmm, coming across this video has brought him down in my estimation.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news/2009/10/09/derren-brown-posts-bizarre-rant-on-youtube-saying-he-earns-a-living-out-of-smug-guess-work-watch-video-115875-21732828/

silent sage wrote: »

Well, I was surprised to see him in this light. I had a vision of him being this constant pretentious showman who could perform highly complex techniques at will, and mess with peoples heads using almost superhuman psychology. Treating the general public like pawns without remorse. It was nice to think that there was someone out there doing these things. After doing some reluctant research, I'm disappointed to see that he's just like the rest of us. A great performer, showman and entertainer all the same. Just ruined my childish fantasy.

From those above, I was expecting an arrogant condescending showman video....:o
Em it's was bloody awesome:D

silent sage

I agree that it's an awesome impression

It's just that after entertaining thoughts of Derren Brown being almost superhuman in his techniques, my active imagination envisioned him like a real life batman dwelling in his mansion with butler adjacent and studying screens of the general public. It's very few people in the world I have these grandiose visions about, in fact it is now down to one. And to put it in context, they're not taken seriously. Just the fleeting possibility that someone out there is living life on another level. What with the disappointment of religion and spirituality, I am slowly weaning myself off similar thoughts and ideas. This coming from someone who attempted to explore the subject by any means possible and to the obsession.

I posted my "down in estimation" comment as I was watching the video for the first time. I was just surprised to see his (as someone mentioned) human side. After visiting his blog, twitter and various other sites I realise he's a really down to earth guy and I can relate to and respect him a lot more than a fictitious concept in my mind. And hey, he's gay, that's nothing like batman!

MagicMarker

You should check out his book, he's actually very self conscious about how he is perceived in every day life. He's always (at least tries) nice to everyone he meets who recognizes him, for fear of giving the wrong impression.

Sam Vimes

silent sage wrote: »

I agree that it's an awesome impression

It's just that after entertaining thoughts of Derren Brown being almost superhuman in his techniques, my active imagination envisioned him like a real life batman dwelling in his mansion with butler adjacent and studying screens of the general public. It's very few people in the world I have these grandiose visions about, in fact it is now down to one. And to put it in context, they're not taken seriously. Just the fleeting possibility that someone out there is living life on another level. What with the disappointment of religion and spirituality, I am slowly weaning myself off similar thoughts and ideas. This coming from someone who attempted to explore the subject by any means possible and to the obsession.

I posted my "down in estimation" comment as I was watching the video for the first time. I was just surprised to see his (as someone mentioned) human side. After visiting his blog, twitter and various other sites I realise he's a really down to earth guy and I can relate to and respect him a lot more than a fictitious concept in my mind. And hey, he's gay, that's nothing like batman!

To be honest I wouldn't be surprised if he intentionally picked the wrong number. What he said about timing the ball and the wheel by tapping his feet was a load of crap because as the ball drops in it hits the metal bits sticking out and bounces around in a completely unpredictable way. There was something else going on there. His explanation of how he supposedly picked the lotto numbers was crap too

Daftendirekt

silent sage wrote: »

I agree that it's an awesome impression

It's just that after entertaining thoughts of Derren Brown being almost superhuman in his techniques, my active imagination envisioned him like a real life batman dwelling in his mansion with butler adjacent and studying screens of the general public. It's very few people in the world I have these grandiose visions about, in fact it is now down to one. And to put it in context, they're not taken seriously. Just the fleeting possibility that someone out there is living life on another level. What with the disappointment of religion and spirituality, I am slowly weaning myself off similar thoughts and ideas. This coming from someone who attempted to explore the subject by any means possible and to the obsession.

I posted my "down in estimation" comment as I was watching the video for the first time. I was just surprised to see his (as someone mentioned) human side. After visiting his blog, twitter and various other sites I realise he's a really down to earth guy and I can relate to and respect him a lot more than a fictitious concept in my mind. And hey, he's gay, that's nothing like batman!

Check out his book. It'll give you a totally different perspective on the man, and teach you some neat memory tricks!

Pompey Magnus

Daftendirekt wrote: »

Check out his book. It'll give you a totally different perspective on the man, and teach you some neat memory tricks!

I was impressed by his caricatures that he has painted and showed in the book, what a talented guy. I have to say I enjoyed the book.

ShooterSF

Daftendirekt wrote: »

Check out his book. It'll give you a totally different perspective on the man, and teach you some neat memory tricks!

The memory tricks are fantastic though I struggle when visualising

silent sage

I presume you mean this one, thank you.

MagicMarker

yup

Futurism

The new website is pretty cool. Some interesting links on it.

MagicMarker wrote: »

You should check out his book, he's actually very self conscious about how he is perceived in every day life. He's always (at least tries) nice to everyone he meets who recognizes him, for fear of giving the wrong impression.

Daftendirekt wrote: »

Check out his book. It'll give you a totally different perspective on the man, and teach you some neat memory tricks!

I definitely recommend his book to anyone, specially those who like his other work. Those memory tricks are fantastic and definitely helped me in school. It also got me interested in hypnotism - something I've tried on a couple of people. Not confident enough to get any physical or post hypnotic results though!

Antbert

Sam Vimes wrote: »

To be honest I wouldn't be surprised if he intentionally picked the wrong number. What he said about timing the ball and the wheel by tapping his feet was a load of crap because as the ball drops in it hits the metal bits sticking out and bounces around in a completely unpredictable way. There was something else going on there. His explanation of how he supposedly picked the lotto numbers was crap too

That was a popular theory. I don't think he intentionally picked the wrong number, I just think he rigged it because one next to the right one looks good and he doesn't have to pay out. Calculating all that stuff in your head?! You'd need a serious multicore processor.

His Stewie impression is TOO good. I wonder if he got Seth MacFarlene in to do it. Y'know, another trick.

Busi_Girl08

Antbert wrote: »

His Stewie impression is TOO good. I wonder if he got Seth MacFarlene in to do it. Y'know, another trick.

Nah, you could tell it was him.
His natural accent picked out the odd time, but he had the voice perfect.

But then again...he did manage to convince a group of people to rob a security van....He controls Youtube now, WE'RE DOOOOOOOMED!!

Would be cool to see him try Quagmire though :P

The Mad Hatter

Antbert wrote: »

His Stewie impression is TOO good. I wonder if he got Seth MacFarlene in to do it. Y'know, another trick.

Nope, it's him. Apparently he wasn't too happy with that one. People started asking him to do it after it emerged half-way through another video. He was just showing off his new iPhone 3GS video and broke into the impression half way through the video.

Hm...*goes looking*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMeFTRFwEsc

Also, has anyone else noticed that his Stewie impression seems to have generated more interest than his Science of Scams series? What a bunch of sceptics we are...