Derren Brown : Hero at 30,000 feet

Ush1

Anybody watch it last night?

I thought it was entertaining but having alot of trouble buying into some of it. I've seen some of Browns other stuff and I think it's fairly cool but I just couldn't bring myself to believe this one.

The fella he picked seemed like an absolute vegetable aswell.

Adam

i watched him play russian roulette, but then it's kind of idiotic when we're watching it on irish television, he's obviously not going to die, otherwise we wouldn't be seeing it.

liah

I am obsessed with Derren Brown the last few months. I've seen everything he's done up to this 30,000 feet thing. What is it, exactly?

Adam

liah wrote: »

I am obsessed with Derren Brown the last few months. I've seen everything he's done up to this 30,000 feet thing. What is it, exactly?

how come?

StompToWork

Live discussion during the program happened here ;

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?threadid=2056026249

the keen edge

liah wrote: »

I am obsessed with Derren Brown the last few months. I've seen everything he's done up to this 30,000 feet thing. What is it, exactly?

It's basically the same auld shite as he's done up to 29,999 feet, plus a foot.

It's really riveting viewing.

liah

Adam wrote: »

how come?

How come I'm obsessed with him lately..?

I find psychology interesting and I have a particular soft spot for social engineering, which is what Derren Brown does an awful lot of, albeit not quite under that title. I also have interest in the types of things he debunks, and I like the ways he goes about debunking them (e.g. The Messiah episode).

Plus, he's charming, charismatic, and just plain fun to watch. The zombie game episode of Trick of the Mind is bloody brilliant.

Better question is, why isn't anyone else obsessed with Derren Brown!

I wonder what a Penn & Teller: Bullsh!t and Derren Brown crossover would be like..

Wazdakka

IBDB
In before the Derren bashing.

I think he's a great entertainer.
Didn't see the 30,000ft thing but I'll download it later.

*leaves thread to avoid spoilers*

Adam

liah wrote: »

How come I'm obsessed with him lately..?

I find psychology interesting and I have a particular soft spot for social engineering, which is what Derren Brown does an awful lot of, albeit not quite under that title. I also have interest in the types of things he debunks, and I like the ways he goes about debunking them (e.g. The Messiah episode).

Plus, he's charming, charismatic, and just plain fun to watch. The zombie game episode of Trick of the Mind is bloody brilliant.

Better question is, why isn't anyone else obsessed with Derren Brown!

I wonder what a Penn & Teller: Bullsh!t and Derren Brown crossover would be like..

i wasn't aware there was any merit in his undertakings, as all i've seen was the aforementioned russian roulette game, and the lottery prediction thing. both of which were quite obviously fixed, albeit well put together ideas.

what should i be watching?

liah

Adam wrote: »

i wasn't aware there was any merit in his undertakings, as all i've seen was the aforementioned russian roulette game, and the lottery prediction thing. both of which were quite obviously fixed, albeit well put together ideas.

what should i be watching?

The Messiah is what I'd recommend to anyone straight off. It tends to be the broadest scope of the things he can get away with. He tackles psychics, mediums, conversions, people who claim to have powers from ufo abductions, etc.

For sheer entertainment value, try Trick or Treat. My favourite is when he ships some dude off to Morocco.

I think the zombie game thing is in Trick of the Mind, and his Something Wicked This Way Comes live show is good.

I don't recommend getting started, though.. any time I've ever gotten people hooked on Derren Brown they can't stop watching til they've seen everything.

I know a lot of people decry him for staging a lot of things, but for some reason I think he's fairly genuine in his career of deception, if that makes sense.

Kasabian

I didn't see the whole program , I just saw an armed robbery in a petrol station, must watch it as I think Darren Brown is quiet entertaining.

thirtythirty

liah wrote: »

Better question is, why isn't anyone else obsessed with Derren Brown!

Mainly because of the "subjects" he always chooses. I think his attention to behavioural cues are excellent, and he's definately good at exploiting them, but his major set piece subjects always seem to be dim witted vegetables that are utterly outside the realm of normal suggestability. So much so that they have to be actors.

Like last night, everything was going well and i was quite impressed by Derren's approach to changing this guy's attitude and behaviour. But then he put a "discreet microphone" in the bedroom and whispered "wake up, put on your clothes, and come outside" to him. Which the guy promptly did. Then Derren conducted this interview with the guy trying to implant ideas (maybe he like Inception a bit too much!), and the guy just stood there with the stereotypical "dazed look" of slack jaw and wide eyes. Supposedly he wouldn't remember any of this in the morning...

..now, if you could control people who are asleep like that, and have it so that they don't remember anything the next day, think of all the things that could potentially be done!

Adam

liah wrote: »

The Messiah is what I'd recommend to anyone straight off. It tends to be the broadest scope of the things he can get away with. He tackles psychics, mediums, conversions, people who claim to have powers from ufo abductions, etc.

For sheer entertainment value, try Trick or Treat. My favourite is when he ships some dude off to Morocco.

I think the zombie game thing is in Trick of the Mind, and his Something Wicked This Way Comes live show is good.

I don't recommend getting started, though.. any time I've ever gotten people hooked on Derren Brown they can't stop watching til they've seen everything.

I know a lot of people decry him for staging a lot of things, but for some reason I think he's fairly genuine in his career of deception, if that makes sense.

well if it's all about the art of deception i'll probably stay away, i'm an awful cynic in that regard, and i'd be forced to return and berate you for leading me on to such in the first place! :P

Ush1

Wazdakka wrote: »

IBDB
In before the Derren bashing.

I think he's a great entertainer.
Didn't see the 30,000ft thing but I'll download it later.

*leaves thread to avoid spoilers*

Reckon you'll be dissapointed.

Ush1

spottyelephant wrote: »

Mainly because of the "subjects" he always chooses. I think his attention to behavioural cues are excellent, and he's definately good at exploiting them, but his major set piece subjects always seem to be dim witted vegetables that are utterly outside the realm of normal suggestability. So much so that they have to be actors.

Like last night, everything was going well and i was quite impressed by Derren's approach to changing this guy's attitude and behaviour. But then he put a "discreet microphone" in the bedroom and whispered "wake up, put on your clothes, and come outside" to him. Which the guy promptly did. Then Derren conducted this interview with the guy trying to implant ideas (maybe he like Inception a bit too much!), and the guy just stood there with the stereotypical "dazed look" of slack jaw and wide eyes. Supposedly he wouldn't remember any of this in the morning...

..now, if you could control people who are asleep like that, and have it so that they don't remember anything the next day, think of all the things that could potentially be done!

It was like Inception meets Fight Club. Pretty cringe, your man was like a bad actor.

liah

Perhaps some is staged because he can't get the results he wants within the timeframe allotted for the particular special to come out. I'm a bit dubious on The Heist and a few other things here and there, but I don't think he ALWAYS uses actors. A lot of reactions are incredibly genuine and I think he's managed to tap into a lot of things in our psyche the majority of people aren't hugely aware of.

I get what you're saying: some if it is hard to buy, and while it may be staged THERE, I still think he's capable of pretty much everything he does without requiring actors. I think, through his lying, he's quite an honest man-- much like two other famous magicians with a penchant for exposing the ways of the world, my dear Penn & Teller.

King Felix

liah wrote: »

The Messiah is what I'd recommend to anyone straight off. It tends to be the broadest scope of the things he can get away with. He tackles psychics, mediums, conversions, people who claim to have powers from ufo abductions, etc.

For sheer entertainment value, try Trick or Treat. My favourite is when he ships some dude off to Morocco.

I think the zombie game thing is in Trick of the Mind, and his Something Wicked This Way Comes live show is good.

I don't recommend getting started, though.. any time I've ever gotten people hooked on Derren Brown they can't stop watching til they've seen everything.

I know a lot of people decry him for staging a lot of things, but for some reason I think he's fairly genuine in his career of deception, if that makes sense.

+1000

Derren Brown is brilliant.

I love his stuff like 'Sublinimal Advertising' and that type of thing he does.

Or the one with Simon Pegg and the BMX bike, how he gets him to change his mind and Pegg even come ups with a rationalisation for his new choice.

It highlights how easily people can be influenced and how we can be very robotic in our behaviour. And how easily these behaviours could be changed for the better.

Also the implications of what he does with regard to how the media and politicians influence behaviour, on national and global scales, are immense, imo.

There are great lessons to be learned from Brown.

anniehoo

Awful awful stuff. Watched the first 10 mins which were good then when

he was sleep walking and the crocodile was in the garden

i had to turn it off. Completely unrealistic and fake.

SV

People who look at this stuff and believe to be fake are usually the same ones who think hypnosis is a load of shíte too.

Odd that eh?

liah

I think a lot of people just hate him because he's famous and because he can do things not a lot of people can, and people don't like the idea that they could be so easily fooled/tricked/manipulated so they don't want to believe any of his stuff to be based in fact.

Most of these people have only watched a select few things, such as, perhaps, the Heist or Russian Roulette or the zombie game (which caused quite a controversy). If you watch enough of his stuff and do enough research into the kind of things he's doing, it's not unreasonable at all to assume the reactions by the people in the show are genuine. It's interesting how rarely the hundreds of people used in the show speak out against Derren, isn't it? Any negative publicity is generally from the disbelieving and indignant audience, but reports from people who he's actually worked with are few and far between..

sbsquarepants

liah wrote: »

Better question is, why isn't anyone else obsessed with Derren Brown!

Eh, cos he's a knob jockey maybe?
Everything he does is rubbish, it's not psychology or social engineering, it's actors and bad ones at that!

liah

sbsquarepants wrote: »

Eh, cos he's a knob jockey maybe?
Everything he does is rubbish, it's not psychology or social engineering, it's actors and bad ones at that!

Please refer to my above post. :P

sbsquarepants

Ha, sorry Liah!
Once i see the name Derren Brown I start foaming at the mouth.
I'd actually love to choke him to be quite honest with you!

Ush1

anniehoo wrote: »

Awful awful stuff. Watched the first 10 mins which were good then when

he was sleep walking and the crocodile was in the garden

i had to turn it off. Completely unrealistic and fake.

That's when I was really doubting it, he's supposed to be in a dreamlike state and he's out in the cold getting rained on and conciously answering questions.

liah

sbsquarepants wrote: »

Ha, sorry Liah!
Once i see the name Derren Brown I start foaming at the mouth.
I'd actually love to choke him to be quite honest with you!

Why though? I really don't get why people have so much hate for people in the public eye. Particularly Derren, he's never come across as anything other than genuine [in personality, I mean!].. a bit mischievous, maybe, but well-meaning, certainly?

Ush1

SV wrote: »

People who look at this stuff and believe to be fake are usually the same ones who think hypnosis is a load of shíte too.

Odd that eh?

Did you watch the show?

sbsquarepants

I just can't stand him and his blatantly obvious chicanery. It's just so stupid. Tonight Matthew, i will predict the lottery numbers, 2 minutes after they are announced. Oh f'uck off would you!!!

liah

sbsquarepants wrote: »

I just can't stand him and his blatantly obvious chicanery. It's just so stupid. Tonight Matthew, i will predict the lottery numbers, 2 minutes after they are announced. Oh f'uck off would you!!!

..Is that all you've watched? 'Cuz he honestly doesn't come across like that at all.. maybe I'm missing something, I never watched the entire lottery episode, but have seen everything else he's done. That lottery episode must've been seriously offensive. :eek:

kylith

I like Derren Brown. I didn't see al of last night's one, but I thought yer man was a cabbage. If I'd gone through

the ordeal of having to land a fecking plane only to find out it wasn't real

I'd have punched him in the goddam face.

King Felix

sbsquarepants wrote: »

I just can't stand him and his blatantly obvious chicanery. It's just so stupid. Tonight Matthew, i will predict the lottery numbers, 2 minutes after they are announced. Oh f'uck off would you!!!

That's just regular illusion stuff.

It's the hypnosis/inception/NLP type stuff where he excels.

I'd love to learn how he does it.

Paying for stuff with paper money or collecting on losing bets at a bookies? Fuck yeah.

thirtythirty

liah wrote: »

Perhaps some is staged because he can't get the results he wants within the timeframe allotted for the particular special to come out. I'm a bit dubious on The Heist and a few other things here and there, but I don't think he ALWAYS uses actors. A lot of reactions are incredibly genuine and I think he's managed to tap into a lot of things in our psyche the majority of people aren't hugely aware of.

No, I definately agree there. And that's my point - he's incredible at detecting social cues and behavioural psyche, but for a lot of his shows he then wrecks it (for me anyway) by using this person that is either A) an actor, or someone who's mind resides WAY outside of the normal suggestibility or influential boundries, which completely disassociates the whole effort of his piece for me. And i would almost wager that he accentuates these extremities as a ratings thing, which is dissapointing because leveraging his skills without these tactics are, for me, much more interesting.

His live show I was thoroughly impressed with though, because planting actors would have been extremely hard due to his throwing the frisbees (or whatever they were).

liah

spottyelephant wrote: »

No, I definately agree there. And that's my point - he's incredible at detecting social cues and behavioural psyche, but for a lot of his shows he then wrecks it (for me anyway) by using this person that is either A) an actor, or someone who's mind resides WAY outside of the normal suggestibility or influential boundries, which completely disassociates the whole effort of his piece for me. And i would almost wager that he accentuates these extremities as a ratings thing, which is dissapointing because leveraging his skills without these tactics are, for me, much more interesting.

His live show I was thoroughly impressed with though, because planting actors would have been extremely hard due to his throwing the frisbees (or whatever they were).

In Something Wicked This Way Comes he throws a stuffed monkey, and then gets the audience to throw it. Definitely no staging there.

Yeah, maybe, I've never been able to watch any of his shows and think "yeah, that's 100% an actor." There's been ones where it's crossed my mind, but as I said-- there's very little negative exposure on Derren floating around out there online (other than that scouser medium he had on a few months ago). I think that if he used actors regularly, as in, more often than not, it would've been leaked by now considering he is relatively high-profile in the UK and his field lends itself to the type of people who would look for faults and lies. He's actually got a pretty clean record.

I'm not saying he's never used actors, either, it's likely that he has, but I think a) he's capable of doing it to regular people even if it is an actor used in a show, and b) that someone would've sold out by now and it would be known that he does.

He's been in the business for 10 years and has met a lot of controversy, but always comes out the other side. I think that's quite telling, considering what he does for a living.

I also find it interesting that he does stick to just showbiz, god knows that man could do anything he wanted to. He probably really could control the nation. :P

King Felix

liah wrote: »

I also find it interesting that he does stick to just showbiz, god knows that man could do anything he wanted to. He probably really could control the nation. :P

I'd love to replace Rupert Murdoch and the likes with him and let him influence the world to do good.

liah

King Felix wrote: »

I'd love to replace Rupert Murdoch and the likes with him and let him influence the world to do good.

I'd love to see a government consisting of Stephen Fry, Penn & Teller, Derren Brown and, for entertainment, Hunter S. Thompson.

For anyone interested actually there's a pretty interesting Richard Dawkins interview with Derren (well, Dawkins interviews him) up on youtube currently where he gives some insight into cold reading and a variety of other things.

biko

Use TV forum to discuss TV shows, thanks.
As mentioned above, there is already a thread on the show there.