Derren Brown’s Lottery Numbers
As many of you know Derren Brown will be announcing the lottery numbers tonight on Channel 4 at 10.35pm, apparently 10 minutes before the machine chooses them on BBC1.
What I think is more interesting is how much of a buzz Derren Brown has created online. I’ve been following him on Twitter and also occasionally reading his blog (when I have time). He started things off with an advert in reverse, which you may have seen on TV:
Hidden in it were a few website URLs for you to check out:
http://www.retsehcnamdetinu.com/
http://www.stucktomysofa.com/
Then they started playing the advert normally (you may also notice a few numbers pasted on to the lampost):
The latest advert shows Derren Brown juggling lottery balls one handed:
So we’ve been talking about how he’s going to do it, some of the theories are:
- The lottery is perhaps recorded and isn’t live and Derren Brown has access to it
- He’s going to write down the numbers and put them in an envelope and then announce the numbers afterwards doing some kind of hand play to make them right
- He has studied the lottery numbers and found some sort of problem with the machine that makes certain numbers more probable, and he will choose 5 numbers, but has only committed to getting 4 right, with the fifth being a bonus
- He’s bought a load of lottery tickets – one for each number (£14 million) – he would certainly win a lot of it back and perhaps then he knows he will make more money in books, dvd sales than he loses.
Anyone else got any theories?
He’s got more planned too, he released this video on his blog:
Carps 1348 days ago
http://www.itsafamilything.co.ukI can predict, with uncanny certainty that the numbers won’t be one’s I’ve bought.
Anyway – latest office speculation is that you’d take advantage of the delay in digital broadcasting. If you’ve ever listened to live radio commentary while watching football on the telly, you’ll know that there is a delay of a few seconds between the analogue radio broadcast and the digital TV transmission.
So if the format of the show has Derren predicting the next ball up – a kind of ongoing prediction – he could just be taking advantage of that. Sure: it won’t work for people who only watch on analogue, but C4 are probably aware that most of their audience are on digital. *And* the only way to check is to have 2 TVs running side by side. That means putting your portable telly next to your big TV. And how many people have bothered getting digital for the second telly?
Or something.
Either that or he’s a witch and we should burn him.
James 1348 days ago
To be fair Paul, the buzz in the office is all coming from you! Everyone else is still on analogue telly.
There’s probably a delay on the lottery transmission anyway as with most live TV. Easy enough to have someone in the audience in that case. Maybe with a bit of the old “the next number is in a sealed envelope under that chair!” thrown in for good measure.
Carl 1348 days ago
There seems to be a lot revolving around reverse / backwards. Having seen everyone of his stages shows and often seem them twice, you think you work it out then you dont…he always seems to go one stage further.
carla 1348 days ago
I’m really trying to care but will probably end up watching the footy highlights instead……no doubt I’ll rue my decision when the show becomes the watercooler topic of the year.
liam 1348 days ago
He will do it i’m sure. The only way I can see its possible is if the draw is rigged, I think Derren has convinced camelot to play along and therefore he will REALLY know the numbers as they are picked. I think Derren has agreed to some sort of funding/charity/promotional deal where he pays out to the winners or something, nobody loses out and all is well with the world. This follows how he states ”I will show you how you could do the same” on his friday show. If he can strike a deal with camelot and get someone like Barclays to bankroll it then it is possible for anyone to.
steve laidlaw 1348 days ago
http://www.click4beds.co.ukI bet the numbers will be written down in a grid format, not in a row…..
Elly 1348 days ago
HE IS A WITCH, BURN HIM!!!! BURRRRRRNNNN! he is cool though
st1r2 1348 days ago
i think he will have selected the set of balls and machine. This is because back when the lottery first started and they told you which set of balls and machine they were using my now father in law said he could do the same even though he had never played before. He analysed the balls drawn next to the machine and ball set number and chose 10 numbers based on the ones being used that week .He got all 6 numbers over 2 lines, 4 on each and never lets us forget this. I think Derren may do the same, if so its a huge risk for his career lol
makomk 1348 days ago
liam: I don’t think he could just get Camelot to play along; I’m pretty sure there are various legal requirements concerning how the lottery draw is conducted that would result in them getting into serious hot water. He’s up to something more subtle, that’s for sure.
Mister Sterile 1348 days ago
http://www.mistersterile.comhes bought enough combinations for the 4 numbers or he’ll use a distraction or delay and make the decision after the draws been made the illusion being he does everything in reverse sees the draw pics the numbers shows the public.
something like that
Duncan 1348 days ago
http://www.freshegg.comI think Derren will rely on good old English apathy. He will play a tape of old lottery results (with edited narration so the date announcement is correct) on Channel 4, and hope that most people wont bother checking the proper results for themselves.
the winner a lot 1348 days ago
i will win as i dreamt the numbers last nite when i was wide awake he, he
Joe Brewer 1348 days ago
http://www.brewsterware.com/You can be sure that the method is clever, and not something like knowing the numbers somehow. Derren and his team are real “out of the box” thinkers – something that affiliate marketeers can learn from.
bill 1348 days ago
lol i guessing that in the ad there are numbers 1 to 49 or a way of making these numbers then when they have the winning numbers he will highlight how these numbers are found just like the horse race 1 he had 7000 odd contestants then only showed u the succsesful 1 MINDTRICKS AND ILLUSIONIST being the key words people
Rudi Middleton 1348 days ago
http://www.savvysavings.infoThere will obviously be a catch, although his statement that maybe we could do this is interesting. However I remember all the hype about the Horse racing system which turned out to be lots of people being given all the horses and ending up with someone who won six in a row. Yes he got the last race but only had to place a bet on all runners again to achieve what he wanted.
I remember him taking a losing betting slip to a counter and making the clerk believe it was a winning betting slip. That was impressive persuasion.
Is he about to take that idea to a new level and mind-bend us all?…
John 1348 days ago
I doubt he will anounce the numbers before the draw, if he does Camelot will have to explain or people will not trust the lottery, I certainly wont. Most likely he will right the numbers down and put them in an envelope, revealiung them after the draw.
john 1348 days ago
i think he is a knob
Dianne B 1348 days ago
I remember a few years ago, Noel Edmonds had a Christmas show that was broadcase ‘live’ and they spoke to the people on the space station Mir… live.. on Christmas Day… although it wasn’t because it had been recorded the week before (my friend’s husband worked for the BBC in the sound department and told me!) Goes to show if you believe anything, it will happen (somehow!) And by the way, I don’t do the lottery because I’ve never won more than a tenner!
Henry Carless 1348 days ago
http://www.brewing-tips.comI just noticed something in the last video…
He doesn’t say: “And obviously I don’t believe in anything psychic”
He says something like: “Novichi don’t believe in anything psychic”
Novychi aka Novichi is a place in Russia…. anyone know exactly what he said?
Sherel 1348 days ago
I Wonder If Anyone Did The Numbers For The Lottery Shown In The Darren Brown Advertisement? Is This Part Of His Subliminal Con…. OOOHHHHH I Cant Wait Its In 2 Minutes
X 1348 days ago
he has filmed himself revealing all the possible combinations … thus it has a taken a year to set up …. the correct combination will be revealed but is recorded
Addition of a sixth number makes the number of combinations significantly greater …
Thats my guess ;O)
Conor c 1348 days ago
Sorry to say but he pulled it off
no delay
no grid
no person in the audience
or Camelot
lottery was live as I checked on my other t.v
adam pol 1348 days ago
it says it is on at 10.35but proggrame didn’t start till 10.45 it is now 11.20 and he still has predicted the lotto numbers!! whats going on???
Alan Faye 1348 days ago
Derren is Majic wish he could let me know how to get more spenders in to my newly opened shop.
Michael Cross 1348 days ago
Alright , look at the numbers on the lampost : 4, 6, 7, 25, 47. Then look at the National Lottery Numbers : 2, 11, 23, 28, 35, 39. It’s all basic maths! 2 = 6 – 4, 11 = 7 + 4, 23 = 25 – (6 – 2), 28 = 25 + (7-4), 35 = 25 + 6 + 4, 39 = 47 – (25 – 4 – 6 – 7), i am 16 and from aberdeen, mikey
Tom 1348 days ago
The key to it is the balls. If they could be printed on, after the live draw, and then rotated, that’d work.
easier than filming 3.9 million VT sections with the different combinations…
lyle 1348 days ago
he has filmed all 14 million possible outcomes over the last yr?
Phil Green 1348 days ago
http://www.searchengineoptimisation.org.ukI just downloaded the program, what a complete load of garbage. Honestly don’t even know why I bothered, it was always going to be nonsense aimed at the typical British public – uneducated and unable to think for themselves.
From the opening line I should have switched off. “It would be illegal if I showed my numbers because BBC have the right to broadcast it first”. Oh please, who is seriously going to believe that. Am I going to get arrested now if I write a blog post predicting Saturdays numbers now? Massive difference with predicting something and actually broadcasting the draw!
Derren Brown used to be good, in fact he used to be brilliant. I doubt I’ll ever watch any of his tv stuff again, its getting progressively worse and worse. I’d still like to see him live though.
I think the only people who take any benefit from this trailer trash entertainment these days are the newspapers (and not just the tabloids too) and the seo blogs who bother to try and rank for it
Paul Daniels 1348 days ago
Writing the numbers down after they were read out was simply a delaying and distraction tactic to fill time while the correct numbers were put onto his set of balls using technology. When he turned his set of balls around to show the numbers then all he proved is that the correct numbers were on them **AFTER** the lottery balls were drawn. There are plenty of ways for the correct numbers to have been put onto his set of balls.
I challenge Derren to prove that he can predict the numbers **BEFORE** the draw even starts.
Carl 1347 days ago
Im going for light / projection technique….
@Phil Green – your correct his opening line is a lie as Adrian Charles on the One Show predicted the numbers earlier.
MB 1347 days ago
http://www.netcustodian.netClearly a variation on slight of hand and very dissapointing.
Dictionary
–verb (used with object) 1. to declare or tell in advance; prophesy; foretell: to predict the weather; to predict the fall of a civilization.
–verb (used without object) 2. to foretell the future; make a prediction.
If he had actually predicted the numbers prior to the draw why was he not able to show them. “Not allowed”, lot of rubbish.
If the actual numbers were on those balls prior to the lottery being drawn he could have “declared” this a million and one ways to prove that it was done in advance. Instead he opted to have a room with only 3 people in it (what no live audience ?), being shown live on television, but what was the point in it being live, he didn’t show the balls until after the event. It would have been more impressive had it been pre recorded in front of a live audience.
After all the hype about “predicting” the numbers I didn’t see anything new. Just new chorus from the old chorus and very cheap street magic look and feel.
David Whitehouse 1347 days ago
@Phil Green – I agree that it was a cop out that he didn’t show the numbers before hand, and that obviously it was a lie that he couldn’t announce them before the BBC. But I do think his other stuff is good, have you seen “The Heist”? That show was really superb…
Bob 1347 days ago
Its a reality entertainment programme with a twist..can not understand why people are getting so worked up about it…………Phil thinks all “the British public are uneducated and unable to think for themselves”. but he admits he couldnt turn it off deerrrr give yourself a nip
W. Carr 1347 days ago
You poor idiots!! Of course you know how it’s done, but you dont want to spoil it for the others right? Even our famous mr. P. has been pulling his hair out! (sorry, I meant :pulling his wig off) , AND THE WINNER IS : Commercial TV marketing the next product.
Queue up for the next jackpot folks but first phone the boss and tell him what you really think of him. Alt get a life.
pete 1347 days ago
I dont think its about light or anything, it must be to do with percentages and preperation. he played the tv almost live then he showed his numbers. it isnt trickery, i think it covering all the options..somehow!
the adverts are clever: the websites, the numbers for the lottery.. if you stop the advert at the the end ‘black and red’ is written on the van.. involved in the casino episode i imagine?
Gareth James 1347 days ago
http://www.seo-doctor.co.uk/aboutThere is just a 2-5minutes delay with the live show that he will have access to. simple.
Name 1347 days ago
Yeah he didn’t predict anything, he didn’t show any numbers before the result and couldn’t produce a ticket showing that he had previously predicted the result. I’m sure the ‘how he did it show’ will be full of complex explanation about patterns in numbers etc but that will be trick making people believe that in some way he could do this.
Ellen 1347 days ago
Hmmm tough one. It seems likely that he did it live- it was possible to flick backwards and forwards to each side to check that the numbers came out as Derren was broadcasting. As for Camelot agreeing to rig a draw for a celebrity to make money? Absurd. Can you imagine the impact on subsequent ticket sales if that was ever made public?
It is of course likely that certain numbers appear more often than other numbers, and it may be possible for somebody to predict when a particular number may appear next based on the average length of time between appearances. But to predict all of the numbers? Hmmm… I do not believe there was any foul play, although the fact that he did not reveal his prediction before the live draw is argument against this. And as somebody has already pointed out, Adrian made his own prediction earlier in the evening on The One Show.
I guess we’ll have to wait until tomorrow evening to find out. I have a feeling the result will be rather disappointing, but on second thoughts… this is Derren Brown we’re talking about.
wes 1347 days ago
For the people saying about the delay…I’m under the impression he had commited to numbers earlier…
I think Derren has taken a long time in convincing people of his abilities all which I believe to be credible like the NLP he does extra where he reads people… like succesful poker players might do in a game…
Maybe he is now at the point where in our minds he is a credible figure.. theres nothing ever to say he is being truthful even when he expose the technique…maybe he has begun to exploit our impression of him…
and this is just a simple hoax…like the roulette game..
either way he is empolied by Channel 4 for viewing figures as long as he remains credible people will watch…and pull viewers no matter how he does it…its only our belief that it is a product of great thinking and desing we are amazed
as for how he did it…I’d would guess plain illusion and showman-ship
he did also say it had taken him a year of planning so maybe he has looked for a system ….and there is a huge range of probabilty difference between the four he suggested and the amount he got., this seems unlikley
Derren Brown 1347 days ago
I WILL KILL YOU ALL.
xoxoxoxoxo
Rhod 1347 days ago
There is only a 1-2 second delay between the BBC images and C4 as both were shown live.
As each of the winning numbers are drawn live on the BBC, Derren Brown’s assistants (off screen) will have been placing the winning lottery numbers on the stand . Using split screen camera trickery, the left hand side of the screen will have been masked to show a static shot of the the stand with the supposedly pre-arranged winning numbers. This camera trick masks the assistants placing the winning numbers on the stand.
The delay which allows the assistants to get the 6th ball on the stand then run off camera before the split screen is turned off comes from the bonus ball draw (which notably Derren Brown does not attempt to predict) and Derren Brown writing the winning numbers on the piece of paper.
As the assistants will have had to work fast (and there is the possibility of human error) Derren Brown warned that he might only get 5 out of 6.
The above set-up explains why he could not show the numbers before the draw and why the show was filmed in an empty room.
N.B. If he already knew which numbers would be drawn, he should’ve had a winning lottery ticket in his pocket. Now that would’ve been a good trick!
Craig Jones 1347 days ago
Come on folks, relax a little. He was never going to predict the numbers before they were drawn. It’s an ILLUSION, and a pretty impressive one at that. I expect the Friday night follow-up programme will also include a lot of disguise and side-tracking, rather than revealing the actual method (which I think involved a freeze of the left-hand side of the screen whilst balls were switched, during a spell of four seconds when the camera stopped being ‘shaky’).
Bob Ross 1347 days ago
Derren said that he has been working on this for over 1 year…I reckon over that time he did millions of takes with all the different combinations of balls. Once the true balls were revealed, it cuts to the take he made with that particlar combination….
Chris M 1347 days ago
I reckon I know how he did it….there had to be a reason why he wrote the numbers down after seeing the TV, what was that long pad thing he had ? My theory…..by use of some modern technology, when he wrote the number on the pad /board thing he was holding, the number appeared on what were blank balls….if you noticed he didn’t write them down as they came out, he waited until the numbers were sorted into numerical order then wrote them down….I’m sure this is it, my kids can do a similar type of thing with their D.S consoles, they write on their console and it appears on their friends….I reckon it’s been a similar thing….or he just knew them cos he’s a smart arse….hmmm
Jon 1347 days ago
Ok Philip, if we are all so uneducated please tell us how he does it
Aurelia 1347 days ago
@Gareth James
There was only a 1 second delay which was told that it does take time to transmit onto his television screen through to our television screen which was on Channel 4.
1 second would hardly give anyone time to write down the numbers then change the ping pong balls, don’t you think?
Carla Marshall 1347 days ago
http://www.sorbetdigital.comHave we all calmed down about it now?
Majix 1347 days ago
http://www.autoshark.co.ukAll you need is a few seconds for an edit to switch envelopes which have the numbers for the actual draw,
Tom 1347 days ago
probably just lights ^^
LotteryBlog 1347 days ago
http://www.national-lottery-blog.co.uk/Yea, it’s all obviously a trick lol I mean if you could predict and win the lottery each time, would you really tell anyone – It’s like these “Forex robots” would you honestly sell a forex robot that makes you money dail on the stockmarket – course you wouldnt! You’d sit back and rake it in.
Either way I love Derren Brown and his amzing presents on screen, he’s a fantastic illusionist and great entertainment! How channel 4 can show crap like big brother escapes me when they have great entertainment like this to show!
Anyway I look forward to Friday and the excitment of the show.
Bill 1347 days ago
@ Phil Green….pretty humourless post Phil.
Obviously he doesn’t actually predict the numbers because thats not possible.
He said he spent a year on it so it cant be anything simple like a split screen
Danny B 1347 days ago
U are all such idiots doubting he actually did it. Of course he did it… hes ver smart and as Joe Brewer stated, he and his team are very ‘out of the box’ thinkers. Did you not see Derren Brown : The system. Years of work went into that, trawling through many many peoples bets yet only one out of thousands won every time. As he demonstrated with the 2p coin, no matter what, if you flip long enough, you will get 10 heads in a row eventually. Now if you think about it, he will have done something kind of similar to predict the lottery. Hit me up with your debates…
dannybrady31@hotmail.com
Vakas 1347 days ago
He’s not allowed to do the lottery for this draw b-cuz he is banned. Its probably statistics or he was talking to someone each time he cupped his hand to his mouth lol
Chris Bainbridge 1347 days ago
My theory is that the camera that it actually used to film Derren IS a mounted camera, the pointless cut away to the second cameraman was pre-recorded and is just there as misdirection to make us think it’s a hand held camera. So far so good, hand held camera = jerky movements.
BUT the un-natural jerky movements are computer controlled via software with the left hand side being a freeze frame synced to the computer controlled movements. The jerkiness is misdirection to make the audience believe it’s a live shot when in fact a mask is in place to the area left of the tv screen and Derren.
Once the split screen freeze frame is in place it allows an assistant to replace the balls by simply walking up to the balls and replacing them. Once done, the freeze frame is almost seemlessly faded back to the live shot. This is almost un-noticable apart from the far left hand ball rises slightly. Notice how Derren stalls for time after the balls have been read out by writing them down on a card, taking his time making conversation allowing enough time for the new balls to be set in position.
Tom Hagen 1347 days ago
http://www.electroniccigaretteoutlet.co.uk/elecrtic-cigaretteI think Derren is a fantastic showman and exceptional illusionist – and he does not claim to be anything else. I will be fascinated to see how this one was achieved.
dave 1347 days ago
Firstly DonT THINK OF A BLACK CAT
Secondly, DonT TYPE ‘lottery prediction’ into EBAY search bar.
This is where you will find my prediction for next wednesdays lottery result onE DAY in advance, unlike derrens prediction.
Good luck, and did you think of a black cat?
robert 1347 days ago
derren browns trick wont be as obivious as people are saying as he isnt a 9 year old kids entertainer.What would he say for the show on friday? “well i just got someone to write them on”-end show. i doubt derren brown trick is simple.
Jay 1347 days ago
Derren brown is a complete cocck. I despise him with a passion. Why do people like him when all his tricks are so fake and so horribly done. Do people actually believe this shiit?
Vestra 1347 days ago
Let’s assume everything Derren said was correct, and the truth.
-The numbers were predicted before the draw
-There were no secret camera/mirrors
-There was no technical, or camera trickery
-There was no slight of hand
The National Lottery Draw, by design, is totally variable with a chance of around 1 in 14,000,000 of winning. Camelot protects the draw from interference by keeping the machines, and the balls, under lock and key and in controlled conditions at the start of the draw.
Even the slightest temperature, a fleck of dirt, a wayward eyelash change can change the outcome of the draw. So, Camelot keeps the machines in A CONTROLLED CONDITION.
Just before the draw, each lottery machine, and position of balls, are put into what I’ll call IMMACULATE CONDITION. At the beginning of every one of the 1000+ draws that have taken place, every machine and set of balls have been placed in immaculate condition. In fact, every draw, in theory, has been identical. The temperature has been the same, not a fleck of dust has entered the ball chamber. EVERYTHING is identical.
So, you could say, that every single lottery draw has been the same. Which it has, if not for one crucial variable. The moment the button was pushed.
Imagine that there are 10 lottery machines side by side. They are all kept in a controlled condition, and are standing in an immaculate condition. Imagine that their start up sequence is exactly the same. The chamber rolls for the same amount of time before the balls are released, and the balls drop at the same time. Then a machine presses “the button” at exactly the same time. In theory, the result will be exactly the same for all ten machines, because there is no variation between any of them.
The technique used to protect the integrity of the draw is it’s weakness.
How would this be accomplished though? Derren was probably miles away from the lottery studio.
After Derren turned the TV on to reveal the live draw, he fleeting mentioned that a different glamour assistant pushes the button each week, and stated that “this weeks glamorous assistant is OJ Borg”. Who is OJ Borg?
Surely it wouldn’t be too hard to place someone, an accomplice, in the lottery studio and have complete control over the only variable?
How would OJ Borg know when to push the button then? He might be devilishly handsome, but I doubt he has a super powered computer for a brain.
I wouldn’t put it beyond channel 4′s means to acquire, or have access to, a lottery machine, or several. Over months and months a team could be working on pinning down an exact moment after the balls drop (for example, 12.32 seconds after the balls drop) to gain a predictable result.
I wouldn’t put it beyond Derren’s talents to get OJ Borg into an immaculate state of mind, that after months and months of practise can push the button at exactly 12.32 seconds… and creating a predictable result.
—-
Couple of other thoughts: You’ll notice Derren stresses certain unnecessary points (voice of the balls, says there’s a close up there there isn’t one, trips over certain words). I don’t think this has anything to do with the Lottery Draw event. Either they are thrown out as red herrings to confuse the community dissecting the evidence… or to drop subliminal messages into a high charged, captive audience for next weeks “stuck to my sofa” event. It’s quite likely that anyone watching next week will have watched this week.
DerrenBrown 1347 days ago
It’s a split screen effect. Live feed on one side, pre-recorded on the other side.
Phil Green 1347 days ago
http://www.searchengineoptimisation.org.uk@David – yeah I seen that, it was not bad.
I’d far rather see him hypnotise someone and make them think they’re a chicken, or to eat an onion thinking its an apple, than this lottery nonsense. Because at least hypnotism is real. And because I’m immature…
billy joseph 1347 days ago
incredible im stunned how did he do it, i feel i have witnessed a miracle. thank you darren
tom hedger 1346 days ago
Derren brown is an illusionist. Henceforth, he is giving the impression that he can predict the lottery, not that he can do it.
Firstly.
If you know the numbers that are going to come out on the lottery, you indefinitely buy a ticket. even with all the money Brown will get paid for televising this stunt, it will not compare with the millions upon millions he will receive for winning the lotto jackpot. Why on earth would channel 4 ban him from buying a ticket? he is using explanations that are initially feasible to trick the audience.
SECONDLY:
“Predictability in randomness”. Say this to yourself and it is clear it makes no sense. if something is random it is not predictable. By making the woman scared of the mouse in his first trick, he is making her more suggestible sub-consciously to steer her away from picking the 4.
THIRDLY
The coin game. If you read up on basic mathematics, then you will know that your odds of getting HHH on 3 flips of a coin is 1/2×1/2×1/2=1/8. your odds of getting this combination are exactly the same as that of HTH and of equal likelihood. So why did the red and blue team thing work? because if you look on the “coin page” of this site itself, it mentions that it will “work if you repeat it enough times.”. so this game was obviously played till red team won 9-1, and this section of the game was aired. or just repeated with different groups of people. remember we are dealing with a man who spent 11 hours flipping a coin in “the system” to get 10 heads in a row.
FOURTHLY
“Wisdom of the crowds”. just have a look at this and listen to how ridiculous it sounds. so if everybody guesses the weight of a bull, and we get an average, we’ll get its exact weight. not at all. maybe something coincidentally close in 1906 when people generally knew how much a bull would roughly weigh, because FARMING WAS PREDOMINANT, even if that story is true.
FIFTHLY
The 24 people. remember what he said at the end of the 9.00pm show? that if he had “rigged the machine”, then THE 24 PEOPLE WOULD HAVE BEEN COMPLETELY USELESS. Ever seen the episode where he makes the students guess how many sweets are in the jar using an average? this stunt is but an expansion, and brown knows the results of each draw before the crowd, but gets them to come to similar conclusions, similarily to “the gathering”, where 2 digits of “charlie’s” phone number was “correctly predicted”.
THE ‘LIVE’ PREDICTION FIASCO
Camera tricks and the rest of it. WHY ELSE WOULD HE BE HOLDING A SNOWFLAKE!!!????
FINALLY
The End point. What is the point in having a 3rd option, where he explains how he “riggs the machine”. where he mentions a possibility of the 24 people being COMPLETELY MEANINGLESS and how the whole thing would have been a trick? he certainly does tell us how he did it in the program. but not directly.
bring on the next event.
leonskie 1345 days ago
This is how he does it! It’s simply a split-camera technique. So just a camera trick in the end!
If you look closely on a big screen you will see that the six white balls throughout the first part of the broadcast are all in an even line and ironically there is a line of black bricks on the wall behind which acts like a ruler.
Now after the last ball has been dropped if you look very carefully you can see that the ball on the left end has become slightly raised against the others and against the black bricks on the wall behind.
When Derren Brown turns the tray around you can clearly see that the ball on the end (now the right end) which is number 39 is slightly higher than the others as it has not been placed in the tray properly.
Therefore the balls at the end of the broadcast are NOT the same set as the ones at the start.
So split-camera effect (with artificial camera-shake) and a magician’s assistant (with NO studio audience present) are the solution.
The arrival at the prediction is therefore irrelevant as the balls have simply been swapped during the live show.
The apparent semi-success of the 24 members of the group predicting previous lotteries is another independent scam to give some sort of false explanation for the prediction.
So TWO scams together and the whole thing nothing more than a conjuring trick to mislead and misdirect people – and play on their greed and gullibility!
See notorious internet Animator Cyriak on the Charlotte Gore website to see how he did it. In fact, he demonstrated it working!
rod 1345 days ago
ASK KEITH BARRY…………………
Lars 1345 days ago
“It would be illegal if I showed my numbers because BBC have the right to broadcast it first” – First Misdirection and excuse. He doesn’t actually predict anything BEFORE it happens.
He writes the numbers on a pad, which we all assume is just paper – Second Misdirection. It is, in fact, a wireless computer notepad. The numbers he records from the draw are input into a computer in this way.
The balls are not just normal, plastic ping pong balls. They each are a small wireless egg type device, with a small e-ink display screen. We are never shown the balls up close, nor were they picked up by him. The numbers were transmitted to each ball and the e-ink displayed the numbers. Third misdirection.
Its a cool trick and some well applied technology.
block paving 1343 days ago
http://www.crystalclearideas.co.uk/block-paving.htmwho is Keith Barry, oh and why are you shouting ?
Craig Jones 1343 days ago
I think most free-minded people are now of the same opinion that the trick was performed using split screen technology. A very clever trick (especially given the ‘live’ aspect of the Wednesday night show), but probably not enough to fill 70 minutes worth of TV. The talk of spending “a year of my life” to set it up was probably as accurate as “this is a live gun I am firing at myself, honest”. I think some of the postings on the various threads on this subject reveal that he will have plenty of gullible candidates for his “force you to sit on the sofa” trick next week though.
It opens up other avenues of question as well though. The scene in which the group of 24 ‘predict’ the four lottery numbers obviously includes a stooge who adds the numbers together AFTER the draw has been made. If you assume that he has used stooges throughout his career then suddenly some of his other amazing tricks become a little easier to explain….
steve laidlaw 1343 days ago
http://www.click4beds.co.ukLets all assume that Derren Brown is exactly what he puports to be- an illusionist, and great worker of a crowd. Now lets also make note of the fact that to achieve international fame and stardom, he has had to be the ultimate viral marketer.
Then lets all reside ourselves to the fact that he will have used a simple camera trickery technique to administer this trick.
Finally lets all stand back and admire what has REALLY been achieved here- increased awareness for camelot and for derren brown- Through a viral marketing campaign on such a huge scale, we’d all dream about for our own businesses.
The guy is a genious- i mean, Daves blog is one of the most regularly frequented and most respected blogs i know, and when was the last time we saw a list of comments this long on another post?
Phillip Hodges 1343 days ago
http://www.philliphodges.co.ukAn east trick to do… I have an explanation of how it was done on my blog…
http://www.philliphodges.co.uk/?p=191
Phil
Mark Maunsell 1343 days ago
in simple, it is not possible to “bend” the laws of probability, this therefore has to be some form of trickery or illusion. If he wanted to prove to the world that he is genuinly predicting the national lottery, then why not reveal numbers 2 mins before the draw – the reason, because he needs to see the results first. I think its a joke channel 4 broadcast this kind of show, and an even bigger joke that people are genuinly believing it.
Hambo 1342 days ago
Camera trick/split screen – that’s why the studio was empty, there would be no need for it to be so otherwise (the balls supposedly with the numbers on were facing backwards so couldn’t be seen) and if anyone was present then camera trickery wouldn’t work.
Alt could have had some kind of printing mechanism inside the balls, he does seem to rotate them carefully about the base (indicating they may have a hole in them where the print mechanism enters the ball), but this method wouldn’t require the studio to be empty.
“..BBC have the legal right to announce the numbers first…”, tosh, agree that this is obviously just some bumf to try and stop us asking why he wasn’t showing us the numbers before the draw, as he obviously didn’t have them beforehand!
Is bit of a let down but has worked perfectly for C4.
Matt 1341 days ago
I’m sorry, has everyone gone completely stupid?
To say that he did it, no matter what method, is ridiculous. Let’s face some facts shall we? In his series Trick or Treat…. series 3, he even said that we use things such as superstition to try to find the results of the lottery. For those of you with Virgin Media, it’ll be worth watching the last episode of this on Demand, it really shows some interesting points. Even tho scores are given at random (two fish swimming to be precise), the people in the room still believe that it is them doing the points.
During The Events, Derren shows us two situations in which people believe that there is something there when there isn’t (the mouse and then the knife). It is the same with his explanation with the lottery, he is creating the image that he got the results of the lottery, when in fact he used trickery, what type I’m not 100% sure, but I’m almost certain that it was the split camera technique discussed.
Those who watched the System also have a similar tangent to go on… a system for predicting which horses will win? Impossible. As he proves in that show. People who hate Derren Brown don’t see what he really is and what he is TEACHING us. Watch what he does in things like this event and the system and Trick or Treat and LEARN from it, because it will make you a better individual. It’s not a trick, it’s a thought process and illusion.
Chris Bainbridge 1340 days ago
The augmented reality theory makes me laugh, that technology could have been employed but it’s still in its infancy, when Derren rolled one of the balls the number would have moved in the characteristic jerky way that accompanies AR. If it’s so simple why hasn’t anyone been able to demonstrate or reproduce this as easily as they have done with the more obvious split screen theory? Youtube has quite a few very well done recreations of the split screen trick. I’d say the AR theory was possible but highly unlikely and too risky for a live show.
What was the mysterious second cameraman for? just to show us there was a first cameraman? misdirection to make us think it was handheld and therein lies the secret.
grandmawins 1157 days ago
http://www.grandmawinslottery.comJust came across this and I was curious on how his predictions worked out did he guess the numbers correctly or not?