'DERREN BROWN: HERO AT 30,000 FEET'

Psychological illusionist Derren Brown returned for another special on Channel 4 last night, this time trying to secretly "program" an unremarkable creature-of-habit into seizing his life more proactively, before giving him the chance to become a hero and land a stricken passenger jet at 30,000 feet...

It was a peculiar 75-minute special with silliness padding out the titular stunt, gradually revealing itself to be far less crazy than it first appeared. The subject/guinea pig was Matt, a young man stuck in a rut -- unremarkable dead-end admin job, a steady girlfriend, aspirations to be a policeman he's never acted on, still living at home with his mum and her boyfriend, with an easily suggestible personality. The perfect ball of clay for Derren Brown to mould into a hero over 30 days; presenting Matt with carefully-constructed challenges and events designed to boost his self-confidence, make him re-examine his daily routines, and develop his bravery...

Matt became the bystander in an armed raid at a petrol station, found himself locked inside a police superintendant's plush home after trying to return a missing wallet, stroking a crocodile in a rainsoaked corn field (don't ask), and even tied to a railway track in a straight-jacket as a train slowly approached. All before travelling to Jersey, under the pretense of appearing on a Derren Brown gameshow, only to find the pilot taken ill and the flight attendants asking for a volunteer to land the plane. Would Matt put his debilitating fear of flying to one side, in order to save the day?

As always with these Derren Brown specials, it feels like you're not quite seeing the full picture. I'm sure there are many levels beneath the surface of what we see, which means there are times when the "story" being told encourages incredulity. Matt was regularly awoken in the middle of the night by Derren (talking to him via a speaker hidden in his bedroom), and told to meet him outside in the garden. We're led to believe Matt's just in a suggestible, half-dreaming state of mind, but wouldn't any normal person just sit up in bed and wonder where the creepy voice is coming from? It often feels like there's more hypnotism going on in these specials than we're led to believe -- certainly, it's a definite component of the trick, as Matt was clearly put into a trance seconds before he was about to step into the cockpit and insted transferred to a flight simulator.

Does nitpicking spoil the fun, or is that part of the conversation you're expected to have afterwards? I think it's a bit of both. I'll always wonder why Matt (who had volunteered to be on a Derren Brown gameshow) didn't wonder why his audition was followed be a month of bizarre events happening to him. Surely any rational man would suspect they're the ongoing victim of a Derren Brown stunt? This isn't the first show Derren's done when people recruited for a fake show become the unwitting stars of the real one, so wouldn't Matt realize this? It's likely his misgivings were edited out of the show, of course, because a lot of the joy is in believing Derren has this peculiar power over people and can bend their reactions to his will.

Overall, Hero At 30,000 Feet wasn't the most remarkable special Derren Brown's done, because they tend to use the same basic principles in different ways, or for a different outcome. In that respect, it's more evidence that Derren's genre of magic is beginning to flag, but it's still great fun watching credulous people have their lives manipulated in such an amusing and life-affirming way. There was a positive streak behind this special that worked very nicely, and perhaps inspired a few viewers to likewise break out of their routines and, well, host a street party for a neighbourhood they barely interact with.

Plus it was fun to spot the nods to Donnie Darko (the sleepwalking, the month countdown, Derren Brown as a Frank the Rabbit figure in the garden, the golf course). The homages would have been complete had Matt's plane lost an engine and fallen through a cloudy time portal, but I guess that's beyond Derren's abilities.

8 SEPTEMBER -- CHANNEL 4/HD, 10PM

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Derren Brown: How He REALLY "Predicted" The Lottery

James Poel has a very convincing webpage that appears to have explained how Derren Brown really "predicted" the Lottery, with Flash and YouTube clips to illustrate his point. Take a look! Is this the final word on the matter? I think so. I particularly like James' spot that continuity of Derren's arm placement when he waved to the rear-studio camera was wrong when we cut back to the handheld camera. Or, even better, the answer to the snowflake clue: Derren was subtly alluding to the fact that side of the screen was "frozen". Clever, huh?

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Box-Eyed: Lost Land Of The Volcano, Harper's Island & Derren Brown's The Events

This week's Box-Eyed column features capsule reviews for Lost Land Of The Volcano, Harper's Island and Derren Brown's The Events. Head over to Newslite.tv now for a look-see!

"The joy of LOST LAND OF THE VOLCANO is how it cultivates a pioneering sense of discovery and adventure. You half expect the team to stumble upon a tribe sacrificing a blonde showgirl to a giant gorilla, or for a T-Rex to explode out of the foliage and chomp the head off one of the bearded eggheads." Continue reading...

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Derren Brown: How To Win The Lottery (The Events)

Here's a prediction: at least half the audience who watched Derren Brown on Friday night, to learn how he predicted the mid-week National Lottery, will be very frustrated right now. Why? Well, because the illusionist didn't really reveal anything –- he just gave us 60 minutes of a persuasive mathematical argument (that lost credibility when it strayed into that automatic writing nonsense), before giving us a tongue-in-cheek account of how to fix the Lotto machine itself.

Ultimately, it was left up to individuals to decide which "explanation" for his Lotto feat was more likely: a mathematical system based on the "wisdom of crowds", or a covert operation to manipulate the National Lottery from the inside? Of course, both theories distracted us from the altogether more plausible third option: that it was, indeed, a simple trick that the nation had probably worked out for themselves. Ater all, I'm now doubly suspicious that Derren Brown didn't even show his 24 "oracles" their own group prediction before the draw was made. Seriously, what did he have to hide? Five blank balls would be my guess.

But while the destination reached may have created animosity in those expecting a black-and-white answer, I think the journey was worth it. To illustrate his psychological ideas, theories and principles, Derren employed enjoyable set-pieces –- from a man being asked to crush dozens of plastic cups underfoot (one of which contained a knife, ready to stab his flesh), to a fun piece of "deep maths" that explained how seemingly unpredictable coin tosses can be influenced.

Ultimately, How To Win The Lottery was an entertaining and enlightening hour that sidestepped the audience, making it easy to forgive the lack of a definitive answer to the titular trick. After all, Derren Brown created a national talking point for a few days, drew more ratings for his Wednesday night prediction than the lottery draw itself, and I dare say has boosted lottery ticket sales in the process. In this day and age, where television is fragmented and moments of collective wonder are in short supply, I continue to admire Derren's showmanship and his ability to get audiences thinking, so I find myself commending the fact he didn't break the Magician's Code by just spilling the beans.

I'm happy to be left with a head full of theories... but I still say he used a split-screen...


11 September 2009
Channel 4, 9pm

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Derren Brown: The Events (Lottery)

What have Doctor Who, Simon Cowell and Derren Brown all got in common? That's right, they can all cause the nation to stop and collectively watch TV, even in this digital multi-channel age. Illusionist Derren's latest stunt was even broadcast across every Channel Four-affiliated station for 10 minutes last night, as he kicked off his "Events" series by predicting the result of the National Lottery, live...

Standing in an empty warehouse with two cameramen and a plasma screen, Derren had already predicted 5 of the 6 numbers on ping-pong balls aligned across a podium. The BBC broadcast was shown live on his TV (prompting most people to channel-hop just to make sure the delay wasn't big enough to be abused), and the numbers 2 11 23 28 35 39 were drawn by Camelot. With the draw over, Derren wrote those numbers (ignoring the bonus ball) onto a card and revealed that his own balls (which had been in full view to us, albeit from behind, the whole time) were indeed marked with the same numbers. He'd done it!

But how? There are a few common theories doing the rounds:

Clearly, Derren didn't predict the numbers in any psychic way, unless he's a supernatural being (a possibility) or, literally, the luckiest man alive. Otherwise he'd be a millionaire by now, let's face it. My own initial thought was that the camera was locked-off once Derren was standing next to the plasma watching the result (notice how he adopted a clenched, unmoving posture), the screen was cleverly split-screened and his podium of balls replaced by aides for balls with the correct numbers. However, others have reviewed the footage and say any screen-stitching is impossible to detect, which seems to rule that out.

Maybe there was some high-tech laser etching technology that can mark the balls with numbers seconds before Derren revealed them? I also heard a theory that the balls never had anything written on them, but technology exists to simply transpose a set of numbers onto some empty white balls (which were effectively tiny greenscreens). Hence why there was no live audience, as they'd have seen the blank balls he was holding?

I think the key thing to remember is that Derren didn't show us his prediction before the lottery draw, for suspiciously vague reasons of legality. But that makes no sense, because they're just numbers at the end of the day, and nobody could have quickly bought a ticket using his prediction anyway. So why all the secrecy? Hmm. It suggests his balls were unmarked beforehand, but somehow replaced or written on in the seconds after the draw had taken place...

Anyway, it was a fun TV moment (however it was achieved), and Derren will be back on Friday to actually explain how he did it. A part of me hopes the solution isn't as dryly technological as most people's theories are, but I'm at a loss to explain a more down-to-earth reason. Any imaginative ideas?


9 September 2009
Channel 4/More4/E4/FilmFour, 10.35pm

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