Derren Discusses The Assassin
If you head over to Channel 4’s website for the Experiments you will be able to see an exclusive interview in which Derren explains where the ideas behind the show came from.
Click the link below to view:
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/derren-brown/articles/derren-brown-on-channel-4
Pure genius, also proves how some conspiracy theories, might just not be theories after all.
Watched this last night directly after the show. Was cool to see myself on tv too! Really good viewing it was, interesting to see you do this one Derren. Now for the next shows 🙂
Can anyone hypnotise people or are you just magic? 😐
After watching the show, I was completely awestruck and totally petrified at the same time. Must learn to avoid annoying ringtones as they are potentially lethal!!!!
QI was on BBC 2 straight after…. It would have been rather impressive on channel four’s part to have had this guy in the audience again!
Amazing show, one of the best. Really makes you think.
I watched this yesterday evening and I really enjoyed it. An interesting and informative interview which was a great companion to the show itself.
Thank you, Derren.
LC x
I think you are fantastic and last night was very impressive but you really spooked me out xx
of course it’s not magic , it’s showmanship – yes – anyone can learn to hypnotise people
I never thought I was a good candidate for being hypnotised, untilI did a weekend course earlier this year. i think I have a better understanding now of what it is or isn’t, but also thought that you couldn’t get someone to do something that went against their principles. Very interesting interview, thanks for the heads up Abs xx 🙂
Great show and there is one thing that did occur to me.
Although great lengths were taken to ensure ‘The Assassin’ did not think he was on camera and that the surroundings were ‘natural’ I can’t help feeling that he was still a part of a Derren Brown experiment therefore something at the back of his mind would always tell him that, no matter what actions he undertook.
Would be interesting to know more
your show has changed my view of the potential of the human mind and how you can “switch off” the pain threshold when he sat in the ice bath without feeling a thing. plus how it can be manipulated to do prettey much anything
Really must get a poker dot hanky!
Tony, you are correct but there are other actors to think about. In a situation where this can be used there is a different connection for the person than that of Derren or the knowing it’s only for show. What Derren proved is that a person CAN be influenced to kill and also influenced to maintain they forgot they even did it.
Turely amazing Derren, I eagerly awaiting the next experiment you never cease to amaze me!
What i would give to be 1/4 as good as u. i too am a hypnotherapist (new) show was awe inspiring. very good. look forward to next weeks
So can this expermiment now be used as precedence or evidence in cases like the one referred to by Derren in the show? I love Derren and think he is an amazing genius but if this was real, would it really be allowed to be aired? It has too many implications for serious, real life incidents surely?
Informative interview, although I’m inclined to agree with Tony. It’s difficult to know whether his response was, at the time of the shooting, a result of the pressure to perform, having the triggers and the case in front of him, or whether he was genuinely so tanked with suggestion that his actions were genuine, how do you separate the two knowing you are on a DB show. Also, when DB and SF were sat with him, watching the footage, his lack of emotional response puzzled me. Detached, maybe, having no apparent memory of it, but if I had just seen footage of myself shooting someone that was sat there in front of me, I would be in tears, extremely apologetic, and confused to say the least, especially if it was against my moral code, as DB has now stated is possible, but hey ho 🙂
Just watched the show on C4 Catch Up, and was completely amazed!!! We were all saying to each other all the way through, “There’s no way he’ll do it, he won’t respond…” And then he SHOT STEPHEN FRY! :O However, even though Chris probably didn’t remember shooting poor Stephen, I think it’s a safe bet that the CIA still can’t just grab anybody off the street and condition them in to killing someone. Chris associated polka dots and the ringtone not just with forgetting and with firing a gun, but also with Derren, and it would have been safe to assume that Derren wouldn’t have had him hurt anybody. If you were going to be trained like that by the CIA to become the perfect assassin, you would have had to have been willing to kill in the first place. They couldn’t force you against your nature
P.s. Loved the graphics at the beginning of the show, and am really looking forward to the next Experiment…..Okay, I’m done! 😉
what is the name of the ringtone used?
Great show and really excellent and unique approach to this topic!!
What I still don´t get, why Chris could remember the shooting after the assoult….therefore one could think, he was still” playing along” or a part of him was “playing along” as he used “Derren´s gun” etc.
is there any explanation for that ?? – nevertheless still impressiv.
Amazing show, interesting perspective that someone can be hypnotised to kill someone and forget it after, plus the ice bath was good, shows what the mind is capable of. Makes you wonder doesnt it. I now want to see a live show.
Brilliant! Interesting as ever, and a relief for me, as I’m writing a sci-fi story at the moment with this kind of thing in the plot! Was worried you definitively wouldn’t be able to program someone, or that they’d remember it. Spooky that he passed the lie detector!
Derren, once again you have blown away my mind in your thrilling and extremely interesting performance with your newest show.
When you met me at the YMC (junior magic circle), you were amazing and you are brilliant in your field of work.
(and a role model to me).
Derren, pure class mate. Very well done on a great show !
As I have said previously Derren always makes shows that make me think, shock me and amaze me. I did have my hands and jumper over my face for most of it though hahaha. Brilliant and I did shed a tear at the end, confused as to why but I did, anyone else? I think it was a mixture of the music, slick filming, it was like watching a film. Looking forward to next week’s like you wouldn’t believe. Well done to all involved Xx
Great show but as always, showmanship rather than science. Has no bearing on the ‘reality’ of brainwashing someone to kill as per conspiracy theories. See http://skeptoid.com/ for a recent critique of the actual evidence for this. Chris always knew it was a show – who gives someone a ‘real gun in a theatre just to hold for a bit?!?
Anyone know the name of the song played at the end?
It was pretty epic
Derren is just employing what many stage hypnotists have been doing for years. Making people become Elvis or strippers etc. They choose the people who they know will play along and it doesn’t require stooges. When they say they can’t remember it is usually just to cover themselves from embarrassment or to give them an excuse for making a fool of themselves. I’ve working in this business and I know for sure that people do remember. Having said this I am still a bit fan of Derren who is a GREAT showman but I think this stunt is a bit shoddy for him. Proper illusions such as the Russian Roulette and spirit mediums exposé are where he excels so I look forward to the rest of the series.
Derren, as we all know – you are a complete genius! As a fan of the conspiracy theory I loved this more than some of your other shows (although, which ones I am really not sure!). Can’t wait to see you in Svengali in April in Blackpool. Fab as always x
Thanks for posting that…very interesting.
Brilliant show last night and I kind of felt like I had just been to see one of Derren’s live performances because I got the same “what the **** just happened there†feeling which always stays with me long after the show has finished. I’m guessing a lot of people felt that way too.
Kudos to Derren and team Derren for conveying that wonderful emotional reaction from stage to screen.
Me and my friends agreed after watching this is that every time we hear the iphone ringtone is to touch our foreheads to freak out anybody who had seen this.
Yeah, already watched it…duh. When they said after The Assassin I was straight on the internet, LOL! Of course. xxx
To those who think this was faked…well, of course it could gave been but, why? If what DB did was possible but too sensitive to show, and therefore suppressed as a result, then the latter argument says much more about the likelihood of conspiracy theories than airing the show would. Excellent show. Yes, I believed it…..no, I don’t believe it would or could happen to me (cause I’m an awkward bugger!)
Amazing show but I wonder how easy it would be to replicate if the subject didn’t want to take part nor have the expectation of the hypnotist, like the guy in the show had. But none the less, it certainly challenges the official JFK story.
I think the bath was not freezing or as cold as suggested. The thermal image had no reading to show how cold it truly was. It was just a way of making chris believe he was hypnotised. The lie detector was possible fake too. If anything though this could be proof that people will do anything if they are to be featured on TV ! I enjoyed the show 🙂
Mind over matter. False reality over reality. You have to cross over the bridge to see the light.
Once again, I disliked Derren’s show. Call me morbid but couldn’t this trigger people to do stupid things like harm people? I don’t mean because they’ve been hypnotized but just because people have an inclination to be stupid and copy what their “heroes” do/say?
To those who wonder why I watched it… I like to think one day I’ll enjoy something Derren does.
I too really enjoyed the show but was surprised at the the level of compliance shown by the main audience. I think it’s fair to say that they would all have danced like chickens and jumped through hoops without a thought…forget about any ‘hypnosis’… the DB buy-in was total and complete before the start.
It would have been good to see it done on a bunch of random people from the street but that would have meant handing over all the control…a tougher proposition.
I was surprised by the lack of reaction from the audience. It could have been the whole kind of “oh my God, this can’t be real”, but I expected there to be more than a few screams.
Also, maybe his whole detached manner when he found out he had “killed” Stephen was a product of shock and internal horror. Soldiers often do that after they kill one of the enemy, they don’t usually break down in tears.
Yeah but after all that, is is Polka dot or Poker dot. I vote polka.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Interchangeable/Funniest_Reference_Desk_Question_Ever
Loved the show, ONE thing bothers me, The audience’s reaction as Stephen Fry got shot, don’t know why but I think people would had reacted diffrently to see a “national treasure” shot before their very eyes … considering that on the show a claim was made that they were not informed that anything was going to possibly happen
Absolutely fantastic as always. Derren is a truly remarkable person whom I admire. After reading Derren’s Tricks of the Mind book (in a day) it really changed my thinking and understanding of how powerful our subconcious brain is and how subliminal messaging works. It totally blows all the “spooky fate” stuff out of the water, with proven scientific reasons.
So why didn’t the camera men become hypnotised when he made the audience sleepy? I would love to meet him as I am a tad sceptical over some of the things that he does.
There wasn’t a great reaction from the Fry audience. I don’t mean the few in the know just the ones who werent in the know. And I suspect the bangs of the shots were added later as there was no reflex action from the sounds. I’ve heard live shooting myself( I m from Belfast) and believe me there’s always a reaction to loud bangs.
As always Derren did it again! A fantastic bit of entertainment ………. this man is brilliant at what he does!
I was shocked at the audiences reaction when Stephen Fry got shot. :0)
REALLY CAN’T WAIT FOR THE NEXT ONE X
A few years ago, at university, I attended a gig by a hypnotist. He spent the opening section weeding out the non-suggestible (myself included) before reaching the few he would get onstage for the second-half. At the interval I turned to my neighbours and said: “He’ll come back on and say that no hypnotist can make anyone do anything against their will. This is a lie!” He duly returned to the stage to announce: “Now, no hypnotist can make anyone do anything . . . ” The girl next to me looked astounded and whispered: “Have you seen this before?” I hadn’t but all hypnotists tell the same lie. Under the right circumstances we can all do anything, including kill, as ‘The Assassin’ proved.
And no one has ever explained to me how Sirhan Sirhan managed to fire 13 shots from his 8-shot revolver.
Just saw “the assasin” for the second time..very interesting, really makes you think! Can’t imagine what this man will pull out of the bag next! Love the mystery about all the shows and getting frustrated at not knowing how things are done..great fun! Derren Brown has the best job in the world!!!!