Derren Discusses The Secret of Luck
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
Think positive, good things will happen, its a lovely message to a eye opening episode. You made some real changes to .. was it wayne .. the butcher guy life n well to the whole village really i do often wonder how you do what you do. .Very impressed keep it up x
lol youve made wayne the butcher famous haha
Entertaining TV as always, but I did think it was unfortunate that Derren chose to use “ignoring a free scratchcard” as an example of not being open to opportunities. Whereas paid scratchcards return a small proportion of the money to the players (and an even smaller proportion to charity) the vast majority of free scratch-cards are a marketing come-on to get suckers to dial premium-rate numbers, or offer bogus prizes such as “holiday-vouchers” – that can only be used at a specific agent on over-price holidays.
The fact that the majority of the programme centred on gambling was a shame too. The comedy-gig in exchange for help was better example.
“Extraordinary programme. Derren conveyed some of the best life coaching ever in the space of an hour. ”
I really disagree, and the fact that it posed as some kind of life-coaching exercise made it uneasy viewing for me
I thought the sequence where he supposedly showed the butcher ‘missed opportunities’ totally contrived. A phony lottery ticket in the mail – nobody scratches those things, no more than they click on banners saying ‘THIS IS NOT A JOKE. YOU ARE THE LUCKY…’
Similarly, it is hardly a missed opportunity not to entertain everyone who stops you on the street to do a survey. The 50 quid on the street was the easiest thing ever to fake.
Based on this sequence he has the guy risking his savings on the roll of a dice. Hopefully he won’t walk into a casino and start playing craps
Dear Derren Brown, I have only ever seen the Experiments Game Show.
Yesterday I went to an anti bullying presentation at my local secondary school. The school uses a system called Restorative Justice to deal with physical bullying. I think is great and shows good results with a face to face scenario.
last week however, my daughter became victim to cyber bullying on both Facebook and BBM.
Your show came straight to mind and i asked the teacher if he had seen it, as I felt it gave a powerful insight into mob mentality. if you ask yourself about the need to educate young people regarding this, just look at what happened with the recent riots.
So to get to the point. The Game Show was made for adults. Do you think Derren there ia merit in someone like yourself with whom the youth can relate
cont…
It only takes an idea…just ask Bob Geldof or Jamie Olivier….best regards Sarah.
How can i get in touch with Derren if i`m not a member of the media i`m very big fan and i would like to talk to him swap a few emails if he can spare the time.
Thank you
Really heartwarming and touching. I may or may not have shed a few tears! Also delighted to see someone taking the mick out of that fecking Psychic Sally one. Aul bat! Fair dues, looking forward to seeing Derren for the first time in Dublin next year. See you front and centre!
Loved the show. Regardless of whether the ending was rigged or not or whether that really was a lucky dog, there was a very practical lesson in psychology in the mix and that’s the bit I’m taking away from it.
Many thanks to Derren and the team for another brilliant series.
Derren, the show was amusing and heart-warming, but the one problem I have with it show is a BIG one.
Gambling is NOT an ‘opportunity’ – it’s just gambling. If you prefer not to take part in the lottery it’s not because you’re missing out on the possibilities of life, it’s because you aren’t a complete moron. The central message that people should be more open to the world around them is fine, but trying to equate that with taking part in a mug’s game isn’t.
Nice work with the magnet at the bottom of the bowl, BTW (the ‘3’ side of the die was ferro-magnetic). It was very convincing at first, but if you look closely you can see the die twisting in the air to align itself properly.
Charles, agree totally. Hopefully, the guy was not left with an idea, that he should put all his money, house and car on next lottery
Derren Brown is primarily an ENTERTAINER !! I love his shows, it’s unmissable TV for me. And if they inspire people to change something for the better in their lives, or even just to question ‘the wisdom of the group’ that’s great.
But remember the focus of his shows is ENTERTAINMENT! It’s a shame if viewers decide to gamble ‘because I know I will win, so I will win.’ Just as it’s a shame if viewers decide they can ‘levitate’ like David Copperfield, or make rabbits disappear into a top hat.
Derren takes his illusions and tricks a step further than other TV magicians, but he’s shown enough of the elaborate preparation required to show us they are tricks. Hence ‘A Trick of the Mind’. It’ll be the same with the dice.
An excellent show, thoroughly enjoyed it, but subject to Derren’s usual manipulation. EG with the flat tyre, the “pessimistic” landlord was asked vaguely if he could help – direction to somewhere that knew about cars seemed like a sensible option I thought. The “optimistic” landlady however, was specifically asked if she could help with “blowing up the tyre” – a subtly different question, and more likely to elicit direct action.
Loved the general “make your own luck” message though, just a shame I had to super-slowmo the final dice roll at the end – plenty of chance for Derren to switch his own die with the one from the toy shop – he took it and handed it to his lucky winner himself. contd…
….we all know Derren is a master of manipulating audiences, so he could probably get a “4” that way. Knowing that a 4 was needed, a magnetised die could be switched in, with an electromagnet under the stage, only switched on though for the final roll, when it was needed.
What the super slo mo revealed was clear – after nearly the final bounce, the die was rotating one way in the air, BUT, while STILL in the air, it stopped and started rotating the OTHER way, confirming an outside force operating on it. This motion would never happen if it was moving due to gravity alone, when the rotation would normally continue until the next strike on the surface. Todmorden, you’ve been duped, but at least we got a happy ending!
Dammit, Charles got there first – I should have read previous entries! Totally agree with your comments on opportunity and gambling too!
I was suspicious of the big pipes meeting the perspex structure and thought there was probably something lurking in there (video cam&optical dice recognition&air jets?) but the electromagnet explanation is a bit simpler! Watching on slow-mo it looks right too. “Derren is a master of manipulating audiences, so he could probably get a 4 that way.” – yes or he just had six dice about his person.
There is positive thinking (your thoughts influence your body influences the world) and there is DSM “magical thinking” (your thoughts directly influence the world). I think the show just about kept this distinction (unlike that stupid book “The Secret”). But I wonder how many people will misunderstand and take away the bogus idea that magical thinking works.
Very enjoyable watching eitherway!!
As a person who doesn’t believe in the power of luck but in rationality it was not in Derren’s best interest to rig the die. If Wayne lost it would have proved Derren’s theory that there is no supernatural advantage in winning. His lecture to the butcher prior to the toss was of taking the positive experience in the face of his probable loss. I believe Derren’s apparent shock and joy to be real when he saw the outcome. He has proved over and over again to be a gambler, as one who enjoys the risks such as live tv employs. It would be out of character for Derren to do something so predictable.
nanobelle: check out “conservation of angular momentum” and watch the slowmo. A spinning ball doesn’t just decide to rotate the other way in the air – unless it comes under another force, eg hitting the ground.
I expect Derren remembered his spectacular failure at that Casino, so why risk another let-down ending?
Let’s be positive, take the oppertunity, and buy that scratchcard/play the lottery…and make that lucky trip to the betting shop YEAH…! Some interesting ideas but c’mon Derren why the money/lottery thing?
i hope so from DB’s team will read this.
I thought it was amazing how DB covered a huge array of human emotions including a modern day interpretaion of the Milgrim Experiment in the Game show. Although I have to admit, that I couldn’t watch it all the way through. I found the faceless mob too terrfying. and seeing the 1970 Film Abraham – ein Versuch, which is the recreation of the Milgrim Experiemt by the Max Planck Institut in Munich, where I come from has changed my life. or rather it helped me stay on the path I was already on. i was only 14 when I made a concious decision to never hurt so intentionally even if it meant at the time that not taking part in the bullying would ostrazise myself in boarding school. Sorry went off on a tangient .
It was amazing how Dreen changed the outlook of so many people and did real life coaching. But how about taking this further even and use his abilities as shown in The Heist to programm people in a positive way? Ok it is maybe not as easy to predict and set up but also there wouldn’t have to be any “de-programming” afterwards. He has shown us so many insights into the negative side of the human psychy. And it would be great to spread more of the positive seed. Without there being any other reward than just acting responsible and human and letting go of fear. To some people taking part it could just be as exhilarating and surprising as the Heist. Wouldnt it be great to work with so, who doesnt think of himself as unlucky but racist and see how that could evolve and change?
How this could work as a TV format is something that could surely be worked out. And there is an interesting movement in the US called Random Acts of Kindness which would be a great name, don’t you think? I am not suggesting DB change into a pink fluffy easterbunny. But seing The Secret of Luck shows me that it is equally interesting to go down the sunny path once in a while. We all know the dark and sinister exists.
This was such a great show. Warmhearted and kind, and one in which Derren showed a really, really likeable side to himself which sometimes gets lost on the “something wicked this way comes” persona he often projects. Valuable life lessons to do with the way we filter the world, and ones that we should all take with us. I really appreciate the way you pay attention to detail so meticulously, and really think things through. Now, spill the beans… the dice WAS loaded, right? You showed us all how you influence people to think of your chosen song at the beginning… so… did you do it with the number 4 at the end? Come on, spill the beans!
Olivia: Don’t you think that’s exactly what these shows are, in fact, doing? ‘Programming’ people to be nicer, be more human, to overcome what’s holding them back… Cf. the timer at the end of Hero (as well as the message throughout), the last episode of the second Trick or Treat series (and, to a lesser extent, that entire series), and the Gameshow and Secret of Luck episodes of the Experiments. You don’t need to hypnotise people if you want to ‘program’ them into being all they can be. You just need to poke them in the right soft spots, push the right buttons. That’s what Derren’s later work appears to be trying to accomplish.
Derren is amazing – I wonder what else he could get people to change about their lives just through the power of suggestion and self belief – for example could all overweight people become thin simply by believing they’re thin? Maybe Derren could chane the world if enough people listened…
Do people have good literature/articles/papers about this phenomenon about the content of this concept that people can so ‘fast’ take over the idea of luck? I would like to refer to this video as part of an essay I do about sacred sites.
Thanks for your help.
All the best,
Victor
Hmmmm. Random thought. If Derren Brown did have a magnet in the die, and if he could be sure the audience would pick either 3 or 4, he wouldn’t need to force the audience to pick 4 in advance or to have multiple trick dice. 3 and 4 are opposite each other – south pole of a magnet under the 3, corresponding north pole under the 4, switchable electromagnet beneath the bowl, job done. Would probably even make the trick more reliable because the side he wanted facing up would’ve been strongly repelled by the magnet.
That’s actually kind of elegant in a way.
Hi Derren.
Totally forgot to post this link from my then, new, website/blog thing. We walked in to Todmorden (from Hebden) the morning after your show was aired and looked around for the dog. We saw the Butcher and Toy Shop owner and had to ask the Tourist info lady …who was most bemused. In the space of about 30 seconds, two people had shaken the butchers hand. When we got to the dog, we had to wait our turn and when we finished, more people were waiting. The grass was turned in to a proper mud bath. Really enjoyed the show. More please. A picture shows it all at http://www.mogrady.co.uk/2011/11/derren-brown-todmorden-lucky-dog-day-after/
I’ve seen a couple of Derrens shows from TV and on the Internet and always liked the way he explains how he does some of his tricks and what those tricks are based on. Just watched the show, and although not being a native English speaker, found myself wondering, at what occasion did he plant the number four to my mind, because I found my self saying “neljä” (number 4 in Finnish) out loud at that point when Derren asked people to take a vote on which number should Wayne choose. Probably right at the beginning of the show, where Derren introduces the idea of the show and tells something about misFORtune (sounds like “four” to me…) and “what is this mysterious FORce and can it be…” (again for me it sounds like four, but as I said, I’m not a native speaker). Loved the show!
I cried at the end.