# Derren Brown - The Event - How did he predict the lottery numbers?



## truthseeker (10 Sep 2009)

Anyone see it? How did he do it? The reveal is on Friday.

Some forums are talking about using split screens etc...but thats too simple for Derren Brown, I reckon its going to be more like The System, a lot of work to produce an amazing trick.

Any thoughts anyone?


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## Guest116 (10 Sep 2009)

Spilt screens would be a bit of a let down as it doesn't involve much of Derrens trickery. It is just a technical excercise in that case.


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## Latrade (10 Sep 2009)

The answer is in the advert running before the show in that he's been working on "misdirection". 

It will be simple and we will probably kick ourselves, but it will just have been a simple illusion.


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## truthseeker (10 Sep 2009)

Latrade said:


> The answer is in the advert running before the show in that he's been working on "misdirection".


 
Well I know that!!! Derren Brown has never pretended to be 'magic' - he always shows how its done. What Im asking is, does anyone have any ideas about HOW it was done.



Latrade said:


> It will be simple and we will probably kick ourselves, but it will just have been a simple illusion.


 
Im reckoning that he has employed massive resourses but just showed us the one little bit that makes it look 'wow'.


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## Latrade (10 Sep 2009)

truthseeker said:


> Well I know that!!! Derren Brown has never pretended to be 'magic' - he always shows how its done. What Im asking is, does anyone have any ideas about HOW it was done.
> 
> Im reckoning that he has employed massive resourses but just showed us the one little bit that makes it look 'wow'.


 
The point being that misdirection involves very simple trickery rather than a more ellaborate set up. 

I'd agree it isn't going to be technical trickery, such as split screen, etc, just because that's not how he performs his tricks. However, it will no doubt be something extremely simple.


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## Sylvester3 (10 Sep 2009)

I read somewhere that this trick requires a chalk pentagram, a virgin sacrifice and the right incantation from page 66 of the necronomicon.


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## truthseeker (10 Sep 2009)

Latrade said:


> The point being that misdirection involves very simple trickery rather than a more ellaborate set up.
> 
> I'd agree it isn't going to be technical trickery, such as split screen, etc, just because that's not how he performs his tricks. However, it will no doubt be something extremely simple.


 
Depends what you mean by elaborate, The System was a very simple concept but used 7776 people to begin with, filtering down by a factor of 6 for each race until he had 1 winner. Thats a pretty elaborate start point imo.

I feel a niggle about the 30 or so seconds he used to write down the numbers in the correct numerical sequence. Thinking about it, he could only have known the correct numbers after they had been drawn right? So the trick had to happen in that 30 or so seconds.


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## Latrade (10 Sep 2009)

truthseeker said:


> Depends what you mean by elaborate, The System was a very simple concept but used 7776 people to begin with, filtering down by a factor of 6 for each race until he had 1 winner. Thats a pretty elaborate start point imo.
> 
> I feel a niggle about the 30 or so seconds he used to write down the numbers in the correct numerical sequence. Thinking about it, he could only have known the correct numbers after they had been drawn right? So the trick had to happen in that 30 or so seconds.


 
I see your point on elaborate, but The System is a fairly common scam and usually done on a much bigger scale (it even featured in a Simpsons episode). But yeah, it takes some setting up.

I'd echo sylvester though, I'd feel very let down if there wasn't some form of blood sacrifice in order to achieve this.


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## truthseeker (10 Sep 2009)

Latrade said:


> I'd echo sylvester though, I'd feel very let down if there wasn't some form of blood sacrifice in order to achieve this.


 
Blood sacrifice and perhaps some jiggery pokery with a machine made by Tesla and the reveal being that Derren Brown has made millions of clones of himself - as many as there are combinations to the lottery numbers, and he simply cut to the correct clone + numbers when the lottery was drawn?


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## Caveat (10 Sep 2009)

I didn't see it but it sounds a bit like something he did before involving members of the public being advised to back a certain horse - their horse always won. 

He explained it all of course but don't ask me to explain it now. 

_Edit: oh sorry I think that's what you were all talking about re 'The System'._


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## truthseeker (10 Sep 2009)

Caveat said:


> I didn't see it but it sounds a bit like something he did before involving members of the public being advised to back a certain horse - their horse always won.
> 
> He explained it all of course but don't ask me to explain it now.


 
That was The System, he started with 1296 members of the general public and they were texted to watch a certain race, with a certain horse to win - he covered every combination of possibilities.

The 216 winners were then texted to bet on a certain horse in a certain race, again covering every combination of possibilities.

The 36 winners were then phoned by Derren and told a certain horse in a certain race and to put on a bigger bet. 

The 6 winners were (at this stage totally sucked into it) then met individually by Derren and given a certain horse in a certain race to win.

The winner was met at a racecourse by Derren and encouraged to bet a huge sum (4 grand I think) - the horse lost but Derren told her he'd actually bet on a different horse (accidently) and it happened to be the winner, he gave her the winnings - in fact he had bet on all 6 himself.

Or something like that - it may have started 1 level higher with 7776 people - I cant quite remember, but it was very cool.

The first 40 minutes or so of the program just followed the 1 girl who won in the last race, at some point the contestants were sent out camcorders to record themselves - so to the viewer (who wasnt seeing any of the losses) just watched this one girl win, then win, then win etc...

He showed how it was done using a different example where he showed himself flipping a coin and getting heads 10 times in a row, with a clock on the wall behind to prove it was an uninterrupted stream. What he didnt show was he had spent 8 hours (or so) flipping that coin knowing that the odds would eventually come up in his favour of 10 flips heads up. So there were hours of footage - but only the few seconds of all heads up were shown.


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## Kine (10 Sep 2009)

I must say, I like this guy. I have watched some of his live shows (well, on TV...you know what I mean ) and have been blown away by how its done. Great entertainment.


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## RMCF (10 Sep 2009)

Seen him live in Belfast before and will be goign again in April - a great nights entertainment. Well worth seeing.

btw no idea how he guessed the Lottery numbers, but will definitely be checking out his show on Friday to see the answer. 

don't think he'll be giving us the answer we all want, otherwise the Lotterys would be defunct.

Can't think he actually has a system, more a trick.


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## z107 (11 Sep 2009)

He's obviously written out millions of all possible combinations, and then displayed the winning one.


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## Sylvester3 (11 Sep 2009)

umop3p!sdn said:


> He's obviously written out millions of all possible combinations, and then displayed the winning one.




I think thats even less likely than calling up the Elder gods with a virgin sacrifice!


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## truthseeker (11 Sep 2009)

My prediction for this evening is either some very elaborate set up based on an extremely simple idea. (like having all combinations ready and sleighting in the correct one at the relevant moment)

Or some kind of jiggery pokery with mirrors or camera angles - but not something as obvious as a split screen or cgi - more like a scenario that 'could' have been done in front of a live audience but they used tv to reach more people.

I will kick myself when the reveal is made tonight because its probably totally obvious and I just havent thought of it


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## michaelm (11 Sep 2009)

truthseeker said:


> Derren Brown has never pretended to be 'magic' - he always shows how its done.


Derren is great at what he does.  I haven't seen his recent stuff.  I have seen him 'explain' tricks but he'd actually tried to trick the audience into believing that the trick was more complex than it really was.  Don't believe everything he says.


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## RMCF (12 Sep 2009)

RMCF said:


> Seen him live in Belfast before and will be goign again in April - a great nights entertainment. Well worth seeing.
> 
> btw no idea how he guessed the Lottery numbers, but will definitely be checking out his show on Friday to see the answer.
> 
> ...



Well his show and relevation last night was all a bit of a letdown for me.

I knew he wasn't going to reveal anything really. I mean are we really meant to believe that he predicted all 6 lotto numbers by using 24 peoples random scribblings and taking the average of them? Come on Derren.

He revealed nothing. And God was that show padded out !! Could have lasted 10mins.


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## Guest128 (12 Sep 2009)

Completely agree RCMF, a complete load of crap is all that show was last night


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## BOXtheFOX (13 Sep 2009)

He did the maths calculations. He didn't show the winning numbers to his team before the draw.


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## truthseeker (13 Sep 2009)

BOXtheFOX said:


> He did the maths calculations. He didn't show the winning numbers to his team before the draw.


 
Thats because thats not how he did it.

Very disappointing. There is no way in the world that Derren Brown did a live show last wednesday night, aired to millions, correctly predicting the lottery numbers, based on 3 practice rounds of psychic writing with 24 people. No way.

The giveaway that thats not how he did it was not showing the team the numbers.

And lets face it - there was no mouse in the box, and no knife under the cup, there was no lottery prediction using the wisdom of crowds.


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## redstar (14 Sep 2009)

It would have been interesting if he had turned around the podium with the predicted numbers immediately BEFORE the actual lottery numbers was drawn. We could have watched in awe as each number was drawn and matched one of the predicted numbers.
So the clue is in the fact that no-one saw the predicted numbers until after the draw.....


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## michaelm (15 Sep 2009)

truthseeker said:


> The giveaway that thats not how he did it was not showing the team the numbers.


The giveaway is that he's claiming he predicted the numbers, which he didn't do.  Ockham's razor might suggest that he probably used a split screen.


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## truthseeker (15 Sep 2009)

michaelm said:


> The giveaway is that he's claiming he predicted the numbers, which he didn't do. Ockham's razor might suggest that he probably used a split screen.


 
I agree.

Actually Ive gone past wondering how he did it and am now thinking that the whole thing is actually part of some other elaborate trick - for example, was he sending out subliminal messages during last friday nights show that only those who saw it will be 'glued' to their seats this friday night 

Or am I getting way too complicated here?


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## zxcvbnm (15 Sep 2009)

You're getting too complicted.

What he did thr last night was absolute rubbish.It sucked big time.

Like - if he doesn't want to tell us how it was done then fine. But he shouldn't go arond promising us he will in the first place in that case.

For what it's worth i am satisfied it was probably a split screen.

Before the friday show i assumed it couldn't be a split screen because that would be one rubbish trick.
Basically all it takes is someone with the technical know-how to set it up - in fact you couldn't even call it a trick. It would instead be an illustration of someones technical ability.
So for those reasons i assumed it wouldn't be that lame.

However - i have now changed my mnd and have decided it was indeed that lame.

The reason being, before he did the trick Derren would have known some people would have assumed it was just some camera trick.
Therefore - to eliminate that from peoples minds all he had to do was do the trick in front of a live audience - (whch is what he does for all his tricks anyway.)

So he obviously had a reason for not doing it in front of an audience. Which leaves me with no other conclusion other than it was some camera trickery.

Like - how awful a trick is that !!

Derren - if you're reading,. i seriously think this idea backfired. You certainly went down in my estimation anyway.


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## Booter (16 Sep 2009)

truthseeker said:


> I agree.
> 
> Actually Ive gone past wondering how he did it and am now thinking that the whole thing is actually part of some other elaborate trick - for example, was he sending out subliminal messages during last friday nights show that only those who saw it will be 'glued' to their seats this friday night
> 
> Or am I getting way too complicated here?



There were some verbal subliminals used alright, very much in keeping with his usual style. Obviously don't know what these are to be used for yet, however I noticed, for instance, at the outset of Friday's show, he said something like "last Wednesday I was handsome enough to predict the lottery numbers..."
HANDSOME? 

He subsequently said that he didn't predict the bonus ball because everyone knows that the bonus ball is "for women and gays"

I always expect something to come of such seeming malapropisms at a later stage


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## truthseeker (16 Sep 2009)

Indiansign said:


> I always expect something to come of such seeming malapropisms at a later stage


 
Only handsome women and gays will be stuck to their seats this friday


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## Latrade (16 Sep 2009)

Twas all a bit dull in the end wasn't it?

Anyway, I think there's enough clues around between the two.

1. Relate his first "tricks" on the friday to the Lotto one. It wasn't about demonstrating predicting what people would do as the idea of suggestion. There was no mouse, there was no knife. At the start of the live prediction he told us what wasn't used. I would hazard a guess it's one of the lesser extreme ones. Simplest answer is not split screen but the delay, he even told us to expect a delay of a second, but did anyone check? flicking between the two channels wouldn't have shown anything, you'd need to have a separate tv running to really see.

2. Misdirection. The whole last bit about group predictions was clearly nonesense and established to be, it was the misdirection. In the live show he had enough subtle misdirection to draw people to either him (his hand over his mouth) or the stand (for those who chose to stare at this), naturally these were where he wanted people to focus on.


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## Latrade (16 Sep 2009)

zxcvbnm said:


> For what it's worth i am satisfied it was probably a split screen.
> 
> .


 
I take it back, you're probably right:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepag...ren-Brown-fooled-you-in-Lotto-prediction.html

For the record I did complain to OH as to why the camera was shaky when it was in a studio and it was a studio camera and should have been steady.


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## Guest116 (16 Sep 2009)

If only the "hidden assistent" had dropped one of the balls so that is magically just bounced along by Derrens legs.


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