Derren Brown: The Events

Anyone actually get stuck to the sofa last night then? Rubbish. Those callers who phoned up, something weird during all that I thought.

Another load of rubbish. As if someone would give a tramp £100 and someone else would give him their trainers and walk home barefooted I'm sure not even the best 'subliminal messages' could make that happen.

I thought that too. I think Derren's going to have to be careful here or he's going to lose his reputation. I refuse to believe his analogy for coming up with the lottery numbers and refuse to believe he subliminally made people give him hundreds of pounds and even their shoes.

I've been less than impressed at this series, the tricks sounded good in theory at first but he's failed to pull them off convincingly together with an adequate believable explination.

I watched the show last night, followed instructions & felt a tingling sensation through my body, my feet & legs became heavier, sinking into the sofa, at the end I could move my back, but I couldn't put any weight through my legs, as though I couldn't put any weight on my legs.

I know some of you will think what rubbish, and may not believe what I'm typing, but something weird did happen to me last night, I don't exactly know what, I just know that it did.

I'm sure its not weird if you're the highly suggestible type.

He explained the crux of the test working - if you believe, it will work. He makes you put your hands and arms in an unnatural position, tells you to push your arms - making them numb, with the same thing happening to the legs. The fact you are relaxed will induce a rush of blood to the head - making you want to sit down, along with the lower amount of oxygen in the muscles, and low blood flow. It's not psychology, it's science, with a dash of psychology.

How very Marks & Spencer - but I'm still not buying.

I didn't watch.

I did however see a hundred and one facebook status updates flitter by saying, "I didn't stick to my seat - what a swizz...", ignoring the deep irony that they all tuned in for the whole programme.

Exactly - anyone who knows how Derren Brown works knows exactly what to expect with these shows. The lottery stunt was never about the end result, but about the journey and convincing the 24 people shown, rather than the nation, of the outcome, whilst last nights show did exactly what I'd expect.


All that aside though, I thought it was a rather poorly made show last night. I wouldn't say badly edited, but there was some obvious overdubbing in the theatre bits to expand on the explanation, whilst the only bit I assumed was live was Derren taking the calls (off camera) - and I'm only assuming that was live due to the furore over phone ins in the last couple of years making faking it highly unlikely. The people with him watching the film seemed like it was filmed earlier.

I didn't say it was anything amazing, it was just a video that put you in a restful mood, along with the predecessing videos of other "respondents", that would lead some people to believe they were stuck in their seats. However, the usual sceptics of internet - including me - didn't respond to it. And it's the usual, leadable people who will not change their views, and will believe.

In the trailer for this series he used the words 'deception' and 'suggestion' so I'm expecting on the final show, (for at most the unsuggestible and suspicious amongst us) he will come clean and explain what he has done throughout the series (i.e. like he does in his live shows) otherwise, I guess it looks bad on his part.

I felt the same, felt heavier and what not. I was able to stand up but God did I feel heavy in the legs. I didn't get stuck though. Very strange sensation though.

I'm sure I wasn't the only one to notice the subliminal flashes of what appeared to be a totally white background with a drawing of a man with a moustache sitting in a chair. The film on its own was effectively nothing more than moving lines. The previous subliminal flashes is probably key. Without them, the film doesn't work. In my own opinion.

I was going to mention those. I thought he'd talk about them at some point in the show, but he didn't. They had a funny little 'interference-y' sound too.