Darren Brown Again.

[swee'pea99]

You on the wind up? You honestly think that it would be even remotely possible to work out exactly where a roulette ball was going to land by watching it spin around the edge for one second? Even assuming you 'could' work out where and when it would fall, which I don't believe, there are pegs in the way which can throw the ball all over the place.

Professional squash players spend their working lives in a squash court developing the ability to predict where the ball is going to go. Do you think they could pin it down to a square like that? No way.

He didn't 'loose' any money at all. It was a fake casino and the result was exactly as planned. Had he got the right number he would've had to give the guy a couple of hundred thousand pounds! As it was he just gives the guy his money back, as he didn't actually loose it, and gains credibility from the imperfect, but good, result.

I used to really like Darren brown. I thought he actually did use highly developed skills to perform his tricks, I still think he is obviously a talented guy, but he's just he same as all the other stage magicians throughout history. Feigning superior knowledge to hide conjuring tricks. In fact I think he's worse as I believe he uses video effects, editing and audience/participant plants to produce his results. Which quite frankly anyone could do. I don't listen to a word he says any more.

I couldn't disgree more. I don't think he uses anything as banal as video effects or plants. I think he's an incredibly bright guy who's trained his mind to work in certain ways (among other things). And yes, I think it's quite conceivable that he could anticipate the falll of a roulette ball, exactly as described, just as those 'idiots savants' can look at a pile of matches just dropped on the floor and say '243', and if you count them, there are 243.

If you want to believe he's a fake, fine. But do I honestly think he did the roulette thing along the lines he described? Yes, I do.

 

[Mr Pig]

[quote name='swee'pea99']But do I honestly think he did the roulette thing along the lines he described? Yes, I do.[/QUOTE]

That's your prerogative obviously. In my opinion it's akin to saying that one believes that David Copperfield actually made a plane disappear.

If he was able to correctly identify the slot on the wheel that the ball would land in that would be a great skill indeed. Why not do it live in a studio in front of an audience? Why not do it a number of times? I mean if you'd gone to all the trouble of learning how to do it.

But instead he does it once, via a very grainy video link that is reported to be live but cannot be proved to be so. Why invite such doubts over your skill if you can actually perform the feat? I wouldn't. Would you? If I could actually do that I'd be showing people every day!

And really think that it's humanly possible to do what he claimed? It's not the same as looking at toothpicks. It that instance the information is actually in front of you. Most of us cannot record and process it fast enough but it is there, you can see the number of toothpicks in front of you even if you can't count them.

What he claimed to do is different. Calculate the complex trajectory of bouncing ball inside a revolving drum! You have got to be kidding. You could set up a machine that would shoot the ball into the wheel in exactly the same way at exactly the same point in the wheels rotation time and time again and you would get different numbers every time. Well not every time but you know what I mean. The slightest difference in friction, or the part of the fair (little diamond pegs) the ball hits will irreversibly alter the trajectory. I doubt you could build a computer program that could get it right, and you think Mr brown could do it in one second?

Tap his feet? He didn't have the time!

 

[User482]

Just because something appears to be incredible, it doesn't mean that it actually is incredible.

 

[swee'pea99]

"and you think Mr brown could do it in one second?"

Yup. Any man who can memorise the entire London A to Z...

'Why?'? Because it's entertaining. And he's an entertainer. That's his job; that's what he does.

 

[Noodley]

C'mon Mr Pig, you believe in fiction don't you?

Bread, water, fish, lepers, lame, rolling stones, rising from dead and all that shoot...

 

[Mr Pig]

[quote name='swee'pea99']Yup. Any man who can memorise the entire London A to Z...[/QUOTE]

You think he actually did that too?

Why did the subjects have to write the address or what they were thinking down? Well you might think it was so that the hidden cameras could see it. But obviously you wouldn't?

 

[User482]

C'mon Mr Pig, you believe in fiction don't you?

Bread, water, fish, lepers, lame, rolling stones, rising from dead and all that shoot...

Well, quite. Mr Brown looks entirely convincing by comparison.

 

[Crankarm]

You on the wind up? You honestly think that it would be even remotely possible to work out exactly where a roulette ball was going to land by watching it spin around the edge for one second? Even assuming you 'could' work out where and when it would fall, which I don't believe, there are pegs in the way which can throw the ball all over the place.

Professional squash players spend their working lives in a squash court developing the ability to predict where the ball is going to go. Do you think they could pin it down to a square like that? No way.

He didn't 'loose' any money at all. It was a fake casino and the result was exactly as planned. Had he got the right number he would've had to give the guy a couple of hundred thousand pounds! As it was he just gives the guy his money back, as he didn't actually loose it, and gains credibility from the imperfect, but good, result.

I used to really like Darren brown. I thought he actually did use highly developed skills to perform his tricks, I still think he is obviously a talented guy, but he's just he same as all the other stage magicians throughout history. Feigning superior knowledge to hide conjuring tricks. In fact I think he's worse as I believe he uses video effects, editing and audience/participant plants to produce his results. Which quite frankly anyone could do. I don't listen to a word he says any more.

It's Derren Brown unless he has a brother or there is an imposter called Darren Brown.

 

[Mr Pig]

C'mon Mr Pig, you believe in fiction don't you? Bread, water, fish, lepers, lame, rolling stones, rising from dead and all that shoot...

That's right. The evidence is better!

It's Derren Brown unless he has a brother or there is an imposter called Darren Brown.

Yeah, ok, so what? Don't be a nugget. Seems unlikely that anyone fails to understand who we mean.

 

[Noodley]

Well, quite. Mr Brown looks entirely convincing by comparison.

II Cornithians: the third quandrant, even numbers.

 

[swee'pea99]

You think he actually did that too?

Why did the subjects have to write the address or what they were thinking down? Well you might think it was so that the hidden cameras could see it. But obviously you wouldn't?

Yup.

Er, they didn't.