Derren Brown Live: Hero at 30,000 feet, C4 10pm

Bramly, I still find it interesting that you are suspicious of the claims of Hypnotherapists because you realise they are out to make money and protect their reputations but not in any way critical of people who write books (especially with shocking claims) - who are also just out to make money and enhance their reputations.

I'm skeptical about both groups for the same reasons.
 
And somehow managed to land up his own arse. He should be in our Olympic gymnastic team with that sort of skill. He could always hypnotise the judges into giving him top marks, that's if they are being played by actors, of course.
 
Just as a matter of balance can I say that the proudest moment for the show would be where Matt volounteered to land the plane.

I don't think anything that went before other than the motivational worRAB from Derren would have had any influence on Matt. He was in a plane, scared of flying, and regardless of how real it was he then volounteered to help land the plane. That was a heroic moment.

It was in fact the moment he referred to when coming out of the simulator and I applaud him for that.

Unfortunately all the other non-sensical shenanigans rather diluted a powerful moment.


The before and after were totally irrelevant and ruined the show.
 
You've just reminded me of a friend of mine about 15 years ago who went to see a Hypnotist at his local pub.

He told me later that there were about 20 people in the pub and the hypnotist (not exactly a household name) basically just asked for two volunteers from the audience (my friend went up) and then he played some (weird hypnotic) music. While the music was playing he dangled a watch in front of them and said "Lets have some fun with these people, just pretend your hypnotised and the joke will be on them".

So my pal went along with it and (although the other volunteer and himself kept giggling) everyone in the audience thought they were "under".

At the end of the show the "hypnotist" said to the whole pub "If anyone asks you about your experience on stage you will say that it was all just a joke".

Genius.

No one would believe my friend that he'd just been playing along the whole time.

But then that guy obviously wasn't a "real" Hypnotist. Still pocketed
 
So how far do you go with the suggestion it was scripted?

Was Matt a paid actor in the acting business?
Or was he someone Derren ran into and felt would be suitable for the show and a lot of editing/off camera stuff was involved? Ie.. he's a real person, but went along with the show?

I'm curious on that point as sometimes it's difficult to know what people mean by stooge etc.
 
Surely the idea of an Derren Brown spectacular is to entertain and mystify.

I would argue that it failed miserably on both counts. Matt seemed very odd indeed, he passed the interview to work as an insurance advisor and gets himself a nice looking girlfriend and manages to save enough for a deposit on a new house - but he is considered a failure for not hugging his mum? How about had his mum raised him differently and maybe they would both be more tactile. I don't know many men who hug their mums aside from birthdays and xmas anyway.

Also the fact that Matt could be so easily put under by Derren could make it undertandable that it was not the normal Matt doing anything at all - but the easily hypnotised version of himself.

I would like to see an accurate poll of the tv viewers - was it really just a waste of everyone's time?
 
(I haven't seen the show but) I really don't see there is a need to use actors. If Derren advertises for "volunteers for an experiment, possibly for a TV show" he's gonna be inundated with fanboys who will follow his every command. I genuinely don't doubt that for a second. A simple audition process will easily give him somebody "suggestible" i.e. someone who will do exactly as they're supposed to, without causing any trouble.

This is what happened with the casino event, and we ended up with Ben. A man casually watching the show at home whilst inexplicably sweating his tits off before answering the phone to Derren. A man who then didn't even notice that he was on his own TV once he got the phone call, nor even glanced in the direction of the camera filming him until told to do so. A man who supposedly handed
 
Back
Top