Well I for sure am. Of course Brown is probably expecting this, hence the ending of the show where he joked his way through an elaborate method for rigging the machine.
Let’s look at the draw itself again. Brown deliberately riddled the broadcast with little droplets that could be woven into a conspiracy theory.
- The wide angle shot – that everyone thought would bring a huge reveal of a second person or locked off camera (not handheld as we were lead to believe)
- Introducing the idea that he legally wasn’t allowed to show you the lottery result – obviously at that point in time it was actually a prediction.
- The wobbly handheld camera work that almost seemed too wobbly to be true.
- The hand over the mouth during the draw – many feel he was mouthing the balls as they dropped to a third party to do one of the following..
- LED display balls, the numbers are programmed onto an LED display on the balls
- The numbers are projected onto the balls
- The numbers being burnt onto the balls via laser thru a mysterious black gap in the backdrop (which can be seen)
- The sudden static nature of the camera for a brief few seconds whilst Derren writes the numbers, before he walks over. This would allow a split screen to come into play.
So many routes to conspiracy, its almost as if all the seeds have been deliberately planted – with one of them actually being true. I do reckon its the latter.. check this great video showing even a chap could set it up in his living room.
Then there’s the reveal show. The opening two thirds are loosely woven together under the pretence that it’s about predicting people’s choices – which has nothing to do with predicting lotto numbers. As Brown then pointed out, it was about predicting what a machine will do. He then suggests that will power may be able to play a part – as in the whole nation was willing the machine to choose his numbers. But he discounts this all himself, revealing the coin ‘trick’ he demo’d.
But look again, the first demo was about building fear in a woman who didn’t like mice, asking her to put her hand in three of four covered boxes, knowing a mouse is in one of them. Of course there was no mouse, it was about building a fear and belief that something was going to happen. Then a stunt with a knife under one cup in a grid, would this poor chap thrust his foot onto a knife. Of course not – there was no knife, a more extreme example of the same concept.
Then the coin film, I felt it had no place in the proceedings unless of course it was to continue with the theme of presenting something to the World that he wants you to believe, but actually isn’t. Could this have been a staged film?
And finally the big reveal. The concept of a group using their collective unconscious minds to successfully predict the next numbers in the sequence of the year’s numbers. But of course there is no proven deep maths behind the lottery sequence, it is completely random. There is an element of believability in the theory presented. But it also seems highly implausible. Were the members of the group actors? Were they duped? Was the bloke who couldn’t do automatic writing a stooge who led them to lead them to believe they were on course? Was this an example of getting the nation into a state whereby an idea or thought is presented and we all believe it, as with the mouse and knife/cup, whilst of course in reality it isn’t there?
I’m convinced that the reveal show was again designed to provoke questions and conspiracy from the viewer. But why would he go to this much effort if indeed it is the case?
The result of both shows is that we are all talking, blogging, flaming forums about it. This is pushing his name out to the entire nation and promoting the form of magic as entertainment once again – is that the reason for this? Or is this combining with the other events to lead to a huge reveal at the end of the series, after all the series is about misdirection. Or have we all already been duped – next weeks show is ‘how to control the nation’ – a subliminal film that will stick us to our chairs, but broadcasting subliminal messages is illegal, so is the trick that we were all glued to last weeks show? That the lotto stunt controlled the nation?
To me the questions raised set this up to be a great series of shows, real event TV. I’m convinced the whole series is linked, as suggested through the advert (lotto balls on the crossing post, something to do with football – manchesterunited.com on the billboard – rigging/betting on a match?, sticktoyoursofa.com on the bus stop and red and black on the truck – think casino) – the whole series appears to be about gambling, there must be a point to prove at the end of it all. Derren, bring it on!
