Retro Yakking

Derren Brown. You either love him or hate him. Judging by the amount of press attention his upcoming series, “The Events” has been garnering it seems Channel Four are really building this up to be his biggest and best season of shows so far. Brown’s blog crashed yesterday, under the weight of ‘exceptionally high traffic’. However, Retro Yakking will reserve judgement until it has seen all the episodes.

To kick off the series, Brown staged a much-hyped ‘prediction’ of the lottery numbers for Wednesday night’s draw. Now, we all know it was a trick: he couldn’t possibly have actually predicted the numbers otherwise he’d most likely be a millionaire and not even need to bother continuing his television work.

First, take a look at the trick.

Okay, pretty impressive. But how did he do it? Well, for the definitive answer, you’ll have to tune in to Channel 4 tonight at 9PM for the full story, which will no doubt go into the intricacies of the trick in elaborate detail. After watching the prediction on Channel 4, the C4+1 repeat and on YouTube, I believe I have a plausible explanation of how it was executed. The fact I had to rewatch it three times is testament to how well the trick was performed, and I certainly was ‘fooled’ on first viewing.

However, I made a point of looking for inconsistencies in the 11:35PM rebroadcast edition. At full quality, I believe I spotted a large ‘camera jerk’ which could well have suggested superimposition of ‘foreign’ footage. Indeed, this is the most likely explanation: if it’s anything else I’ll be mightily impressed, and Mr. Brown is certainly worth his salt as a stage performer.

But yes, the likelihood is that televisual trickery as well as simple illusion was in effect to successfully execute the stunt. Having rewatched the footage on the Internet, the best I can offer is thus. It’s a little long-winded, but it was an excellent trick requiring complicated and perhaps meticulous setup.

Brown made a point of there being two cameramen in the seemingly deserted studio. This was an excuse to show that the ‘main’ cameraperson was supposedly holding the camera in his hand, accounting for the ‘jerky’ camera footage. In actuality, the camera was placed on a tripod and a fake digital wobble filter applied from thereon in, at least until the big reveal.

Now, this was a cover for the superimposition of a still or pre-recorded (maybe frozen, see penultimate paragraph) footage over the left hand side of the screen (where the balls were placed on the stand), making the superimposition seem a little smoother/more believable. Whilst this was happening, an assistant was placing the correct balls on the stand in reaction to the actual, live lottery draw being broadcast on BBC1.

For the big reveal, the superimposition fades out and we see full live footage once more. It’s simple televisual effects, a method becoming increasingly common in modern illusionism, applied to a live broadcast. One balls-up (heheh, balls-up, geddit?) could have spoiled the whole thing, but in the end it went fairly smoothly - not without hitches, but in a believeable fashion.

What makes me believe this? Watch the left hand ball on the stand in the above video from approximately 5:37-5:42. It levitates - now that’s magic!

A crude animation to show this, but the first ball can clearly be seen to move:

Now, my theory — and until tonight it shall remain a theory — does not account for the strange ‘talking into his hand’ business occurring during the actual draw. Either this is an attempt at acting nervous, or it has some sort of significance - maybe he is whispering the numbers to the assistant so he can pick the numbered balls quicker.

If my hunches are correct, it is indeed a rather elaborate trick, and one that will have taken much practise to pull off, hence the ‘year’s worth of preparation’ Derren talks of. Other than that, his claim is simple showmanship - he may well have put lottery numbers on his bedroom wall, but that wouldn’t really have helped him execute the stunt in the way I explained.

One more clue: Channel 4 ran a teaser trailer on the 10th September in which Brown held up a snowflake. Could this indicate the use of frozen footage in the trick? Cold reading? Something to do with snow?

Hopefully, my guesses will be proved wrong and I will be very pleasantly surprised. After all, Brown is supposed to be the master of mind control - is this trick just a front for an even bigger, more spectacular stunt? I hope so. Whatever, he’s certainly got me tuning in to tonight’s broadcast. Well done Channel 4.

How did Derren explain all this away? See my review of the first episode in his ‘Events’ series here.

Update: someone with precisely the same theory as mine. Uncanny coincidence, or incontrovertible proof?

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