Apologies as I know this aired some time ago, but I have just recently watched the episode of Browns "Trick or Treat" series where he takes, for want of a better description, a bloke called Glen who says he has a bad memory, and trains him to be a quiz champion. (Link to Youtube Video above for anyone who didnt see it, about 22 mins long).
Basically he gets Glen to run his fingers down pages of reference books, without reading them, informing him that this will enter the information into his subconscious which he will be able to recall a week later at the quiz "Night of Champions". He enters the quiz alone and well I won't spoil the ending of it.
Surely this cannot be true and hasnt got the foggiest hope of ever working? My belief has always been that Brown is out to try and see what he can get viewers to believe. Everything he does in my eyes has been a test to see the extent to which people will believe what he does on screen is true.
Anyone have any thoughts on the episode?
Not seen the episode but must be rubbish. Don't believe that anyone could possibly do it.
ReplyDeleteI’ve mixed feelings about this. I’ve read Derren Brown’s book, and there is no doubt whatsoever that he does know a huge amount about memory, how memory works, and how to train it. Some of the things in that book have proven to be very useful, and I even teach some of the techniques to children in my school.
ReplyDeleteHowever – just skimming down a book with two fingers? Sorry, but I find that highly unlikely. The fact that he does turn round at one point and say words to the effect of - this learning technique is of very limited value since the information fades in about five days seems to be a very convenient cop out.
Derren Brown is a very good entertainer, and illusionist. I enjoyed watching this show, and I couldn’t spot exactly where the trick was with this. But I can’t help thinking that it’s there.