LucidLight

Pulled from Digital Spy:

"Derren Brown to question religion
Tuesday, December 28 2004, 10:55 GMT -- by Daniel Kilkelly

Illusionist Derren Brown is planning a new Channel 4 show, which sees him trying to convince American religious leaders that he is the Messiah.

The show, titled Messiah, will focus on many religious and spiritual beliefs.

Brown told The Sun, "We so often take for granted the information we receive from writers, preachers and public speakers and we are encouraged to make life decisions on what they tell us - but what if we are relying on false information?

"Messiah is a documentary-style show where I go to America and get to meet those influential people behind certain belief-systems. Two targets are new-age beliefs and mainstream Christianity.

"Can I get those people who are responsible for the beliefs of hundreds of thousands of people, to endorse me as being the real thing?"

He added, "I am not knocking people's genuine beliefs. The agenda of this show is only to raise questions. People are not mocked or made to look stupid.

"But there will be people out there who, like me, are already very sceptical of the belief systems I question and I'd be delighted if the show nudged some people into a more questioning frame of mind."

This should be great! Sounds like it will be worth tapping should I need to loan it out to any believers.

sakrilege

This should do better in Media and Popular Culture.

sakrilege, SL Moderator

MrFrosty

Damn, I thought you meant a third Messiah TV series on BBC1. I think that's in the works anyway.

Derren Brown rocks He destroys Blane in a second with his skills. Very accomplished in cold reading. In the past, he has done the russian roulette on TV plus the seance (also on TV).

However, I can't see Derren pulling off a Messiah stunt over here in the UK, it would take a place as indoctrinated as the USA (re: religion) for him to succeed.

EDIT: Oh bollocks, I remembered that there was a third Messiah series shown earlier this year. Not sure if there will be a fourth series.

Seb

"Messiah is a documentary-style show where I go to America and get to meet those influential people behind certain belief-systems. Two targets are new-age beliefs and mainstream Christianity.

I'm certainly going to keep an eye out for this one!

That was a fake. His mind games are quite impressive however.

MrFrosty

Yeah, I remember reading about it in the papers afterwards. What's interesting is the selection process he used to find the candidate who loaded the bullet into the revolver. Most of it, in hindsight, is very obvious.

I don't think the USA has an equivalent for Derren Brown; what he does takes many, many years of practice.

EDIT: I knew the Messiah show was set in America, I was just pointing out how ineffective it would be to have it in the UK. After all, his other shows were done here. So I was just referencing the OP.

MonCapitan2002

That sounds like it is an interesting premise for what will undoubtedly will be a very interesting show. It's a shame I won't get to see it seeing as how I do not like in the UK. Is this Channel 4 broadcast on any international feeds?

MrFrosty

I'm pretty sure somebody, somewhere will upload the show onto the big, bad internet -- or internets, if you're GWB -- so that's your best bet. Not sure if any other Derren Brown gets uploaded or not but official DVDs of some of his older stuff exist.

E.G. http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...072889-6967842

Seb

Sorry my fellow mofo, I misunderstood.

I_pity_the_fool

Yeah, Derren Brown is superb.

I remember this one time when he was at a greyhound track. He'd deliberately had a member of the public place some of his money on the one dog that was certain to lose, and after the dog came in last, he went up to the cashier, looked her in the eyes and told her that his dog had won, despite the fact that the ticket clearly said the dog had lost. I always remember what he said to the cashier shortly before she handed over his money:

I wonder if his mind tricks will work on those weak minded fools. I saw him in Southend about a year ago. Excellent stuff.

Interestingly (link), it appears that Derren Brown used to be a fundamentalist Christian.

If you ever can see him live, or catch any of his television shows, then I highly recommend seeing them.

Amanda Hugginkiss

His work sounds a lot like the kinds of things Penn and Teller do ... is his MO something similar?