Can You Feel It?

[rionaleonhart]

I watched Derren Brown's The Heist yesterday, and it was excellent. For those who do not know the premise: Derren Brown offers a motivational seminar to a group of respectable businessmen and women. The seminar is a cover for manipulating them into robbing a security van. It is a fascinating study of what people can be persuaded to do, and of the little-known danger that the song 'Can You Feel It?' by the Jackson Five poses to society.

I think my favourite part was the shop assistants becoming increasingly frustrated by the endless parade of people in suits coming in and stealing sweets. Hee! (I can't believe people did that. Derren Brown says 'steal from this shop! :D' and people - people who clearly haven't been hypnotised, although they have been manipulated somewhat - actually do it? I would probably have assumed he was joking.)

The replication of the Milgram experiment was just disturbing. HUMAN BEINGS. WHY SO CREEPY?


Here is a Heist-related quote from Tricks of the Mind that I rather enjoyed:

Had the final armed robberies not worked - though I had no doubt they would - I had a very vague plan B and C up my sleeve to ensure that the show would come together in some form. But I didn't need to go down those routes. (Let's just say that I had a lot of dancers tucked around corners, waiting for a signal.)


It looks as if you can watch the entire awesome thing here! It is fifty minutes long, and it is so interesting, so please do watch it if you have a spare hour right now. If you enjoy it, you could consider buying Derren Brown's DVDs.

Alternatively, if you do not have the time to watch the entire thing, here is a two-minute cut-down, speeded-up version set to 'Yakety Sax'.

Comments

[amy-wolf.livejournal.com]

I like the idea of Derren Brown wandering around with packs of cleverly hidden dancers in case things go wrong. In my head, they're all wearing spangly costumes and crouching in the alleyway (people don't notice them, obviously, because Derren Brown has hung "There is no dancer" signs around their necks and used his Jedi mind-tricks Neuro-Linguistic Programming to make it work). When tricks fall apart, he blows a whistle and they all rush in and dance for dear life while he makes a fast get away.

As I seem to be writing the "Derren Brown erases the memories of the Top Gear Presenters as part of a joke, and the Stig turns up to rescue them" as well as the one where Richard turns up in Mongolia with no memory and mistakenly concludes he's a spy, I may use the Emergency Backup Dancers.

[rionaleonhart]

Hooray for Derren Brown fic! And extra hooray for Derren Brown fic that may propagate ridiculous 'Derren Brown always keeps backup dancers around, just in case' fanon!

[serriadh.livejournal.com]

"Derren Brown keeps backup dancers around, in an unusually unconvincing 'I'm straight' demonstration".

Seriously, it is so funny watching/reading stuff from before he came out. :D

Oh, Riona, where do I buy Trick or Treat DVD?? IT IS NOT ON AMAZON

[rionaleonhart]

Hee, yes! There's a rather cute pre-coming-out (pre-boyfriend, in fact, and I'd love to know whether that was an awakening for him) interview over here.

You won't be surprised to hear that he lives alone. The longest relationship in his life was a "sort of three-year, on and off relationship around university - that's probably the longest".

With a girl? "Yes," he says, looking startled.

There are no Trick or Treat DVDs, to my distress! Were Channel Four to release some (preferably with commentary and more adorable behind-the-scenesness - are you listening, Channel Four? WHILE YOU ARE AT IT: SERIES THREE OF TRICK OF THE MIND), I would buy them immediately.

(Psst! Has your e-mail address changed in the past year?)

[serriadh.livejournal.com]

Are your internets back?! Hurrah, if so.

Because I am a religious obsessive type of geek, I wonder how closetted he must have been to survive in evangelical christianity (though actually I do know one gay evangelical - celibate, naturally) and how much of his 'oh, I realised it's all circular thinking and fakery' is entirely the whole story. But as I said, obsessiveness.

Ah, I got confused with behind the scenes-ness and thought there was a DVD. Hurrah! The tv shows are downloadable for NONE of my english pounds.

No, still the same!