Derren Brown was born in 1971 in a small British town. Since his early student ages, he developed a passion for magic tricks. He pursued his ambitions and he even had some successful shows. However, he was never the best of his niche, as he only played some common tricks that are well known by any established magician. Being a smart person, he realized that he needs something revolutionary in order to boost up his career.
Roulette and Magic
In the year 2000, he convinced the producers of a Channel 4 show to play some tricks live. He realized that this is the chance of his life; therefore pulling out a rabbit from a hat was out of the question. He proposed a dangerous trick to the producers: a mind reading stunt for the Russian roulette. As the use of handguns in UK is prohibited, the trick was filmed in a secret location in Europe (at least the producers claimed this).
The magician had to read the mind of a person that loaded a 6 chamber revolver. Brown pulled the trigger for chambers 3 and 4 with the gun aimed at this head, fired the bullet number 5 in another direction (the chamber was also empty), and finally he fired the bullet that was on the chamber number 6 in another direction, magical vegas. Luckily, nobody got hurt during this unusual arrangement.
Derren Brown continued a series of live shows with this trick. He was always contested, as the stunt was considered too dangerous. However, nothing happened during this tour, and the audience was astonishing. Some people claimed that there were blind bullets in the gun. However, as no accident happened during the shows, this statement couldn't be proven.
The Russian roulette trick is also important for the gamblers. Some smart roulette players asked themselves if those tricks couldn't be applied to guess the cards of the opponents. Derren Brown always claimed that this ability couldn't be learned, it can only be perfected once you have it. He was even tempted to participate to a live poker contest in 2005, but he refused politely.
For some unknown reasons, Derren renounced this astonishing trick in 2006. He continued his shows around the United Kingdom, but his success has fallen dramatically. In fact, only his celebrity gained with this Russian roulette trick still brings some spectators to his shows, but the producers are fed up with his failures. With so little options remained, Derren announced his intentions to become a professional poker player. We can hardly wait to see if he can prove himself, or he will be just another mediocre player. |
