Derren Brown taps the king of ambigrams for the secret to his show ‘Trick or Treat’

Up is down, black is white with the master of psychological illusion

Watching my boy Derren Brown got ambigrams in my noggin. The topic arose in conversation with internationally renowned calligrapher Claude Dieterich A. and I, and Claude turned my attention to the top man in the field, John Langdon. I visit the man’s website and, lo and behold, there’s D.B. all up in my grill (er, on the front page) with his Trick or Treat cards, designed by John Langdon.

Derren offers contestants on his magical/mentalism U.K. telly programme the choice of two cards that say either “Trick” or “Treat” as the basis for their either good or bad fate. Unbeknownst to the contestant is that the decision is arbitrary as the card will say whatever Derren want’s it to say.

Labels: Best of, Derren Brown, Design, Television

UK's master of illusion Derren Brown is back

It’s something nice or something nasty in Derren Brown’s newest show of mental trickery, giving viewers a real treat

My boy Derren Brown, master of psychology, illusion, and showmanship, is back in full force with his new show, Trick or Treat. Contestants each week choose a card: “trick” or “treat.” After his or her choice in the coming weeks will either receive something pleasent, a treat, or something rather horrible, the trick. They won’t know which they chose, what the stunt will be or when their experience will take place. And, in each instance, Derren has full control.

The tricks and treats are the most fun parts of the show because these hidden-camera stunts are so much more elaborate and cunning to be pulled on hapless fool. Think of these stunts as being from The Jamie Kennedy Experiment, if Jamie Kennedy were Jason Vorhees on acid. If none of this makes sense, here is a quick rundown of the first episode (of six) in the season: Derren at midnight breaks in a flat to tell the subject he has been chosen for the show, and that he must choose from the two trick or treat cards. He does, and Derren reveals to the audience that he has chosen “trick.” (More on the secret to this later.)

What was the trick played on the man? Derren, using his powers over the human mind, forces his subject to fall asleep in a rigged photo booth the man was using to take passport photos. While asleep, Derren flies the man from London to Morocco, where he then is awakened in the same booth. From the subject’s perspectives the time is instantaneous. He nods off, and wakes in a different country. The confusion on his face was priceless and completely real.

Out of body finale

His finale was even more impressive. Jules, a young psychologist, agreed to do the show. What she didn’t know—after she had picked her “trick” card—was that Derren had placed a hidden camera in her car. After observing her “hands-free approach to driving,” it was clear his plan: He would create for her, using his masterful powers of hypnosis, a scenario where she is witness to her own car crash in an out-of-body experience. She would literally see herself lying limp in the driver’s seat of her crashed car as paramedics carry her corpse away, as if she was a ghost witnessing the aftermath.

To do this, the production employed a bit of Hollywood magic. To be believable that this woman is seeing herself, not only would the show need a convincing body double, but also create some kind of mask so that the actress looked exactly like Jules, the subject. Movies do this all the time: a special-effects make-up artist creates a “life cast” of an actor using alginate and plaster—creating a negative impression—and creates a positive mask from that. The catch here, however, is that the show needs an original life cast without the subject’s awareness. So, a few weeks after the initial meeting with Derren, the subject receives a free spa treatment, unaware that it has anything to do with Derren Brown. Under the guise of a facial mask, a successful mold is created and a mask is made.

Months later (the production observed the subject to make sure she was psychologically robust enough to endure such a stunt), everything was ready to begin her trick. Derren phone calls Jules telling her she is needed for a photo shoot for the upcoming show and to wear an exact set of clothes. As she drives out to the country, she receives a call from Derren. Derren performs my favorite and most intriguing tricks of all by using his words and sounds to completely incapacitate a person on the other end of the line, making them fall completely unconscious. It is a sight to behold and I will strive to learn its secret. To put it another way: She picks up the phone while driving, he asks her to pull over, and a few seconds later, she is completely asleep. Now Derren and his elaborate team can put the pieces together for an astounding stunt.

The subject is under trance. The setting is a remote country road with no one else around. Television cameras are hidden among the trees of the surrounding forrest area. Another car is brought in and beaten to look like a car accident. The two cars are placed together on the intersection, as well as a fake broken stop light (with accompanying signs that warn of its malfunction). While still unconscious, Derren places the girl on her feet to one corner of the intersection. He employs yet another astounding verbal hypnotic trick where he makes her feet stick to the ground, unable to move. Soon, she must only stand and watch.

She wakes. She sees her car smashed into the side of another. “Oh god,” she says to herself. She tries to move but is confused by her legs refusal to work. She’s stuck. She sees a man exit the vehicle, distraught at what has apparently happened. She sees and hears him call the police with a quivery voice. He says he’s fine, but the other person isn’t moving. By now, she sees something horrible. In her car sits the driver—it’s her. Same clothes, same hair, same face. The ambulance arrives. Police arrives. No one acknowledges the woman standing at the scene. She shouts “Hello?” in vein. They pull the body out of her car. She touches herself to reassure she isn’t a ghost. She’s freaking out. Gurney’d into the ambulance, the corpse is whisked away. The police take the man away, talking about how these things happen. They all drive off with her still there, still unable to move. And there she stands, looking at two wrecked cars in the middle of nowhere. Alone.

After a few minutes, her cell phone rings as it still rests in her car seat. She walks to pick it up. The sound must be the hypnotic release of her immobility. She picks up the line. “It’s Derren” can be heard. She sits down and again she falls asleep.

She awakens in her car, pulled to the side of the road, completely fine. No one else around. She starts her car and leaves.

Secret of ‘Tricks’ and ‘Treats’

In episode five Derren actually gives away the secret of the show (though I had solved the mystery before that—so there).

What the contestants believe is that their choice of card will ultimately how the course of events will go. In reality, however, Derren has already chosen their fate before they even choose; their choice in cards is arbitrary. The secret to this are the cards: each card reads both the word “TRICK” and the word “TREAT.” All is needed is which way to flip:

(The second image is the same image flipped.)

I’ve had to make one of these in a graphic design class, and I forget what the concept is names. How wonderfully clever.

Labels: Best of

The mysterious face of Jacob revealed in last night’s episode of Lost

Last night’s Lost has teased the viewer with the semi-revelation of Jacob, a man—or being—to whom the “others” are subject. He is the wizard of oz, the man behind the curtain. And, he has a face:

In the scene, Ben leads Locke to Jacob’s house where Ben presents to him an empty chair, claiming that in it Jacob sits. Ol’ Jake the Snake doesn’t like newfangled technology, like flashlights, and throws a poltergeist-style tizzy-fit. Ben yells at the empty chair, is thrown back, and in just a few frames of film we see this man above.

So just who is Jacob? He apparently needs something, eerily muttering directly to Locke, “Help me.” Being that his first name ain’t Rhonda, Tom Locke doesn’t have the help he needs.

Also, another story point changes our perception about something: Earlier in the season, the Losty gang had a good ol’ time finding an old VW van and the dead workman who drove it (with beer in the back seat). Now, we know that man is Ben’s gassed-to-death father. Yikes, that’ll teach him to forget Ben’s birthday.

The not-so classic arcade game that spawned 16 sequels and dozens of console ports

Pounders senior HADOUKEN correspondent, Q–Pounder, reports from the field

In that grand year of 1987, which among other lesser events, marked Q-pounder's 7th birthday, a burgeoning game company decided to release one of the worst games imaginable.

Capcom's Street Fighter was the third one-on-one fighting game of its kind. It followed Data East's dual joystick rattling Karate Champ and Konami's silly Yie Ar Kung Fu (I think that's supposed to mean 1-2 Kung Fu a top-secret Mandarin romanization scheme). SF succeeded in being even less fun than these two mediocre games while employing an overly complicated control scheme with a then unheard of six buttons.

Being seven and barely tall enough to see the washed-out sprites over the cigarette-scorched bezel art, my eyes naturally gravitated to the bank of 14 buttons and two joysticks. This wasn't the pnematic pressure-sensing button console pictured above. This was the balls-to-the-wall six-buttons-for-six-identically-worthless-moves version. I dropped in my quarter and flew to Japan, where I wooped the stand-still AI on the first guy, then jump kicked the second guy to death. Next I flew to America. Apparently, Americans are tougher than Japanese. They were certainly Fought dirtier. An Engrish announcer told me that I'd better get some real skills before I challenged him again, then called me 'Kiddo.' I probably shouted something rebellious back before diving into the abyss and squandering my allowance. Americans proved not tough-E-nuff. Next it was off to China. There my journey ended in tragedy. An old Chinese man quipped the same crack about me sucking too bad. I winced at the word 'kiddo.' But my quarters depleted, I slumped over and walked off, passing on my way out the door dozens of more worthy games. Leaving the smoke-hazy game hall, I turned back to the ugly box flickering in the corner. "Curse you, Street Fighter. May bureaucrats shuffle your sequel's best sound engineers and programmers off to other projects. May your consoles be culled to make way for Froggers and Centipedes at retirement homes across the southwest. May your franchise end in ruin."

Flash forward to the present. After waking with to a too-much-pizza dump and a flipped cockroach on the bathroom floor, I fired up my PS2 to play some classic shooters and sidescrollers on Capcom Arcade Classics Volume II. I scrolled through the roster of 20 or so arcade-perfect ports with added bonus features like marketing fliers, sound test modes and brisk development histories. There it was, glaring back at me. Twenty years of infamy and shame. Street Fighter. I shrugged. The pussy was getting her gym stuff together. I had a good five minutes to kill. The first thing I noticed was that when the announcer starts the match, he says "Lound One." My underdeveloped ears hadn't taken notice of this back in that jukebox flooded game room. It was funny at first but it quickly became distracting. I cut through the first wave of uninspired muscle men and old drunk Chinese dudes. Eventually the game just got too hard. The fact that the characters, regardless of their sociolinguistic background all dished out the exact same "kiddo" line also distracted me. Fortunately, the only thing to be distracted from was the god-awful gameplay.

In case you're wondering, you can still throw hadoukens and do that spin kick thing and that uppercut thing. All you have to do is try the same joystick motion about 20 times and you'll eventually do it. It's just too fickle to be performed with any consistency.

I was going to beat the game so I could relay the ending to Pounders readers. After about 10 continues on a guy half way through the game, I just couldn't go on. Solly!

To think that Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game was only a few years away. Wait! Omigosh. Look! http://www.aintitcool.com/node/30552 They might be making a Street Fighter: The Movie 2: The Game 2! This time focusing on Chun Li. There's some AP pounding inspiration from the past...

Only the manliest of manly men know which brand to use for the driest of manhands

Coming soon to a public restroom near you: automatic hand dryers that remind you of your manliness through their creative branding. I first encountered one of these beauties at the my gym in Guangzhou. Seeing that Bangganger is a regular poster, I think he might appreciate this name. Seeing that many of our readers are all about the AP, I figured you guys might enjoy the URL for this up and coming appliance company: www.china-banger.com. It's one blow that requires neither English nor Chinglish commands to get going. Just a wave of the hand, a la the dynastic period.