For two decades Derren Brown has mystified mankind with his mastery of the magical arts but his next scheme may push even his stupendous talents to their limits.
In his next Netflix special, Derren Bown: Sacrifice, the celebrated illusionist will use all of the psychological techniques at his disposal to convince a man to make the ultimate sacrifice.
You see Derren plans on creating a scenario where his subject, Phil, a man who believes that America has an ‘immigration problem’, will willingly sacrifice his own life for a stranger he wouldn’t identify with, specifically an illegal immigrant.
Check out the trailer here…
If I’m honest Phil doesn’t seem like the type of guy who’s willing to jump in front of a bullet for an illegal immigrant, especially when it involves fighting off a gang of angry bikers.
At one point during the video Phil declares:
I’ve always kind of been more bias towards white people. But again, I’m not racist, it’s just how I was brought up.
Even Derren admits that he’s worried he might not be able to convince Phil to take the plunge, admitting ‘I don’t know when it comes down to it that he’ll step out in front of a gun and take a bullet’.
Let’s be honest though he definitely will, whatever ritual Derren went through to become the master of mortal minds has left him with some substantial psychic powers.
Over the years he’s convinced a woman she was dead, given a woman incredible musical talent and perhaps most impressively convinced someone to murder their friend.
Sacrifice is the first special filmed entirely for Netflix and not for Channel 4. Last week he spoke to Graham Norton about the swap and how different it was working for the streaming giant.
He said:
It feels… in some ways it’s different. After years of Channel 4, they knew how we made the shows, in terms of things like the duty of care to the person going through it, if it’s a big, dark stunt.
So we kind of had tracks that we slotted into to make sure all that was in place, but with Netflix, we’re having to explain to them as much about how we make the shows as with fitting in with what they require as well.
They’re brilliant and supportive, but they’re also just further away, they’re in America. So we’ve been entrusted a lot.
Derren Brown: Sacrifice launches exclusively on Netflix this Friday, October 19 2018
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More of a concept than a journalist, Tom Percival was forged in the bowels of Salford University from which he emerged grasping a Masters in journalism.
Since then his rise has been described by himself as ‘meteoric’ rising to the esteemed rank of Social Editor at UNILAD as well as working at the BBC, Manchester Evening News, and ITV.
He credits his success to three core techniques, name repetition, personality mirroring, and never breaking off a handshake.