Fruit Machine Chat

Don't suppose anyone caught this? It was on last week and is repeated at the moment.

An ordinary guy is taught how to photo-read and then is given a week to read as many books as possible and then take part in a Night of the Champions pub quiz in London. Don't suppose anyone on this board was there?

I wasn't, but I believe I may have spotted someone from this board...

I didn't think the whole thing ran very true, somehow (although I only saw the last two minutes!). In what reference book is one going to learn that e.g. there are five seconds between Big Ben's bongs, or that Wednesday have more league titles than any other team outside the Premiership? They are pure trivia.

I saw this on tv yesterday, and thought it was very impressive. I also liked the thing he did with the coffee beans.

xyz

All good points DMAC.

It would have been more impressive if he'd picked a less intelligent memeber of society and repeated the trick. Also, given his previous show about the horse racing system I'd say it was more than likely that they got this guy to enter more than 1 pub quiz, filmed them all and then only showed the one where he came second.

Given the standard of the questons that were asked in the quiz, I'd say most of us would have come second without swallowing a dictionary and encyclopedia.

What I will give Brown is the speed reading, trick though. I use that sometimes to improve my efficacy at certain games.

It was a very interesting evening, a little odd to be doing a table quiz with a boom hanging over your head but as the beer slipped down the easier that got!

Just pleased that the team i was playing for managed to come joint first and prevent Mr Brown's "trick" from becoming complete.

A little peeved still that my moment of glory in clinching the tie break wasn't shown on telly, but never mind.

I doubt whether they took "Just Glen" to a lot of quizzes, clearly a fair amount of money was spent on that evening down in Fulham, it just didn't come across that way on last Friday's show.

Have a great day guys,

The Pikester

I read on Davblog (http://blog.dave.org.uk/2008/04/pub-quiz.html) that all contestants had to sign an NDA. Also read elsewhere that Glen was allowed to pop out and see Derren between rounds - possibly interesting? Can Mr Pike confirm this? Though you may not have been mindful of him at the time.

Well done on the win by the way. And yes, 'tis a pity that your tie-break wasn't screened - can you reveal the question for that?

I was pleased to see the famous 'flange' of baboons question appear. A term which I beileve was created by Richard Curtis for a Not The Nine O'Clock News sketch and subsequently solidified as a fact.

As for the Trick, I'm still working on it. Though I don't believe it was all down to speed reading I'm inclined to discount the idea that it was done in the style of The System horseracing stunt. But Derren Brown, he's one helluva slippery geezer.

xyz

donttellhimpike wrote:Fulham

Used to live there - which pub was it?

It was held in the Hurlingham down near Wandsworth Bridge.

I was aware of a "team" called Just Glen but just assumed it was a bizarre team name not an individual.

I went 1-0 down on the tie break but clawed my way back.

Q1: Year of Thriller release?

Q2: Tugrik is currency of where?

Q3: Supporting Actor Oscar for "Jerry Maguire"?

I think that was right, too much beer and adrenalin was coursing to be perfectly sure!!

All the best,

Pikeletssss

Interesting - I would have fared the same way. I hate those "in which year" questions... so witless, as Istenem will no doubt agree.

Thanks for the local info.