Simon Pegg Has His Mind Blown | Derren Brown

Hello. Very pleased to meet you. Thank you. Now you know that your headmistress, Miss Davis, was going to come in here and just check that you were all going to be well behaved. She can't do that because as many of you probably know, she can't be here today because her pants fell down earlier on. It's not funny. If you see her, don't make a fuss because it's a little bit embarrassing for her. It's not funny. In fact, perhaps the little boy at the back, if you'd like to give these back to her, if you see her. If you can't be behaved, I'll have to give them back to her myself. Right, Amy. There's something I'd like you to do. I'm going to give you this, which is a story. This is a story that was written by my niece, Macy, who is seven. It is rubbish. You're going to read that out loud a few times. What's important as you do this is that you need, in your mind, to have a picture of something while you read it out loud. That's a little bit complicated to think of something while you read out the story. But I want you now, as I talk to you, just to allow some image. While you read the poem, read the story, to allow an image to form in your mind in front of you like that. Sort of from the back of your mind to move forward. But I don't want it to be influenced by anything that's in the story itself, nor by the pictures on the outside. Does that make sense? Yep. Alright, so, can you all come round here for me? I'm going to put some aprons on you and give you some paint. Okay, you all sat very nicely. Thank you for that. So listen very carefully so you all understand what we're going to do. Amy's going to read a story. You have to listen really carefully to the story while we do this. While she does that, you're all going to make a handprint picture on this big sheet of paper. And while you do it, no talking's allowed because you've ought to really listen to the story that Amy's talking to you about. Alright? Off you go. Would you like to read for us, Amy? Near the biggest tree that ever grew by the fence down by the duck pond lived a duck called Dan. He decided he hated yellow. I really hate my beak, it's unbearable. Boo hoo, he'd sob. Everyone in the forest glade actually made Dan a red beak to wear, and he was happier. The end. Near the biggest tree that ever grew by the fence down by the duck pond lived a duck called Dan. He decided he hated yellow. I really hate my beak, it's unbearable. Boo hoo, he'd sob. Everyone in the forest glade actually made Dan a red beak to wear, and he was happier. The end. Near the biggest tree that ever grew by the fence down by the duck pond... Okay, stop guys. Thank you very much indeed. Thank you, Amy. Thank you for reading that horrific story so many times. Thank you all, and very well done. You were brilliant. Um, just a second. Just stay there for me while I just talk to Amy. Enjoyed the story? Um, yeah, fantastic. Just show it to me for a second. While you were reading that out, you were focusing on an image, you were thinking of something in your head. Obviously, just for the record, you hadn't told me what that was going to be or anything like that. That was just something you did as you were doing it. Was it in any way influenced by any of the things on this page? No. Not at all? It was just something out of nowhere, just in your head? Yep. There is no possible way that I could know what that is right now, is there? Oh, I thought so, no. Is it anything like that? Well done! Is that what you were thinking of? Yep. Come with me. Let me show you this. This will take a little leap of faith on your part. Okay. Alright? I realise that's just a massive brown paint. Just take a look at it as a whole. If for a moment, we just ignore this corner here, which has all gone a bit wild and a bit mad. Oh, no, no, no. I can see. Can you see it? That's slightly freaky. Two legs, arm coming down there. Ignore that corner, there's another arm there. The body and the head, there's even a face in there as well. It's a teddy bear. That's freaky. Well done, kids. You were brilliant! Was it fluke for the children, or did they pick something up? I tried to think of something that I thought the children would, it would be easily recognisable to them. And something fairly soft around the edges, really. And it was easy to think of. I have no idea what the connection was at all, and why some of the words were written big or spaced out. I don't understand what that's about. Amy, thank you for doing that. You're welcome. You were a little bit freaked out by that, and you were asking how on earth it was done. And I'm going to do something I don't normally do, which is explain a little bit of what went on there. Brilliant. You probably know this off by heart now. Unfortunately, yes. And you really said that you don't feel anything in there was possibly giving away what you were thinking of, or you weren't influenced by anything in this, correct? That's right. OK, so the drawings around the outside, nothing there that would suggest a teddy bear? No. Apart from maybe, if you like, three of these are brown. The only thing that isn't brown is this animal up here. If it were brown, it would probably look a little bit like the classic teddy bear pose. Perhaps. Maybe. I don't know. You've also got the word unbearable right here in the centre, with the word bear there, right in the middle, maybe. You've got a little bit here that says red beak to where, as part of the story. And you can see in red and beak the K of the word beak, perhaps maybe suggesting an R sort of shape that would reflect the word wear there. So that could be a reflection of the word bear. And red, the R, they're looking a little bit like a T. Maybe that might suggest head, bear, perhaps. What about up at the top here? Big word at the top. The N of near could possibly look a little bit like a B, the way I've done that squiggle. Perhaps you could possibly be looking at the word bear there. How about this? Take the first letter of every line. T, E, D, D, Y, B, E, A, R. Teddy bear. Yeah. Take the last letter. T, E, D, D, Y, B, E, A, R. The lines begin and end with the word teddy bear. You take a diagonal on that page. T, E, D, D, Y, B, E, A, R. And if you go right down the centre, T, E, D, D, Y, B, E, A, R. And you were thinking of a teddy bear. You were absolutely superb. That's fantastic. You're fantastic with the kids. It was a real pleasure doing that with you and with your class. Thank you very much indeed. Imagine if instead of trying to work out what your complicated friends want for their birthdays, you could just go out and get whatever you like and then convince them that that's what they want. Life would be so much easier. And if you come and take a seat just over here. Thank you very much. Excellent. So, we spoke on the phone a few days ago. Yes. And I asked you to write down something you'd like for your birthday. Yes. I also asked you to sign the back of it when I spoke to you and gave you these instructions so that basically when you brought it with you today, which I hope you have done, you know that no one's going to steam it open or switch it or do anything with it. Absolutely. All kept secret? Very much so. Excellent. All right. Well, I have brought you a present. Now, don't get overexcited. It is in the big box behind you. Right. It may be a small present in a big box. Right. Or it may be a big present in a big box. Okay. The size of the box will not necessarily give you any clues. All right. When you walk into a shop and you see something that you know you have to have, what is that feeling like? Describe it for me. I guess it's quite sort of sudden and you have a definite positivity about it and often you'll go away and see other things, but then you come back to the thing you saw first. Excellent. Well, just take that feeling and just sort of amplify it a bit for me because it is a really good feeling. It's important to understand that feeling of positivity that you described. Okay. And also, very nice to meet you and thank you for coming on the show. Let me explain to you how I buy gifts or presents for people. All right. And this is the best way to handle, bar none, the problem of what to settle for when you're going to buy gifts for somebody that's a little bit difficult to buy for. All right. Now, what I do is rather than recycle the same sort of two tired bottles of wine or box of chocolates, which are no fun to receive, I go out and I buy anything and then I make that person fall in love with it. All right. By creating a strong feeling of desire for that object. Does that make sense? Yeah. And it absolutely works. They get all sort of pumped up. You know, they get that feeling of that positivity you were describing. They beam excitement for it. And, you know, it's a win-win thing because they get a present that they love and, you know, I get rid of some stuff out the back of my kitchen cupboard or whatever. What I want you to really understand about this because it's important is that that feeling is so strong, can be so extreme, that it can replace the memory of what they actually wanted. So even though two days before they may have said, I want X, whatever that is, you know, like a really nice car, like a BMW or an Xbox or something like that, something they really wanted, suddenly now they think they always wanted what I got them. You know, and they're like, well, why would I want another car or an Xbox? That would be useless to me. And suddenly this thing is useless to them because they're so delighted and surprised by what I got them that they forget what they originally wanted. Does that make sense? It actually replaces that memory. Yes. Yeah. Excellent. Cool. Good. So you can have anything you like. What's your dream present? A BMX bike. A BMX bike? Yeah. That'd be fantastic. And that would make you feel great, wouldn't it? It would fulfill a childhood dream. Really? Is it a childhood dream to have one? I never got one when I was a kid. You never got one when you were a kid, so it'd be great to have one. Okay. Do you want to have a look? Yes. Yes, excellent. Come and have a look. Ready? Yes. What kind of a red? What do you have in mind? Red. Yeah. Have a look. Nice and light. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's put it over here. Sort of thing you had in mind? Yeah. Was this really a childhood dream to have one? Yeah, it was. You've got a red. I'm just amazed. No, no. I'm delighted. Well, happy birthday. I hope it's... I don't know a lot about bikes. I hope it's the right sort. And out of interest, what did you write originally? I wrote a BMX bike is what I wrote. So when you came in here, you were wanting a BMX bike? Yeah. Yeah? Yeah. Okay. That's probably not the case. If you can detach yourself from what's happened here a little bit, was it really a BMX bike you wanted when you came in? That's what I'd written down, yeah. You may have done. But that's very unlikely. Are you sure? If you think back, are you sure you... A BMX bike is what you want. That absolutely feels right, doesn't it? When you think about what you want? Yeah, absolutely. Because that's what I wrote down. Yeah. And that's why I'm so flabbergasted that it's there. Take it out. Have a look. No one's touched this, have they? Where's it been? Where's it been since you wrote it? It's been in my wallet. In your wallet. Go on, have a look. Look at that. I'm shaking. Let's just have a look at the back. You signed your name across it. This is the date and the time. It was 10 past one on Saturday. 10 past one last Saturday. Yeah. Genuinely, no one's touched this since you wrote it? No, because I signed it over here, so you couldn't do it. Let's just have a look. What's it say? Leather jacket. Did you want a leather jacket? No, I wanted a BMX. So why did you write leather jacket? I didn't. You didn't write leather jacket, but that's your handwriting, isn't it? That's my handwriting as well. This is what you want, yeah? This is what I want, yeah. All right. Any idea why you wrote that? No. That gives you that feeling of... Yes. Spontaneous. Spontaneous positivity. That. Yes? Not this. You don't want that. That's useless to you. Absolutely. So you're happy with your present? As am I. Congratulations and happy birthday. Thank you. Excellent. Thank you very much. Oh my God. I'm genuinely a bit freaked out, in a nice way. I came in here thinking, if I can suss this out, if there's some kind of thing going on that, you know, I can work out logically, I'm just going to do it and, you know, I'm not going to be an arse about it. I'm going to play along and, but I'm just, I'm stunned. That's definitely my right and that's my J and I've got no need for a leather jacket and I don't know what's going on. What's my name? He's going to have me in a pickle jar by two, I know it.