REAL Russian Roulette

[jrjgames]

In all your years on the planet, you've heard many tales of how a moderately 'bad' thing will ultimately lead to a catastrophically bad thing -- marijuana leads to heroin, beer leads to alcoholism, lying leads to jail time.  Now it seems something as innocuous as your basic reality show has led to a new reality - Russian Roulette.  According to the BBC, UK's Channel 4 will air a game of Russian Roulette played live on British television this weekend.  Self-professed 'psychological illusionist' Derren Brown will point a gun with one chamber filled to his head, pulling the trigger if he senses the chamber is empty.  If he 'sees' the chamber contains a bullet, he will point the gun away.  I suppose the only good news in all this is the network will air the live broadcast on a slight delay in the event this idiot kills himself, but rather the screen goes black and a prepared message will appear advising the viewers what has happened.   Recently Channel 4 aired an autopsy which drew over a hundred complaints after the broadcast. Perhaps if the complaints started coming in before this weekend's broadcast, or if viewers made the choice to not watch the show in the first place, it would have a bigger impact.

John

[knagl]

That whole thing just sounds like a bad plan...

Speaking of Russian Roulette, though, you have to dig around and find comedian Wild Bill Bauer's \"Uncle Arnie plays Russian Roulette\" comedy bit.  It's not about the game show, but it's funny as hell.  He did the bit on the \"Bob and Tom\" radio show, as well as other smaller stations across the country and probably in person at stand-up gigs.  Use your favorite program to find the bit -- it's classic stuff.

[mparrish11]

Everything about it is wrong.  Just plain wrong.

[DrBear]

Always looking at the bright side -
It could knock \"You're In The Picture\" off as the shortest-lived game show!

Literally.

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'DrBear\' date=\'Oct 2 2003, 02:44 PM\']Always looking at the bright side -
It could knock \"You're In The Picture\" off as the shortest-lived game show!

Literally.[/quote]
Nice joke, but this is more of a David Blaine special gone way awry than an actual game show.

If anyone's curious, here's Channel 4's web pages on the special.

[SplitSecond]

Paging Christine Chubbock...

[Robert Hutchinson]

[quote name=\'jrjgames\' date=\'Oct 2 2003, 10:50 AM\']Self-professed 'psychological illusionist' Derren Brown will point a gun with one chamber filled to his head, pulling the trigger if he senses the chamber is empty.  If he 'sees' the chamber contains a bullet, he will point the gun away.[/quote]
Guys, you are aware of what someone calling themselves a \"psychological illusionist\" and talking about \"sensing [if] the chamber is empty\" means, right? He's either a magician or a charlatan, and either way, I have no doubt that precautions will be taken to prevent any actual bullet-firing.

(Well, all right, I suppose there's a small chance that he's just insane.)

[jrjgames]

Oh no doubt...as a matter of fact, the name David Blain came right to my head as I read it too.

[Clay Zambo]

Yup, saw it this morning and thought, \"Gee, I'm glad I don't get Channel 4.\"

[Brig Bother]

This happened last night and it was absolutely RIVETTING stuff, as you'd expect a man trying not to shoot his head off to be really.

Whilst I largely suspect misdirection (Derren Brown despite his current specialisation in suggestion and mind control was apparently an extremely talented close-up magician) so he was never really going to shoot his head off, he survived.

However, after shooting two empties into his head he shot the third chamber away from him but that was empty. He had to compse himself for several minutes before quickly firing another at his head and finally shooting the bullet away from him. Gripping.

The rest of the show was him whittling down the 100 participants to one person who would load the gun (also very entertaining).

Anyway, I think I'm a convert. And oh look, there's a DVD out!

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'Brig Bother\' date=\'Oct 6 2003, 10:37 AM\']This happened last night and it was absolutely RIVETTING stuff, as you'd expect a man trying not to shoot his head off to be really.[/quote]
Were there any hints in the technical credits (if any) or from the looks, voices, demeanors, etc., of the audience participants of where the show was produced?  (It was produced from a secret location outside of the UK because of that country's laws against handguns.)  The only hints I would know is that the show also aired in the Netherlands and Australia last night.

[clemon79]

Which brings up an interesting question:

If they were to attempt to run the show here in the United States, WITH THE KNOWLEDGE THAT THE GUY LIVES (nevermind whether you think it would be interesting enough for a network to be interested in with that caveat, just assume they are), would it make air, or do you think people would apeshit enough for Fox (oh, um, did I say that out loud? ) to pull it?

[Brig Bother]

[quote name=\'uncamark\' date=\'Oct 6 2003, 07:41 PM\']
Were there any hints in the technical credits (if any) or from the looks, voices, demeanors, etc., of the audience participants of where the show was produced?  (It was produced from a secret location outside of the UK because of that country's laws against handguns.)  The only hints I would know is that the show also aired in the Netherlands and Australia last night. [/quote]
 It was a barn (not a studio, no dramatic music, the whole thing was caught on two remote control cameras on a minute delay) somewhere where it wasn't quite pitch black outside at 10PM our time (but the barn was floodlit). A lot of people are suggesting one of the Channel Islands.

There was no real audience, five people had been whittled down from the 100 in previous nationwide tests (these were good fun to watch, basically he apparently picked the five people most likely to be open to his kind of suggestion) were in the area but the only people in the room at the time of the stunt were Brown and James (the person selected to load the gun) who didn't really say much.

[Brig Bother]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Oct 6 2003, 08:57 PM\'] Which brings up an interesting question:

If they were to attempt to run the show here in the United States, WITH THE KNOWLEDGE THAT THE GUY LIVES (nevermind whether you think it would be interesting enough for a network to be interested in with that caveat, just assume they are), would it make air, or do you think people would apeshit enough for Fox (oh, um, did I say that out loud? ) to pull it? [/quote]
 Well it would certainly be a good way to break him into your country!

This was only watched by 2.9million viewers but seems to have caught their imagination quite a lot. The current David Blaine stunt has been met with hostility over here which seems more recently to have turned into apathy. People have made the comparison between the two and the general consensus seems to be \"Russian Roulette! Exciting! A guy in a box! Oh.\"

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'Brig Bother\' date=\'Oct 6 2003, 02:21 PM\'] People have made the comparison between the two and the general consensus seems to be "Russian Roulette! Exciting! A guy in a box! Oh." [/quote]
 I would like to hope that Blaine's fifteen minutes are rapidly coming to a close. His schtick is getting very tired.