If we lend our mate £20 for dinner on a night out, we’ll be hoping to get it paid back to us pretty soon. Even if we bought someone a drink, we’d be expecting them to pay the next.
That’s what happens when you lend someone money – you get it back.
So, you’d hope if you gave one of Britain’s most known mentalists £5000 that you’d be getting it back, right?
Especially if you’ve given them the money to bet in a casino of all places.
Except when a viewer trusted the legendary Derren Brown with his cash, it didn’t exactly work out.
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Back in the noughties, Derren was doing his The Events shows and for the finale, he was going to ‘take down a casino’.
The illusionist put one of the viewers, a bloke called Ben, into a trance and had him take £5,000 out of the bank.
Later, Ben is watching the show with supposedly no memory of what happened.
After being informed, he’s sat in a studio truck where he can watch Derren’s trick take place.
The mentalist heads into the casino to put Ben’s money on a roulette wheel – in order to bag him a whopping £175,000.
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The viewer watches on through ‘hidden cameras’ as Derren takes his place beside the wheel and places a stack of chips on number eight.
However, as the wheel spins the ball eventually lands on number 30 – right next to number eight.
Ben watches on in disbelief as the mentalist loses his money and says ‘ah, one out’.
Derren is then forced to apologise to the man through his hidden mic, sounding slightly embarrassed as he says: “Sorry, I was one out.
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“Ben I’m sorry. I was one out – I will give you the money back, I’m sorry.”
Understandably, Ben looks pretty baffled by the whole thing – if not a bit p***ed off that this star has just gambled away his money to no success.
And the camera crew watch by in silence as one eventually jumps in to say: “Ben, don’t worry, we’re gonna get your five grand back.”
To which the unlucky viewer says rather bluntly: “Ok, great.”
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And just like that, the show ended.
Following this live TV fail, Derren later posted a video to his own website saying he ‘earns a living out of smug guess work’.
Calling the whole thing an ‘epic fail’, the mentalist said: “I recently returned from putting a lot of money on a roulette wheel...I know what your thinking, 'oh my god, you must have done well there?'...no, of course no, you f****d it up...well done with the old mind skills there."
Topics: TV and Film, Celebrity, Money, Gambling
Jess Battison