> > So, tonight Derren Brown, psychological magician, is going to play Russian Roulette live on national TV.
>
> Well, it turns out it was a hoax, anyhoo. At least there was no risk of him splattering brain matter on the camera. But hoaxes are not good. Maybe he shouldn't have done it in the first place.
>
> Si"splat"lon

I agree that it must have been a set-up; but I don't think he was relying on it being a blank.
The article states that a blank would have killed him if fired at such a close range. I recall that several years ago an actor here in California was killed that way fooling around with a blank-filled gun on a movie set.

Oddly enough, I just finished reading a novel in which a character plays Russian Roulette--and describes how he wins--by knowing where the bullet is. It went something like this: while you can't tell whether the bullet is in the chamber that's engaged, somehow--don't ask me how-- you can tell if it's in the *next* chamber over ...and if you don't see it there you just keep spinning until you do see it....(kids don't try this at home). I'm probably using all the wrong termminology and probably don't have that all completely right---I'm not sufficiently interested in guns to care about the details (and have no plans to put the knowledge in action ever anyway). The point is, the guy in the novel--and the guy on your TV show--weren't quite at the risk they appeared to be.

But I have to agree that this doesn't sound like "entertainment" to me either, hoax or not.



koala"magicians don't really saw those people in half either :-)"mom