Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Glen Brighton Talks About Derren Brown's Speed-Learning System

If you want to know how Derren Brown's speed-learning system works, who better to ask than Glen Brighton, the man who learned the system from DB himself?

We at AboutDerrenBrown had a good time speculating about how the super-learning system in episode 1 of Trick or Treat 2 worked. As you will recall, DB taught Glen Brighton a system for learning trivia. A week later, the one-man team of "Just Glen" finished second place in a pub quiz, against numerous five-man teams.

Since episode 1 aired, thousands and thousands of people have visited this blog searching for "derren brown super learning system" or some variation on that theme.

Imagine how pleased I was when Glen Brighton, the star of episode 1, contacted me. Glen was very gracious and shared the following observations about his experience:

I read your BLOG. I am not sure what has been more interesting, being in the show...or the conspiracy theories afterwards! I loved the one about me already knowing a lot of trivia!

What I will tell you is that what you saw really happened, there were no tricks that I know about and it really was me answering those questions. I spent a lot of time with Derren talking about memory and how it can be trained. I am sure you have read his books and he has some unique theories.

I am glad you enjoyed the show, it was great fun and the people at Objective were a joy to be with. I hope you enjoy the rest of the series.

I asked about Glen's interaction with Derren, and he commented:

Derren was fascinating and interesting, I spent quite a bit of time with him and I was lucky enough to be able to talk to him about lots of issues and some of the things he has done.

Glen, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with us. Of course, we'll have to revise our conspiracy theories now.

Be sure to check back later this week when we will post the results of our latest survey regarding the David Tennant episode.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I found episode 1 of this Trick or Treat series to be really slow and I personally didn't make a connection with the 'subject' who was featured (Glen). I found him to waffle on a bit and felt that his expressions were somewhat exaggerated and slightly false.

So, I didn't watch the middle episodes. I did watch the final episode, but sadly it featured Glen again. Who waffled and ruined my enjoyment.

gary said...

I liked Glen. He seemed a bit quirky about things (as I am), which emphasizes the point that an average person has abilities to accomplish extraordinary things if he knows how to do them. In contrast, the episode would not have been as inspiring to regular joes like me had it been an elegant genius performing the same remarkable feats. I think what we saw was Glen's awe at his own abilities. This show had perfect showmanship -- and that's what I like about Derren Brown more than anything.