How To Develop Your Confidence - Derren Brown

Tonight's applicant is Jason, a 23-year-old computer technician originally from Wales but now living in East London. I've been watching him covertly for the last few weeks and I've noticed he's a shy and contained person and appears to be lacking in self-confidence. He doesn't know it yet but I'm about to give Jason a series of extraordinary experiences that will change his entire outlook on life. As usual we leave a few hints around that he's been chosen. Some years ago Jason had a dental procedure that's recently given him problems and this evening he's come to have it fixed. This seemed like too good an opportunity to miss to ambush Jason and begin his journey. We knew where he was going and got there earlier to install hidden cameras throughout the dental surgery and enlisted the help of the owner. Firstly he'll give Jason a bona fide check-up then leave him alone in the dentist's chair. I'm a bit concerned down here because it's quite sore the gum around here so what I'm going to do now is I'm going to take just a photograph of that. It's quite a bright flash there so if you want to just close your eyes for a second we'll just take a picture. Hi Jason. Hello. You volunteered to be on the show? Indeed. We'd love to use you. Okay. You know how it works? Yeah. There are two cards. One says trick one says treat. Okay. If you pick the card that says treat it'll be something nice. If you pick the one that says trick it won't be. Do you want to play? Yeah. Good. I need you to sign your contract. That allows us to do anything we like with you. Thank you. That's right we'll do the rest for you. Thank you. Choose the one you want. Close your eyes for me. I'm just going to show the camera. No peeking. You can open your eyes now. We'll be in touch soon. Okay Jason let's just take this out for you. Great. Although he doesn't know yet what he's chosen I wanted to get to know a little more about Jason so a week later I met up with him one morning for a coffee and a bun. I'm not really you know too confident in myself a little bit you know lack of self-confidence I think. Whilst talking to Jason it transpired he'd also been single for over five years which hadn't helped his self-esteem. I think I'm ready for a relationship. I mean there's a lot I love to give from this person so. My chat with Jason gave me the perfect idea of how to begin his treat so a week later I instructed him to dress for an evening out and send a car to pick him up and deliver him to me at a bar in central London. You picked a treat all right so excitement's good you can relax on that. I would like this time that we're going to spend together to be extraordinary for you and I'd like you to find some changes at a personal level that are going to be hugely useful and beneficial for you okay. We are going to begin with some speed dating. Oh no. I will be watching and just getting a sense of how you are. Brilliant. All right. To help me understand how Jason views his self-image I need to see him interact with other people under pressure and speed dating is a perfect environment for this. Anyone who has been to one of these events will appreciate how excruciating the experience can be as you're thrown into the deep end with a bunch of ravenous singletons and have only three minutes to form a bond with a complete stranger or not. Welcome first of all. When I ring my bell that's your cue gentlemen to stay where you are. Ladies take to your feet and move up one number. You all happy? Those about to date I salute you. Go and take your tables please. This is a genuine speed dating event. There are no actors the only difference being that all the people here have agreed to be filmed. What do you do there? I'm an art student. An art student? Yes. I repair computers. I'm one of those tech guys they come to go what's wrong with my computer? Fix my computer and I'm like yeah yeah fine. It appears Jason has already convinced himself the girls won't be interested in him and this is projected through all his body language and conversation. He makes little attempt to make eye contact or smile. His arms are folded in a defensive manner and conversations end almost before they've begun. You find you get asking all the same questions and getting the same answers. It's a bit repetitive isn't it? And you get awkward silences like this. I hope you've enjoyed today. What will happen is we'll send you an email in the next couple of days letting you know which number's matched up and showing those details. So again thank you very much. That was daunting. Very scary. I felt very under pressure. It was horrible almost. Jason was very honest about his discomfort with the speed dating but it appears he couldn't hide his awkwardness from the girls. I found him quite difficult to speak to. I felt like I had to ask him questions. He held back a lot I felt. Maybe it's his personality. Although tonight hasn't been a pleasant experience for Jason it's been invaluable in allowing me to see him at his most vulnerable. I can now develop a program for him so that when he goes speed dating again we should see a massive improvement in his confidence levels. Confidence is not something that you either have or haven't got. All that separates the underconfident from the confident person is how he chooses to behave in new situations. How was your experience of the speed dating? It's not the nicest experience to actually go through. You're going to go speed dating again. Okay. A little bit later today. I was watching and listening to your conversations when you were speed dating before. The recurring thing was you're a little shy and not as relaxed as the others which is understandable. So it was sort of sprung on you of course. Close your eyes for me. Okay. Just get comfy in the chair. We often decide that we're not capable, not interesting enough and settle for blandness and routine. We also think that being more confident would be about being someone we're not which does not have to be the case at all. It's just about exercising our best aspects and learning new patterns of behavior which do us justice. I have him project that new self-image into the future and to see that future as something bright and colorful. I have him look forward to taking advantage of new opportunities so that he can build on this and secure it as a long-term change which is vital. What pictures are you imagining to start off? Just myself a million miles away in the mountains. Fantastic. This is the only life we have and if we can engage with it charismatically we'll get the best out of it and put the best into it. How do you feel? Brilliant. What's it like? I just feel refreshed. Different? Yeah. A lot different. How are you feeling about the second speed dating session? Bring it on. Bring it on. Excellent. Fantastic. I think that Jason is now ready to put his newly acquired skills into practice so we've got him into a second speed dating event. This is again a genuine event with a group of single women and men who are here looking for a possible relationship. They know they're being filmed but have no idea we're specifically following Jason. Once again I'll be keeping out of sight and watching everything on monitors. Hi. Sarah or Sarah? Sarah. Sarah. I was right first round. I'm Jason. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. So I prepared some questions in case I ran out. Really? Well you must be the only prepared one here. Question number one. So what was the last film you saw? Uh, Babel. Babel? Yeah. Have you seen it? No. It's a cracking movie. Cracking movie. So what do you do? I do lots of things. My friend owns a pub so I'm down there as well. So you drink a lot? No, no, no. I don't drink a lot. I've given off the wrong impression there. Watching Jason, the differences made to himself is immediately obvious. He's presenting himself more openly, smiling more, making eye contact, taking on board the hints I've given him and filing away the areas of his old negative self and replacing them with a new, self-assured, interested and interesting self. And it seems the women he's talking to are sensing that too. I really don't know. He just goes... Does he pull that face as well? Yeah. Oh no, it's over already. It's terrible. I know, it's like a tiger. Um, Jason Will's actually one of my favourites. He was really easy to talk to. Jason seemed like the most down to earth and it wasn't what he said, it was the way he said it that made him seem like quite an approachable, nice kind of guy. I think I'd put yeah. So, it's all gone. How was it? Fantastic, it was brilliant. Was it? Yeah, no, I really enjoyed it. I really got into it and fantastic, what can I say? But you still feel you're you. I still feel that I'm myself but, you know, a different kind of me sort of thing. Yeah. The difference was astonishing. I can see it's a huge improvement already. It's a huge difference, which is fantastic. Thank you very much, Derek. Oh no, thank you. As a result of Jason's more positive personality at the second speed dating event, many more women placed him on their would like to meet again list. And so only a few days later, in a marked show of increased confidence, Jason organised and met up with one of those women, Alice, for a walk on Hampstead Heath. How you doing? Good to see you. This proactive approach is something you would never have considered doing before. The whole experience of the speed dating thing was a bit nerve-wracking to begin with. And now, you know, I've met somebody I liked and, you know, we're getting on well and who knows what will happen. Jason now believes he has completed his journey with me, having taken away from the experience a newfound sense of self, a greater level of confidence than he had previously, and an ability to view his life in a more positive fashion. 33 points is just glit. It's a dead heat for first place. After a long and bizarre journey, which for him has simply never happened, Richard is about to receive his wake-up call. All cameras are very well hidden.