Derren Brown's heartbreaking admission which has driven his career for two decades
Exclusive : Psychological illusionist Derren Brown who has kept the UK entertained with mind-boggling tricks for over two decades has revealed that all he has ever wanted was to be liked
Millions of fans revere him as the breathtaking master illusionist who can make unsuspecting members of the public do anything he wants – but Derren Brown admits all he has ever wanted is to be liked.
As a self-styled “psychological illusionist” he is known for his confident showmanship, and he describes his screen persona to me as “Sherlock Holmes with a bit of Willy Wonka thrown in. And a bit of Hannibal Lecter”.
But off screen he insists he is no different today to the shy, quiet boy who started out doing magic tricks in an attempt to make himself popular.
He says: “A lot of people go in to magic because you want to impress and you’re insecure, particularly when younger.”
Not that it worked for him at the time.
“None of those things make you likeable, by the way,” he says.
“You just think they do, but they don’t – we don’t like people who are trying to impress us. I think I was pretty insufferable in my early 20s, just wanting to do tricks all the time to impress people.”
However, with a triumphant screen career spanning two decades during which he has become Britain’s best-loved magician since Paul Daniels, it seems to have worked after all.
“Getting a bit known made that easier for me,” he says. “I just like being liked, and that has been good for me.”
The magician, who turns 50 next year, has more than a few career highs to look back on since becoming a household name with his 2000 series Mind Control.
He famously played a game of Russian Roulette on live television, successfully predicted the winning National Lottery numbers and manipulated a group of participants into robbing a security van in daylight.
Now he will celebrate his TV milestone with a Channel 4 show, Derren Brown’s 20 Years of Mind Control, which airs tomorrow night – and includes a live stunt in which he surprises an unsuspecting viewer.
Ever insecure and self-deprecating, he says he cringed as he had to re-watch his earlier shows for the retrospective.
He says: “I find anything I’ve done or said more than 10 minutes ago embarrassing. With the TV generally. I looked different – with the goatee, the slightly purple hair, the frock coat and everything.
“And I had this weird, deep voice that I’d forgotten about. I’ve no idea what that was about. Just odd. And I just look so young.”
Born in Croydon, South London, and brought up in nearby Purley – a town he once called “the epitome of middle-class suburbia” – Derren went to the Whitgift School in Croydon where his dad worked as a swimming coach.
He went on to study at Bristol University, where his fascination with magic and hypnotism began.
It was at Bristol he attended a show by the hypnotist Martin Taylor, which inspired his first steps on the path to stardom. He began performing tricks in bars and restaurants while at university, and put on his first stage show in 1992.
Then he met the comedian and magician Jerry Sadowitz at the International Magic Shop in central London, which runs events and conventions for magicians.
Sadowitz put him in touch with a production company and this led to his first show, Mind Control, on Channel 4.
Derren says that while he is grateful for his fame, and his legion of loyal fans, he still has not overcome his natural shyness, which he believes sometimes makes him seem aloof and distant.
He says: “At the beginning, when I was younger and more attractive, there were quite a lot of intense fans.
“And I used to naturally keep my distance.” However, he has a real fondness for his legions of loyal fans.
He says: “Just recently I was having a look on Twitter and there was a lady there who has being following me for 20 years, and I just had this real burst of affection for her.
“She hasn’t had a lot back from me, because I keep my distance, but she’s someone who has been in my life for a couple of years and that’s a really lovely thing.
“I don’t drive so I take a lot of cabs. And then if the cab driver happens to know you and recognise you, then they want to chat.
“But if you you’re quiet, then their experience they’ve had of you is, ‘Oh he’s arrogant, he’s horrible’. Of course, you do attract people who are psychotic and you can become a target of someone’s fantasy life, which is pretty disconcerting.
“But those individuals aside, it’s been really lovely.
“And I have made friends over the years from chatting afterwards and recognising people in the audience.”
In tomorrow night’s show, Derren will go over his most memorable appearances as well as unveiling some new material.
One of the highlights of his two decades was the show Apocalypse in 2012, when he convinced an unsuspecting member of the public that the world had been hit by a meteorite and was overrun by zombies.
Steven Brosnan, who became the star of the show, described it as “scary, terrifying, and the best experience of my life”.
Derren says the show, in which Steve spent 48 hours believing the world had ended, involved months of careful planning.
He adds: “The best ones come from a fun simple idea – ‘let’s end the world and then there’s zombies’ – then you try and stick with that. You try not to let the production process compromise it too much. So when it then starts to play out for real it’s sort of amazing and weird.”
At one moment the illusionist began to wonder if the stunt had perhaps gone too far.
“It was when he wakes up in this hospital, supposedly two weeks later after end of the world, then the moment he comes out of his hospital room, and there’s a TV playing that’s got an army broadcast on it,” he says.
“There’s a shot of him watching the screen, and we’re looking at it on a monitor in tears thinking, ‘This is too much. What have we done?’”
He says he has kept in touch with most of the people who have gone through big stunts in his shows, including Steven.
“I experience an intense emotional attachment to the person going through it, like I’m living it too,” he says. “All the people say it’s the best thing that they’ve done.
“Once it’s over they experience the relief, and they feel they’ve learned something too. It’s a very good feeling, so we stay friends.”
- Derren Brown: 20 Years of Mind Control Live airs on Channel 4 on Sunday at 9pm.
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