upfront
THE
INFAMOUS
DERREN
BROWN
Derren Brown has an impressive
CV: he has predicted the lottery,
convinced a man he is living in a
zombie apocalypse and arranged
the assassination of Stephen Fry.
Heather Arnold finds out what other
tricks he has up his sleeve for his
new show Infamous.
You decided to embark on a career after seeing a hypnotist
show at university – what was it about the show that captured
you so much?
The hypnotist was careful not to embarrass anyone, which meant it was
genuinely funny and astonishing without that undertone of tastelessness
which mars most shows of that type. I think it also appealed to a desire
to perform that I didn’t know I had – I was an awful attention-seeker and
it was good to channel that into something productive. Although I didn’t
realise it at the time, I also think the control aspect appealed a lot too. It
ticked a few boxes I wasn’t aware needed ticking.
How did you turn your interest into a career?
I just started doing it. I would have people over to my room to practise
with, and I got better and better. I put on a show at the end of my first year.
It was appalling stuff though, as I had no idea how to really perform, let
alone structure a show.
I remember it dragged on for hours. By the
time I graduated I
had picked up sleight-of-hand magic as
an interest too,
and was performing magic in cafes and
restaurants. This
allowed me to just about scrape by as my
rent was cheap
and I was claiming housing benefit.
Eventually, as people booked me more
and more for their private parties, I
could get by without claiming any kind
of income support.
My 20s continued like this, in a dreamy
cycle of thinking up magic tricks,
performing once or twice a week, and
mooching about in the days. Eventually
I wrote a book for magicians containing the ideas I was
coming up with, and got known in that community. In my early 30s, I got a
call from a TV company who were looking for someone who could do the sort
of thing I was doing. A year later they signed me up and we made the first
show. I’ve genuinely never had any ambition to be famous or on TV and I
was just really enjoying doing what I was doing – in fact a part of me misses
the lazy lifestyle I had back then.
Was there any point when you thought you would give up on a
career in magic?
No, it grew steadily and comfortably. I knew I could give it up and go back to
law, which I had studied, but there’s no way I could practise law and then
give it up to do magic. Not feeling any pressure to do anything I didn’t want
to do, I thought I should give the magic a good shot first.
Do you ever think you’ll return to law?
God no. Kafka called it chewing paper that has been chewed a thousand
times before. It holds no interest for me now, and didn’t really hold much
interest back then.
BUZZ 10